by Bob Blanton
“How big is it?” Jason asked.
“It’s a three-meter sphere.”
“That’s pretty small for all that firepower,” Blake said.
“That’s the secret,” Catie said. “It has a small cross-section, so there’s not much area for them to target energy at. Those plasma cannons on it can get rid of any energy they do hit it with. It will be able to sit right inside a battleship’s plasma cannon and use its lasers to take them out. Or it can use its plasma cannons to cut into the battleship’s hull.”
“What’s the hull construction?” Blake asked.
“Four layers of polysteel and polyglass,” Catie said.
“If it’s polyglass and polysteel, you have to print the hull,” Liz said.
“We can form the main section of the hull like we built the carriers, but you’ll need to print the two ends to close it,” Catie said.
“What about the access door?” Blake said. “That has to be a weak spot. A sustained plasma beam there, and I don’t think even a four-layer hull will be able to take it.”
“That’s the scary part,” Catie said. “You have to seal the pilot in.”
“What?!”
“You have to use a printer and seal the pilot in,” Catie said. “Then, there isn’t a discontinuity in the superconductor meshes, so it can take a sustained plasma beam.”
“I don’t like that idea,” Marc said.
“What’s the difference?” Liz asked. “You go out in a Fox or Hyrax, and you have to wait until you come back inside a carrier to get out. This just takes more time to get out of.”
“Okay, so say we buy this idea, how does that change the game?” Admiral Michaels asked. “They can still rotate the battleship to keep it from getting a good target lock.”
“That won’t matter,” Catie said. “It has a magnetic coupler that allows it to attach itself to the hull, then a small gravity drive to maneuver with.”
“So it could eventually take out all their plasma cannons and lasers?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“How do you fit a reactor inside that thing?” Marc asked.
“You don’t,” Catie said.
“What?! Then where does it get its energy from?” Blake asked.
“It has capacitors, but it needs someone to be firing on it to keep it charged, preferably the plasma cannon from the battleship.”
“What happens if they figure that out?” Liz asked.
“Then we’d have to have our Hyraxes fire on it,” Catie said.
“That is insane!” Marc said.
“It’s the only thing ADI and I could come up with that works,” Catie said.
“I assume you’ve run simulations?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“Of course.”
“I’ve made most of the parts,” Catie said. “We have plenty of polysteel and polyglass capacity. It’s the capacitors and plasma cannons that will take the longest.”
“We’d have to redirect all our production and printer capacity to this for at least a week to make six of them,” Fred said as he continued to study the plans Catie had shared with everyone.
“We’ll also need to move one of the big printers to one of the carriers to seal the pilots in,” Catie said. “Also, we need to modify a few Hyraxes so they can deploy them, and the Hyrax will be a loss.”
“Why?”
“In order to get it close to the carrier, we need the Hyrax to fly inside the range of its plasma cannons. They’ll destroy the Hyrax, but then the Fist will be launched as if it’s the cockpit pod. That should allow it to get close enough to the battleship to lock on.”
“If you’re in contact with the battleship, how do you get it to fire one of its cannons at you?” Liz asked.
“You don’t actually contact the hull, the magnetic lock works at twenty meters, just inside the firing arc. I assume we would have it bounce out and in to make it look like the plasma cannon was having an effect,” Catie said.
“Girl, you have to be crazy to come up with this,” Liz said, “but I agree, it sounds like it would work.”
“Why use a pilot?” Blake asked.
“EMP, we can harden the manual controls, the gravity drive, and cannons, but an AI would be unlikely to survive,” Catie said. “Any comm link would be taken out as well.”
“I don’t like it,” Blake said.
“Thirty-five pilots,” Catie said, her eyes were moist with tears.
“But they had a chance, the pilot in this thing is going to feel like a sitting duck,” Blake said.
“We have to try.”
“I agree. Any tactical reason not to try it?” Admiral Michaels asked. “I didn’t think so,” he said after nobody responded.
