by Bob Blanton
“Our goal is to disable that battleship. To do that, we need to learn enough about their defenses to develop a plan.”
“I’ll allow a few questions now,” Admiral Michaels said.
“Why only two squadrons of Hyraxes?”
“Our goal is to learn. We want to see what they throw at them. Do they try and match them one-for-one, or do they throw everything they have at them?” Admiral Michaels explained.
“What if they launch all their fighters?”
“Then our fighters will fly through their formation and try to wreak as much damage as possible before retreating back inside our lines,” Blake said.
“But we could be outnumbered twenty to one!”
“Have you read the specs on the Hyrax?” Blake asked.
“Yes, but it’s all on paper, sir.”
“We’ve live-tested those specs,” Blake announced. “The Hyrax can survive a pass through the enemy squadron. You just have to keep it moving and not give them a sustained shot.”
“But what about their missiles?”
“We have to learn; that means we have to take some chances,” Blake said. “Your laser defenses should be able to take out their missiles before they get too close. And of course, we have our own missiles. You have to avoid allowing four enemy Foxes from being able to sustain a plasma beam on you at the same time in the same spot. Don’t you think you could accomplish that?”
“Yes, sir!”
“We need to know exactly what they can throw at us,” Admiral Michaels said.
“We will be launching five Hyraxes in one hour. They will do a recon pass by the enemy group. Their delta-V will prevent the enemy from trying to chase them, and as we’ve said, they’re hardened against the plasma beams. They should give us some close-up views of the enemy.”
“Why haven’t we done this earlier?”
“We didn’t want to give the enemy time to adapt to the Hyrax. Even this is a risk, but five hours is deemed to be an acceptable window of time to show our hand,” Admiral Michaels said.
“What else does the enemy have?”
“They have whatever they’ve managed to store on that asteroid. But the asteroid’s orbit will soon take them out of range of any possible support. They’ve told us they have 1.4 million colonists and that they intend to conquer Earth and colonize it.”
“Not on our watch!” came the combined shout of the pilots at the briefing.
“What about the rest of us?”
“We are holding five squadrons in reserve behind the carriers. The rest of the squadrons will maintain flight-ready status,” Admiral Michaels said.
“When do we get our extra plasma cannons?”
“We are making them as fast as we can. We have a squadron of Oryxes with us that will scavenge the debris field. We’ll recover any of our Hyraxes and as many of the enemy Foxes as we can. We plan to use their plasma cannons to bring as many of our Hyraxes as possible up to four plasma cannons,” Blake explained. “We won’t know what that will take until we have a sample in hand.”
The production of plasma cannons had become the bottleneck. Only half their Hyraxes had four cannons; the rest just had two like the Foxes. It wasn’t considered a significant disadvantage, but being able to target an enemy Fox with two cannons at the same time was a significant advantage. The Hyraxes with only two cannons were going to be held in reserve, which was not sitting well with the pilots assigned to them.
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The five Hyraxes left the Enterprise and accelerated away at 2.5Gs. They would be under constant acceleration or deceleration to deal with the immense distances between the two fleets. To start, they vectored away from the Paraxean fleet. Once they were sufficiently far enough counter-orbit from the Paraxeans, they turned and accelerated toward the Paraxean fleet. They would cut across the fleet at only twenty thousand kilometers from the battleship, close enough that it would allow their sensor arrays to gather detailed sweeps of the three ships. They were also vectored so that they were traveling away from the Paraxean asteroid to prevent any fears that they intended to do harm to the colonists in stasis on it.
The Paraxeans didn’t detect the Hyraxes until they were within one hundred thousand kilometers of them. Once they did, they sent a barrage of missiles at them and a squadron of six Foxes. But by then, the Hyraxes were traveling at over one hundred forty km per second. Only a few of the missiles got within range of the Hyrax squadron and were easily dispatched by their defensive lasers. The enemy Foxes immediately gave up the chase.
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“What did we learn?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“Their missiles accelerated at five-G, their Foxes did two-G. The missile yield was five-kilotons as we expected,” Blake reported.
“Their sensors did not pick up the Hyraxes until they were within one hundred thousand kilometers,” Catie said. “That says they’ve not done anything to improve them. Ours are much more sensitive; we would see the Hyraxes at two hundred thousand kilometers.”
“That is if they reacted when they saw them,” Blake said. “They could be trying to hide their abilities.”
“You are correct,” Captain Clements said. “I would have held back.”
“So would I,” Admiral Michaels said. “But the Paraxeans have never had a war, so they are going to be both unpredictable and likely foolish in their engagements. We need to be ready for anything and question everything.”
“We also know they have modified their approach even more; they’re almost in the same orbit as the asteroid,” Catie said.
“And we are matching their orbit,” Admiral Michaels said. “It now looks like we’ll be in orbits that are about four AUs apart during the engagement.”
“That allows them to retreat without actually leaving the gravity well,” Blake said. “If they were coming in at their previous angle, any retreat would have pushed them away from the sun, and they could have been trapped too far outside the gravity well.”
