by J W Murison
‘I think they have the resources to wipe out every opposing race this side of the barrier.’
‘More to the point, you think they would.’
‘Yes, and we would be first my friend.’
‘Not good. They can also retreat behind the great barrier and sally forth any time they wish. Did you see the speech their President made?’
‘I heard it. You?’
‘Same. This is pretty much exactly what he threatened to do, isn’t it?’
Val nodded thoughtfully. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘Deliver the rescued. Get as far away from the Albany as we can. I’m going to have to boot my father’s arse.’
‘That’s the most sensible thing I have ever heard you say Pan. Unfortunately Vison doesn’t take kindly to having his arse booted.’
‘Then take a long holiday in another sector with your whole damn family.’
‘Did the Humans destroy the freighters?’
‘No, they stole them.’
Val nodded knowingly, ‘So they can backward engineer them using Builder technology very easily.’
Pan agreed, ‘It isn’t looking good.’
‘No it isn’t.’
‘Still, they stole all the engines and destroyed all the asteroids. That should put the Albany back a bit.’
Val shook his head, ‘No they didn’t. Remember, there are still four engines to be delivered and we picked up a communication from two tugs. It seems that the Humans missed a couple of asteroids in transit.’
The two passed a look. ‘Time for a little asteroid bashing.’ Pan suggested.
‘Sounds good to me.’
Before they could act on it a communication came through. Val put it on speaker. ‘Sir, a large Albany battle group is on its way. They will be here in a few minutes.’
‘Thank you Captain.’
‘Shit!’ Pan growled. ‘Where the hell did they come from?’
‘They must have been intending on beefing up security for the final phase.’
‘In case we got cold feet.’
‘Most likely.’
Pan shook his head. ‘This is not good.’ He stood. ‘I’m getting back to my fleet and then getting the hell out of here. As far as I am concerned they are on their bloody own, and I am going to tell them that too.’
‘Wait. Let’s join forces, and then tell them to go fuck themselves.’
‘That’s an even better idea. We can return their survivors to them at the same time.’
CHAPTER 50
Steven checked the figures for the third time before calling Komoru. She checked the data as well.
‘This isn’t very promising.’
‘No it isn’t. We need to get a hold of Baxter.’
They went up onto the bridge and managed to get through to him very quickly. He appeared on the screen. ‘I have been meaning to call and congratulate you both on a job well done.’
‘Congratulations may be premature sir.’ Steven told him. ‘We have been through the mining company’s records and the combat records of the fleet. We seem to be missing two asteroids.’
Baxter seemed to mull it over for a moment. ‘Is that such a big deal... am I missing something?’
‘We were also a freighter of engines short as well. That’s four engines.’
‘You mean enough to send two asteroids towards Earth.’
‘Yes sir, and we have nothing to stop them.’
‘Not if they are traveling faster than the speed of light.’
‘Correct sir.’
‘OK, both of you get back across the great barrier and see if you can find them. Consider yourselves on a seek and destroy mission.’
‘Yes sir.’
A few weeks later Steven and Komoru returned across the barrier and reported to Baxter. They couldn’t find the asteroids or the freighter with the engines. Steven explained that the whole system was swarming with Albany warships. All he could report was that they had the engines, and were still going to go through with the attack.
Baxter called a meeting of the senior commanders. His eyes scanned the crowd of faces. When he first took command he had spoken to every man and woman he had appointed. All of these people, however, were now across the barrier with the Modloch fleet. Those in front of him were, for the most part, strangers.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, we are in deep shit.’ That brought a few murmurs. ‘Despite our successful assault on the enemy nearly a month ago, Earth is still in great peril. We did not manage to seize or destroy all of the enemy assets. As most of you know, we were one freighter and four engines short. We couldn’t help that. We knew the enemy had moved their plans forward and hoped to launch the asteroids at us in batches of twenty. We couldn’t take a chance on them waiting for the last freighter. We did count on destroying all of the asteroids though. In this, we failed. We missed two that were in transit between launch sites. Let me say at this time that it is no one’s fault. We trawled the routes taken by the tugs from the platform to their launch sites. We did not foresee that they would be moving them directly from one launch site to the other.
‘So they have two prepared asteroids and four engines. I have no doubt by now that they also have the fuel to launch them and are merely waiting for the right opportunity. We have had some of our assets in the area but they cannot locate the new launch site. Nor can we launch an attack across the barrier. The Albany’s friends amongst the federation have been kicking up a stink. Of course, our evidence is already on its way there, and I have no doubt that our actions will be vindicated in time. However, in the meantime we will have to defend ourselves from this side of the barrier. You may also want to know that a large fleet of Albany warships have entered the area and are patrolling aggressively. We have now lost the element of surprise, and any engagement would most likely prove costly.
‘This means we are going to have to stop them with what we have. To assist with this, I have asked Captain Steven Gordon to discuss the difficulties you will face.’