“We’ll need to test one before we deploy,” Catie said. “I want to be the test pilot.”
“Why?” Marc demanded.
“I understand it; I’ll be able to see if we missed anything,” Catie said.
“Alright, Cers, we have a week to build the Fists, then a few days for tests and modifications,” Admiral Michaels. “We have our mission parameters; we hold them off for two weeks.”
◆ ◆ ◆
It was three days before the Paraxeans came back. With the mission parameters changed, Admiral Michaels and his staff had decided to try a different maneuver to see if it would buy them more time. As soon as their sensors picked up the Paraxean battleship, they had launched six Odin squadrons, each on a different vector. As the Paraxeans approached, they launched twenty Hyrax squadrons, which formed up into two wings, each backed by a squadron of Foxes. They immediately accelerated toward the Paraxean fleet. The Paraxeans launched a counterforce of six hundred Foxes.
“They sure like that number,” Blake said as he and Liz were watching the battlefield develop.
“I know, I wonder if it has special significance?” Liz said.
“Who knows,” Blake said. “Here they go.”
The Delphinean wings launched their missile salvos early, then immediately retreated back toward the Enterprise. The move surprised the Paraxeans, and they started separating, preparing to deal with the incoming missiles.
Then the Odin squadrons struck. Instead of targeting the battleship, they targeted the carriers, firing over eight-hundred-fifty slugs at each of the carriers. The Paraxeans had placed their Fox shield forward of the battleship and had only held a few back to defend the carriers. By the time they detected the hailstorm of slugs, they had to scramble to get the carriers out of the way and to bring fighters back to them to try to diminish the slugs.
It was too late by the time they realized that hitting the slugs with a laser actually made them more effective against the carriers. Unmelted, the slugs ripped a small hole through the carrier, barely spreading out as it ripped through the polysteel hull and decks, but if it was melted, it spread out on impact and tore a much bigger hole in the hull and the first few decks before its energy was dissipated.
The Paraxean fleet immediately recalled all its fighters and turned away.
“They keep managing to redefine stupid,” Blake said.
“They don’t make the same mistake twice,” Admiral Michaels said, “but they sure do let its cousins show up.”
“How much time do you think that will buy us?” Liz asked.
“Two or three days, I hope,” Blake said. “We’ll have to see.”
◆ ◆ ◆
It was only two days before the Paraxeans returned. This time they had six hundred fighters leading the fleet and one hundred around each of their ships. The Delphinean war council had anticipated this and had liberally spread mines and silent running missiles along the way. This time, they had placed them much deeper into the Paraxean sphere than they had before. They would have needed to collect the missiles and relaunch if the Paraxeans had delayed for another day.
“Do you see their outliers?” Blake asked.
“We have them,” Liz said. “It looks like they’re setting up where we anticipated. Another twenty minutes and we’ll k
now for sure.”
“Launch fighters!” Blake ordered.
The two carriers disgorged two hundred Hyraxes each, followed by two squadrons of Foxes from each carrier. Their screen of Hyraxes quickly adjusted their flight paths to maximize their coverage of the carriers while making room for the two space wings to vector toward the Paraxean force.
“How do you think they’re replacing all their fighters?” Captain Clements asked.
“I don’t think they are,” Catie replied from the bridge of the Sakira.
“What makes you say that?” Blake asked.
“With their process, it would take them five days to print a Fox, so they would need over two hundred printers to keep up with the losses. I think they used the time between our first call to stock up as much as they could, so they’ve been able to maintain their force composition. But they’re going to have to start losing fewer planes or taking longer to regroup.”
“This was a pretty short cycle for them to return,” Admiral Michaels said.
“But they didn’t lose that many fighters last time.”
“Granted. Well, let’s see if we can correct that,” Liz said. “They just crossed into the minefield. Activate mines and fire up our first set of sleepers.”