“I believe that change will be to our benefit. Now we need to set up our first engagement for tomorrow,” Admiral Michaels said. “Dismissed.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Two squadrons of Hyraxes were readied for the first engagement. They would be supported by one squadron of Foxes with weapons officers aboard. The three squadrons were all from the Enterprise. The battle plan had been developed over weeks of simulations to maximize the effect of their railguns. As the pilots prepared to board their jets, they met in groups; those who wanted to were met by a religious leader who prayed with them, others just went to receive the good wishes of their comrades and friends.
“Cers, board your jets,” Wing Commander Farmer said. “Kasper, you have the lead squadron. Jeffries, your squadron will come in second. Owens, your Foxes will provide cover for their retreat and manage any missiles launched.”
The three squadron leaders nodded to acknowledge the orders. They had reviewed them for hours the day before, but it was tradition to receive the final assignments right before launch.
“Good luck and may the Force be with you,” Liz said, quoting the Star Wars send-off.
“Oorah!” all the pilots shouted as they boarded their jets.
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“The Paraxeans should be picking us up on their sensors now,” Kasper said.
“They’ve just launched four squadrons of Foxes from one of the carriers,” Captain Clark said. “They appear to be holding two other squadrons around the carriers and battleship.”
“They should intersect your course in thirty minutes,” ADI said.
“Take attack formation Beta-4,” Liz ordered.
The two squadrons of Hyraxes spread out to make four arrows, each pointed at the battleship from a slightly different angle but with enough distance between them that it would force the Paraxeans to separate their four squadrons.
“You're clear to launch missiles,” Liz said.
Each Hyrax launched two missiles. The missiles’ design, like the Hy
rax, had been hardened to withstand a single plasma burst from one of the Foxes. It would take sustained contact from the plasma cannon and lasers to destroy one of them.
The Paraxean Foxes launched two salvos of two missiles each. As the first salvo approached the Delphinean missiles, the missiles started to corkscrew in an evasive pattern. They had added more thrusters to the missiles, so they were more maneuverable. When the first Paraxean salvo detonated, it only destroyed one-fifth of the Delphinean missiles.
“Yes!” Catie exclaimed, pumping her fist as the data was relayed to the command center of the Sakira.
“A very good showing,” Admiral Michaels said. “Now, let’s see what they do with their second salvo.”
The second salvo of Paraxean missiles ignored the Delphinean missiles and headed straight for the Hyrax squadrons.
“Pilots, disperse and prepare to take out those missiles,” Kasper ordered.
The Hyraxes spread out further and started corkscrewing as well. As they started targeting the Paraxean missiles, the Delphinean missiles reached the Paraxean Foxes. The Hyrax pilots were using their lasers to take out the Paraxean missiles at the greatest range possible. With the Paraxean missiles maintaining a simple approach vector, they were quickly dispensed with. Only two Hyraxes were damaged, the pilots dropped all their missiles and ejected the cockpits before the Hyraxes were hit by the missiles. By dropping them, the missiles could be remotely fired by a weapons officer on one of the Foxes.
It was not the same for the Paraxean Foxes. The Delphinean missiles were hard to target with their complex maneuvers, and with the additional hardening, the Paraxeans were only able to destroy half of the 38 remaining missiles. The other 16 missiles struck the Foxes, taking out 10.
The Hyraxes launched a salvo of 44 missiles at the Paraxeans. One of the weapons officers aboard a Delphinean Fox took control of the 36 missiles that had been dropped by the two destroyed Hyraxes and moved them up into a formation. He informed Kasper that they were available for targeting.
“They've launched two salvos of one hundred seventy-two missiles each,” ADI reported. “They are in a tight formation.”
“Execute Gamma-4,” Liz ordered.
The Hyrax pilots engaged thrusters and flipped their jets over, reversing their acceleration, so they were slowing their approach to the Paraxean Foxes. After two minutes, they flipped over again and started accelerating toward the Paraxeans again. The weapons officer aboard the Delphinean Fox guided the thirty-six missiles using thrusters only. They had been traveling at high velocity toward the Paraxean fleet, so it was a simple matter to only use thrusters to guide them into the new positions that Liz had ordered.
The Paraxean missiles quickly approached the Delphinean Hyraxes, but as the first salvo passed the silent missiles, eighteen of them detonated in the middle of the tight formation, destroying over half of the missiles. It took the Paraxeans too long to finally spread out their second salvo, so when it crossed the Delphinean silent missiles, the detonation of those missiles took out one-third of the Paraxean salvo.
“Okay, we have eighty-six missiles followed by one-hundred,” Kasper said. “Owens, send a couple of Foxes through there and drop some laser mines.”
“On their way,” Lieutenant Owens said.
The laser mines were another Delphinean innovation, simply one of the satellites modified so it now sported four powerful lasers. The two Foxes cut across the path of the approaching missiles accelerating at 3Gs and dropped the mines. They then launched all sixteen missiles each at the Paraxean Foxes before they flipped their jets and angled away from the Paraxeans and in the general direction of the Delphinean fleet.