Steven was applauded loudly as he took the stand and actually blushed.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, what we face is a desperate attack by a desperate race. They need to wipe us out before our bid is accepted by the federation. If they don’t they will lose this war by default. We may still remain enemies afterwards, but to assault us then would be to risk retribution by the whole federation. At this time our bid is being pushed through but there are time constraints that we cannot force. The time we have won from them so far has set them sailing very close to the wind. My information tells me that they are well past the point of caring. They do not believe that they will be punished if they launch an attack in the next few weeks, even if the asteroids destroy Earth after we have signed the treaty. They firmly believe that launching an attack so long before the treaty is signed will give them enough wiggle room to squirm their way out of trouble. They may well be right. After all, they know how to play the system far better than we do.
‘So where does this leave us? Well, you must be wondering why they prepared so many asteroids to begin with. It would only take one to wipe out every living thing on Earth. Two or more would completely smash it to pieces.’
He saw a few nodding heads. ‘Many races have defence systems that can deal with this kind of threat. These defences are unique to each planet; how they work are closely guarded secrets. We have a defence system that can deal with normal asteroids but not ones moving at speeds faster than light. The Albany don’t know that though and were hedging their bets. We don’t know exactly how they planned to do it, but we know that at the moment the first asteroid struck they intended for the others to destroy themselves. How do we know this?’
Steven turned to the wall behind him and picked up a remote control. A video of an asteroid about the size of those being thrown at Earth appeared. ‘This is the destroyer Coventry attacking an asteroid as part of a practice run.’
Green light shot into the darkness and peppered the asteroid. The destroyer s
ystematically pulverized the asteroid until there was nothing left but dust. The whole process took almost a minute.
‘As you can see, it was very effective.’ Steven clicked a button and a different asteroid appeared. ‘This was also taken from the Coventry. These are some of the asteroids that were targeted at Earth.’
Green light flicked across the asteroid and it immediately blew into billions of tiny pieces. The blast rocked the Coventry.
‘The Coventry actually received some minor damage from the blast. I am sure that you could all tell the difference. If we slow the footage down we can see what happened in more detail.’
The asteroid reappeared and a green light lanced out. Just before it struck the film slowed right down. A sequence of explosions could easily be seen rippling round the asteroid.
‘As you can see, the Coventry set off a chain reaction. A net of explosives had been set into the surface of the asteroid that destroyed it completely. To put it simply, the Albany have designed things so that at the moment an asteroid hits Earth the rest can be destroyed by remote control. This tells us that they have some way of observing Earth. They also obviously have some way of detonating the explosives on the other asteroids.
‘Some have argued that the asteroid hitting the Earth would trigger the rest to blow up, that the destruction of the asteroid itself would trigger the event. If that was so then the destruction of this asteroid would have triggered the same event on the others close by. It didn’t.
‘Others have argued that some form of device on the asteroids themselves could trigger the asteroids to self-destruct. Because they are traveling at faster than light speeds, that is impossible. Sorry, not impossible but highly impractical.
‘The only reasonable explanation is that there is some form of remote viewing device that will record the event and send out a signal that prompts the other asteroids to self-destruct. Our first task is to try and find that device. You must not destroy it. We need to find it and hijack the thing. If we can discover it then we may well be able to hack into it, and have it destroy the asteroids before they come anywhere near Earth.
‘That would be our ideal solution. However, our second mission will be to detect the asteroids and destroy them on route. This may seem the simplest of solutions, there is only one problem though. We cannot fire our weapons at faster than light speed. To do so would be to breach the shields that keep us safe at such speeds. Basically, these shields keep us in a form of stasis within the hull of the ship. To accelerate at light speed without them would leave us smeared against the back walls.
‘It is fairly basic physics. Some layman told me a while ago to switch off the artificial gravity. As we were weightless in space we wouldn’t feel the acceleration. I tried to point out to him that it wouldn’t make any difference. We would float exactly where we were until the back wall hit us at light speed.’
There was a great deal of laughter at that. Steven smiled. ‘Let’s get back to the asteroids. They do not have a shield to protect them. That is why they have to accelerate slowly until they reach light speed. If they tried to jump to light speed, the effect would be similar to holding a pistol to an egg and squeezing the trigger.
‘After inspecting the engines we acquired, we know the engines themselves have a small internal shield that protects their internal workings. Once they have reached light speed they will stop accelerating and let the asteroid reach the Earth under its own momentum. The engine will push itself out of the asteroid at this point, and once free, brake until it reaches manoeuvring speed. It will then turn and jump straight back to light speed. Once at light speed it will jump to its next launch point. These engines need to be destroyed. If they return across the barrier they can be used again, and again and again. The only time they are really vulnerable is when they are decelerating and turning.