The mines started targeting the Foxes, taking out twenty in the first five seconds. The missiles fired up their engines and accelerated toward the Paraxeans. Caught unawares, the Paraxeans vectored their fighters away from the killing zone and launched missiles to target the Delphinean missiles that suddenly appeared on their screens. With their spotter Foxes, the Paraxeans were effective at taking out the missiles and the mines, but were suffering heavy losses due to their late awareness.
“Fire up our picket missiles,” Liz ordered.
The missiles they had positioned targeting the locations they expected the Paraxeans to place their spotters, fired up and rocketed toward the small cluster of Foxes. With the spotters having to focus on the incoming missiles, the sleeper missiles and two salvos launched from the approaching wing of Delphinean fighters were able to create maximum damage within the Paraxean fighter wings; they lost 30% of their fighters before they cleared the killing zone. They were now faced with the next launch of missiles from the Delphinean wings, but with the dispersion they’d made coming out of the kill zone, the Delphinean missiles were less effective. After the fourth salvo passed, there were still over three hundred fighters to face.
The Paraxeans launched their second and third salvos of missiles and continued to accelerate toward the Delphinean wings.
“Launch counterstrike missiles,” Liz ordered.
The laser-armed missiles rocketed toward the Paraxean missiles, crossing into the swarm within seconds. The lasers immediately started destroying the Paraxean missiles. To everyone’s surprise, several Paraxean missiles detonated, sending thousands of small pieces of shrapnel at the counterstrike missiles, destroying many of them. They used the same tactic as they entered the swarm of missiles from the Delphinean wing.
“They’re learning,” Admiral Michaels said. “What’s in those warheads?”
“The sensors say that it was the same material as our railgun slugs,” ADI said.
“Oh, that is innovative of them,” Blake said.
Only one-third of the Delphinean missiles made it through the Paraxean missile storm. They took out seventy of the Paraxean Foxes. The surviving Foxes launched two more salvos of missiles at the Delphinean wings, which were now dealing with the second and third salvos launched earlier.
As the remaining missiles from those salvos tore through the Delphinean wings, most were destroyed by the Hyraxes’ lasers. The fact that they had managed to destroy or distract the Paraxean spotters spared the Hyraxes, and they only lost forty fighters in those salvos.
The Hyraxes changed vectors to rise above the incoming fourth and fifth salvos, forcing the missiles to adjust their vectors. They had minimal success since they’d spent most of their fuel; what they wasted by changing vectors meant they had little to nothing left for the final acceleration to their target. The Hyraxes cleared the salvos, losing only an additional twenty fighters. The fact that the Hyrax pilots were so skilled at maneuvering their fighters around the incoming missiles was something the Paraxeans couldn’t match when they faced the Delphinean missile barrage. Now the Hyraxes accelerated toward the Paraxean Foxes that were down to their last three missiles. The Delphinean Hyraxes launched two more salvos at them and maxed out their acceleration to close the distance.
The Paraxeans launched their last missiles before they turned and raced toward the battleship and the safety of its plasma cannons. The Hyraxes had to maneuver around and through the swarm of Paraxean missiles, and by the time they had dealt with them, they had lost another twenty fighters, and the Paraxeans were too far ahead to pursue.
The Delphinean wing had lost eighty fighters, but had disabled or destroyed over four hundred of the Paraxean Foxes.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Status report,” Admiral Michaels demanded.
“We lost eighty fighters, twenty pilots,” Blake reported.
“How are the other sixty casualties?”
“Twenty will be out of action for some time; we’ll be sending them to the Sakira on the next Oryx,” Blake said. “The others will recover in a couple of days. Captain Clark, your son flew one of our pickets, so he was safe.”
“Thanks for letting me know,” Captain Clark said. “How did he take it?”
“He didn’t like it, but it was the only duty the doctor would clear him for, so he didn’t argue too much,” Liz said.
