Nowhere to Hide

by Saxon Andrew

  ***

  Kregen looked at the two new officers sitting at the conference table and wondered about their ability. He knew Marissa would handle her end but the other two were so young. The numbers of Attack Ships had grown so fast that he could no longer control the vast number. He needed good flag officers to get them organized and trained. Were these two youngsters ready for a star? He looked at Marissa, “You’ve chosen these two to command the next two fleets?”

  “They show the most talent at using the new ship, Sir.”

  Kregen looked at Annie Newsome and Ryan Fox and wondered if they had what it took to command large units. He turned to them and told them how he felt, “I’m not certain the two of you are ready to command large numbers of ships.”

  Annie looked at him and had a smirk on her face as Ryan said, “I’m not sure about that either.”

  Annie looked quickly at Ryan and was obviously surprised at his remark. Kregen stared at Ryan, “It was your squadron that was selected to take out the probes in the last battle. You must be doing something right with your pilots.”

  “They are motivated to prove they’re better than any other unit, Sir.”

  Annie quickly said, “My wing could take them.” Ryan looked at Annie and smiled. Kregen said, “What do you think about that, Captain?”

  Ryan looked at Kregen, “It’s good she has that confidence in her unit, Sir.”

  “Could she do it?”

  “Probably not.”

  Annie’s brow furrowed, “We can do it anytime you want to give it a go.”

  Kregen smiled and saw an opportunity to see what these two were made of, “I think I’d like to see that. The two of you will prepare your squadrons for a war game in three days. You’ll be given the boundary coordinates you will have to stay inside and the starting time. Load your ships with unarmed boson missiles and let’s see who the best is. You may go and prepare your pilots for the maneuvers.”

  The two stood, saluted, and left the room. Kregen turned to Marissa, “Who do you think will win?”

  “I’m not sure. Captain Newsome was angry she wasn’t chosen to take part in the last battle. She’s been in command longer than Captain Fox.”

  “Then why did you select him?”

  “I’m not sure, Kre. I just felt he would perform the task…more efficiently. His pilots really worship him and wouldn’t do anything to disappoint him.”

  “What about Newsome?”

  “She’s a hot shot. Her pilots are incredible in their ability to fly the new ship.”

  Kregen smiled, “She reminds you of you.”

  Marissa smiled, “She does; but you know how I could make a bad decision before I learned the consequences of not paying attention to all the available information.”

  Kregen nodded, “You’ve really come a long way, Rissa.”

  “You taught me a lot. If I had to pick a winner, I couldn’t do it. Annie’s pilots are some of the best one-on-one in the fleet.”

  “And these ships are designed to be used in that kind of combat.”

  Marissa nodded, “Perhaps.” Kregen looked at her, “We really don’t know the full capability of the new ship and whether or not it can be used in organized attacks. Did you see the recordings of the invader’s probes destruction?”

  “I did.”

  “Well, there were numerous ships that could have fired on those probes but the closest one to each of them took the shot and the others waited to see if they were needed. None of them were looking for glory but were focused on doing the task the most efficient way possible. That speaks volumes about Fox’s skill at getting the most out of his squadrons.”

  Kregen thought a moment and Marissa wondered what he was thinking. He took a sheet of paper and wrote something on it, folded it, and handed it to her, “The name of the winner is on this. Don’t look until after the war game is over.”

  “You’re afraid I will help the one you don’t choose more than the other?”

  “It’s what I’d do.”

  Marissa took the paper and smiled, “This should prove to be interesting.”

  “It will also determine our future direction in using these new ships. We need to know.”

  “Their design is to reward an aggressive pilot. Annie will have the advantage.” Kregen shrugged and Marissa smiled, “You’re not going to give me a clue are you?”

  “Nope.”

  ***

  Annie and Ryan were in their ships just outside the boundary of the exercise. The rules stated that they were not to be involved in the action and that their pilots would have to act on their own without commands from their leaders. Annie smiled at that restriction. Her pilots were the best at fighting without direction. She pressed her communicator and said, “You’re going down, Fox!”

  “Good luck, Captain Newsome. Perhaps we can learn something from this experience.”

  Annie was angry at the comment. This false modesty was too sugary to tolerate. She watched the countdown reach zero and saw Ryan’s ships stay in formation. Her ships immediately rushed out at them at high speed. Suddenly, the Freaks broke formation and flew out in hundreds of different directions away from the incoming attack. Annie knew that in order to win, a ship had to hit an opposing ship with an unarmed missile. The force fields would prevent any damage and any ship hit would have to jump out of the exercise. The thousands of ships were flying at incredible speed and it was difficult to keep track of what was happening. She watched her panel to see the number of her ships that were hit. The results surprised her.

  ***

  “Lilly, I have one coming in from the port side.”

  “Set him up, Amal.”

  Amal turned hard right and the attacker turned into his path, cutting the corner. Suddenly, an attack ship emerged from green space and fired a missile at the attacker as it straightened to take a shot. The missile hit it and the attacker’s computer jumped it out of the exercise. “Amal, I have one coming in at high speed over the top.”