The thirty-six missiles they launched quickly crossed over the Paraxean missiles. The Paraxean Foxes launched a salvo of 172 missiles at them, then they flipped over and started accelerating away from the Delphi squadrons.
“They’re out of missiles!” Catie said.
“Let’s be calm, Lieutenant,” Captain Clark said.
“Do we pursue?” Kasper asked.
“Why don’t we focus on all those missiles first,” Admiral Michaels said.
As the first salvo of missiles came into range of the mines, the lasers started targeting them. The missiles made only minor changes in course as one after another was destroyed. The second salvo suffered the same fate, and the third salvo was just as easily decimated.
“Nobody was working the missiles,” Liz said.
“That would appear to be the case,” Blake said. “Once they turned and ran, they no longer tried to manage the missiles. Why would they do that?”
“Range!” Catie said as she glanced at Captain Clark to see if he was going to tell her to calm down again.
“What do you mean?”
“They would have been out of effective communication range soon, they probably could have done something with the first salvo, but I bet the mines surprised them. They didn’t have time to figure out what to do before they were out of range to control their second salvo effectively.”
“I guess when you’re fighting at thirty thousand KPH, the speed of light matters,” Blake said.
“Yes, a few milliseconds between command and reaction is tough when a drone is right next to your missile and targeting it with a laser,” Catie said.
“Do we pursue?” Kasper asked again.
“No,” Admiral Michaels said. “Let’s regroup and reestablish our defensive position. I want them to have time to think.”
“Why do we want to give them time to think?” Blake asked.
“Because when we see how they respond after they’ve had a day to think, we’ll be better able to predict how they’ll respond when we don’t give them any time. Besides, we should let their morale deteriorate as much as possible after getting their asses handed to them.”
“Yes, sir,” Kasper said, his exasperation at being called back clear in his voice.
◆ ◆ ◆
“What’s the status of our two casualties?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“Both pilots were picked up. They got banged around pretty bad, but no major injuries. The doctor has prescribed two days’ rest.”
“Excellent news,” Admiral Michaels said. “Okay, what did we learn?”
“They seemed to want to rely on their missiles,” Liz said.
“That’s a sign of intelligence,” Captain Clark said. “Stand-off weapons are a lot safer than getting into a dogfight.”
“I agree,” Admiral Michaels said. “Let’s not read too much into that. Our pilots have been training hard at head-to-head fighting and tactics since they were already familiar with stand-off fighting techniques. We prefer the missiles and mines to head-to-head.”
“Well, at least those of us with a few years of maturity do,” Blake said.
“What do we think they learned?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“That their Foxes are outclassed, and so are their missiles,” Catie said.
“That’s probably correct, so how will they respond to that?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“With numbers,” Blake said. “That’s what they did in the encounter; they just threw more missiles at us.”
“But again, they didn’t have time to think,” Admiral Michaels said. “Tomorrow, I want to put our railguns on that battleship; what tactics should we use?”
“I think we should seed the area with more laser probes and coasting missiles,” Catie said.
“Why?”
“I don’t think their sensors can detect them until they go active,” Catie said. “And they don’t seem to react well when something surprises them. So we should prepare more surprises.”
“I like the way you think,” Captain Clements said. “I vote with the young lieutenant.”
“How’s our missile stores and missile production?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“There are sixteen missiles mounted on each of our two thousand jets, there are fifty thousand missiles in reserve, and the production capacity at Jupiter
is two thousand missiles per day,” ADI said.
“With a two-day delivery,” Captain Clark said.
“No, we can get the missiles there in ten hours,” Catie said. “We’ve modified two Oryxes so they can do ten-Gs, ADI will fly them.”
“That’s much better,” Blake said. “So how many missiles are you sending to us now?”
“We have two Oryxes with five thousand missiles heading your way now, our stockpile here is twenty thousand,” Catie said.
“That’s good news,” Blake said.
“I’m glad you like it,” Admiral Michaels said. “Tomorrow we’ll follow Catie’s suggestion and set up maneuver Odin-1.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Make sure our pilots get a good night’s rest, until tomorrow,” Admiral Michaels said.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Marc, are you comfortable with the way things are going so far?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“I’m relying on you and Blake to handle things,” Marc said. “I’m trying to keep myself quiet during the briefings.”
“You’re doing an admirable job of it,” Blake said. “I was wondering if you were even there.”
“Any advice?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“Expect them to surprise you,” Marc said.
“I always do,” the admiral said. “Until tomorrow.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Hi, Daddy.”
“Hey, Sweetie, a good first battle, wouldn’t you say?”
“I think so. But everyone is just feeling each other out. I don't think tomorrow will be as good.”
“Probably not,” Marc said. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m good. Nattie’s here for company, and everyone is super busy, so that helps.”
“Try to sound a little more cheerful when you talk to your mother.”
“I’ll try.”
“You’d better get some rest.”
“I’ll go to bed right after I talk with Mommy.”
“Bye, Sweetie.”
“Bye, Daddy.”
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