“How can they afford to lose so many pilots?” Commander Frankham asked.
“I don’t think they are,” Catie said.
“What do you mean?” Blake asked.
“Given their performance, I bet over half of those Foxes were remotely piloted,” Catie said. “And they’re most likely the ones that were totally destroyed, without ejecting their pods.”
“Ah, that makes sense,” Liz said. “It’s good to see that they are feeling the stress on their resources.”
“Admiral Michaels, I am analyzing the sensor data from the probes we have observing the asteroid,” ADI said. “It appears that four Lynxes have just landed there.”
“Getting more pilots,” Catie said.
“Unfortunately, I agree with you,” Admiral Michaels said.
“We’re ready to bring the Fists to you,” Catie said. “I’m planning to fly an Oryx out tomorrow with them and the printer we need to seal them.”
“We’ll be waiting for you,” Blake said. “We have to end this thing somehow.”
“Agreed!” Admiral Michaels said. “Let’s hope we’ve bought enough time with this last engagement.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Catie and Natalia arrived on the Enterprise the next afternoon. Blake and Liz met them in the flight bay and walked them to Blake’s quarters
“Why is everyone so tense?” she asked. She had sensed the tension since she landed.
“We just held the funerals,” Blake said.
“Oh.”
“I want you to bunk with me,” Liz said. “I’ve had them open up the top berth for you.”
“I can just grab a bunk with one of the other pilots,” Catie said.
“Not a chance, I’m not sharing you with anyone,” Liz said. “Natalia, if you want, you can bunk with my yeoman, she’s just down the hall.”
“That’ll work for me,” Natalia said.
“Let’s get you settled; then we’ll take you down to where Fred’s setting up your Fists,” Liz said. “Captain?”
“I’ll see the three of you for dinner,” Blake said. “Carry on.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Hey, Catie,” Fred said. “Pardon me, Lieutenant McCormack I meant to say.”
“Fred, I’m always Catie to you,” Catie said as she gave Fred a hug.
Fred had cordoned off a section of the flight bay for the Fists. They were ke
eping the details of it secret until they were confident they were actually going to deploy them. The flight bay was depressurized, and several crewmen were maneuvering the Fists into the bay. The Oryx was backed up right against the bay’s doors, so it only took an hour to bring all six in. The printer only took five minutes to bring in, then they pressurized the bay and brought some other crewmen in to set the printer up.
“Are you really going to crawl inside that thing?” Fred asked.
“That’s what I keep telling myself,” Catie said. “I can tell you one thing; someone better have a bottle of scotch handy when they cut me out of it.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll have one on hand,” Liz said. “When will it be ready to test?”
“Tomorrow night,” Catie said. “I want to do it on the off-shift to minimize the potential audience. They should have completed the final installation by then.”
Catie spent a few hours finalizing the instructions for the crew before she left Fred to finish up the first Fist. They would be working on them around the clock to have all six ready in the three days the admiral had allocated.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Hey, did you see what was in that Oryx?” one of the pilots asked. He was sitting down at a table in the mess hall with his buddies.
“Nope, they wouldn’t let anyone get close to it,” another one replied.
“I hear it’s going to take the rest of our wounded and the prisoners back to Jupiter,” the first one said.
“I heard that Her Highness Catie was aboard it,” another pilot said.
“I heard that too; apparently she’s having dinner with her uncle. She must be too good to eat with us mere mortals.”
“Well, she’s definitely been too good to go out and get shot at with us mere mortals,” the first pilot said.
“Can it,” Jason snapped. “You idiots don’t have a clue what’s going on.”
“Hey, you’re out here fighting with us,” the first pilot said. “I’m sure your dad could have gotten you a nice safe job like Catie’s.”
“You idiot, who do you think designed those counterstrike missiles and those laser mines? I’ll tell you who, she did. So do you want her flying with you, or designing the stuff that keeps those Paraxeans from shooting your ass out of the sky?”