‘The best time to catch them would be while the engines are still inside the asteroid. Destroy both at the same time.’ Steven took a deep breath. ‘If only it were that easy. Once we detect them, we have to catch them, which will take time. Then when we do catch them we can’t fire our weapons at them. Remember that. Nor can we manoeuvre at light speeds. You will have to be directly on the tail of the asteroid and on the exact same bearing before you can catch up with it. The good news is we will be able to catch it. All our ships can travel at light speeds of six plus. These engines can only propel an asteroid to a maximum of three. Your fighters won’t be able to catch them though, and you can’t deploy them at that speed. If you strike the asteroid it will disrupt your shields and you and your entire crew will be killed.
‘Our shields in light speed are good enough to deflect small to medium sized meteoroids, not bloody great asteroids.’
There was a great grumbling amongst the room and Steven paused to take a drink of water.
‘Can’t you beam a bomb on board?’ Someone shouted.
‘Nope.’ Steven confessed. ‘Doesn’t work at that kind of speeds. Oh, and before anyone suggests it, we can’t use the engines that we acquired either. They wouldn’t be able to catch them.’
Steven turned to the screen again and pressed the remote. ‘There is only one way to knock them out. The only place on any ship where it is safe to break our shields is at the back. A disruption to the shields there will not cause a catastrophic failure. Shield generation begins at the front of a ship and sweeps backwards down both sides. Where the two meet at the back of the ship is an area of shield distortion. The more irregular the shape of your ship is, and the more shield generators it has, then the larger the area of distortion. A Modloch engineer will tell you the less disruption, the faster your ship can go. That is true. It is why my ship and its partner are faster than anything else we have. They are simply built to be that fast. Our weapons are concealed within the hull. If we had them on the outside, like most of your ships, then we wouldn’t be any faster. It all has to do with shield harmonics.’
He changed the picture. ‘So how do we do it? We cannot fire a weapon through that area. Our weapons are energy weapons, they would send a shockwave back up the hull disrupting the shields and we would end up as strawberry jam. The energy from a normal weapon could also disrupt it. So this is the solution.’
The picture changed again. ‘We drag a bomb behind our ships using the thinnest wire we can possibly manufacture. We get in front of the asteroid and let it catch us up, find a good spot to place the bomb and then release it. We then get the hell out of the way and detonate it.
‘We are giving the job of catching the engines to the battleships and the job of bombing the asteroids to the destroyers.
‘The wire and bombs are already well under construction. The wire itself is only about half a millimetre thick and the bombs are contained within a unit that looks like an old lunar lander. When the legs of the lander make contact with the asteroid explosive bolts will be shot into the surface to secure it. As I said, you release the tether, get the hell out of the way, and detonate it.’
He put up another picture. ‘You will be deployed into two solid blocks. A line of probes will be scattered across the edge of the great barrier in the most likely place the asteroids will cross. The battleships will be deployed in depth over this area here, where we estimate that the engines will release and turn back. It is a very large area and you will be stretched thin. You will deploy your fighters in pairs to cover as wide an area as possible.
The closer we get to Earth then the narrower the search area becomes. We have ten times the number of destroyers as we do battleships. That means we can concentrate you much better. The probes will give us an accurate track of the asteroids and as many destroyers as possible should get onto that exact same track and wait for them.’
Steven paused for a second and took a drink of water. ‘Accuracy and timing. Timing, timing, timing. That is what it is going to come down to. If you don’t get in front of the asteroid; if you don’t get on its exact track, you won’t get a second chance at it. Once it is past you it is gone.
You won’t be able to jump to light speed dragging a bomb. You will have to accelerate there slowly.
‘As soon as your ships are set up with the bombs and tethers you will begin to patrol towards Earth at manoeuvring speed. Once the asteroids are detected you will manoeuvre onto its course and accelerate to a speed where by you can intercept it. You should have plenty time. Plant the bomb, cut the tether and get the hell out of there. Detonate it at a safe distance.
‘If you reach the end of your patrol line then you will stop, pull in the bomb and jump back to the beginning of the patrol line to start again. That way we will get a continual flow. So to reiterate: navigation, timing and accuracy. That’s it. You will receive your detailed orders from Admiral Baxter. Thank you.’
This time there was no clapping.
CHAPTER 51
Commanders John Logan and Alfie Lloyd launched into the black. Behind them every available pilot and fighter also launched. John and Alfie pulled their fighters round and the Sir William Wallace passed to their right. Because the Sir William Wallace was a training vessel, they had been kept out of the fight until now. The two realised they wouldn’t have been involved at all if they’d been on their own mother ship still with the Modloch fleet. As it was they had taken the trainee Scottish and Commonwealth pilots and poured years of experience into them.
Each and every one of them had passed their flight training and advanced flight training with ease because of their input. Still, because of the emergency they had been kept together, and two weeks ago the ship had been turned into an active service unit. Both commanders would have been proud to have any of the pilots in their own squadrons.
As they came back over the top of their mother ship, the last of their squadrons caught up and entered formation. Both men twisted their heads to eyeball their men.
‘Red squadron, deploy in pairs.’ Logan commanded. Two at a time they zipped over the top of his canopy and then jumped. He counted them away. To his right Alfie was doing exactly the same. Soon they were alone again.