  “Set it up, Lilly.” Lilly turned her ship away from the attacker and curved away from the incoming ship’s approach. The attacker flipped and roared in at the evading target. Annie’s pilot coming over the top was hit by a missile before it could complete the flip. Amal said, “I’m moving over to assist Greg and Angelene.”

  “I’ll take the perimeter.”

  “Lock and load.”

  ***

  Ryan watched his panel and saw he had lost twenty five percent of his ships in the first eight minutes of the exercise. Half of them were lost by attackers who came in head on. However, the attacker was also taken out when it used that tactic so it was an even loss for each team. Both sides learned quickly that attacking head on was the best way to get killed.

  Annie couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Three quarters of her ships were out of the exercise in fifteen minutes and the remainder was totally defensive. Fifteen minutes later her last ship was hit. She heard, “Your pilots are without doubt the best I’ve seen at flying their ships, Captain.”

  Annie stared at the display in dismay and said, “Congratulations.”

  “Don’t feel bad, Captain. We set you up for this to happen.”

  “How?”

  “We used your aggressiveness to place your ships where we could take a shot at them. I honestly believe if my pilots were as good as yours, we might not have lost a ship.”

  “Fox, I need to know how you did this.”

  “I’ll gladly show you, Sir.”

  “Forget that seniority manure. Both of us know who the better commander is.”

  “That’s only true for the moment. We’ll be even after we work together.”

  Annie shook her head, blew out a breath, and said, “I look forward to learning how you did this.”

  ***

  Marissa saw that two thirds of Fox’s ships survived the exercise and she opened the paper that Kregen had given her, “Fox in a landslide.” She smiled and saw she still had a lot to learn from Kregen.


  ***

  The three officers were back in Kregen’s office and he saw that Captain Newsome was despondent. He looked at Fox and saw he actually felt bad for her. He looked at Fox, “Would you care to tell us what you did?”

  “I’ve been training my squadron to see all the possible lines of attack that could be used to kill my ships. I’ve had my pilots work on taking evasive tracks that would set up an attacking ship for a shot from another ship that had jumped in to the spot where it could take a shot. There are a limited number of courses an attacker can take to pursue a ship moving away from it. The ship taking the shot then becomes the one used as bait for another ship and the first ship assumes the role of defending it.”

  Annie said, “What do you mean a limited choice of courses?”

  “If an attacker is coming from below, my ship will turn vertical and move away from the line of attack. If the attacker is coming from below left it will go vertical and curve right.”

  Annie thought a moment, “That would force the attacker to move to cut the corner.”

  Ryan nodded, “And if you know that, a second ship can sit in green space inside the curve and wait for the attacker to move into the kill zone. That will work whether the attacker comes from the top, bottom, left, or right. Once the attacker’s course is determined, the ship being attacked knows the proper course to take to set it up for the wingman. The only course that won’t work is a direct head on attack.”

  Annie nodded, “And we’ve seen that both ships will be killed in making that kind of attack.”

  Ryan smiled, “Once your pilots stopped attacking head on, they were in jeopardy.” Annie lowered her head and Ryan shook his head in admiration, “You taught me a lot during this exercise.”

  Annie looked up, “What could you have possibly learned from this?”

  “Your pilots can turn their ships in extraordinary maneuvers. If instead of turning away from the attack course, the ship being attacked flipped and cut hard inside the oncoming attacker, it could set it up much quicker for a shot. In a battle with hundreds of thousands of ships moving in unpredictable directions, keeping the maneuver in as small an area as possible will prevent other ships from having a shot. My pilots aren’t as good as yours at making those turns.”

  Kregen smiled, “Captain Fox, what else have you learned?”

  “Our ships have been inappropriately designed, Sir.”

  Kregen nodded, “Go on.”

  “They’ve been built to attack head on and, as we just saw, that is suicide. If we’re going to attack head on, it had better be with a large number of ships and the missiles need to be fired from much further out to allow time to turn away.”

  Kregen looked at Marissa and saw she was impressed with Ryan. He also saw that Newsome was not going to be caught out again. He smiled, “Effective immediately, Captain Fox is promoted to Rear Admiral and will take command of the Second Fleet of attack ships. Admiral Sykes, please note the time this promotion is made.” Marissa punched the information into her wrist unit. “Captain Newsome is also promoted to Rear Admiral and will take command of the Third Fleet. This exercise was done to determine which of you would have seniority in our command structure.”

  Ryan looked at Annie and then looked at Kregen, “Sir, she was promoted to Captain before me.”

  Annie said, “Can it Fox. I know who should have seniority. Our ships will be better served with you leading us.”

  Kregen looked at Marissa and saw the twinkle in her eyes. “I anticipate that you will be receiving a massive number of new ships and pilots shortly and you need to make plans to train them on these tactics. Promotions for the commanders of the new squadrons should come from your groups.”

  Ryan said, “Sir, may I make a suggestion?” Kregen nodded. “We should keep our two groups intact and use them for missions that require close coordination. We’ll use our pilots to instruct the new pilots coming in but they should remain in their original unit. It will give us a tool to use for special assignments targeted at more difficult targets.”

  Kregen smiled, “It will also give the new pilots something to aspire to as well. Becoming a member of your units will be an honor.”

  Ryan nodded, “Only the best may be in them, Sir. This will provide a tool to train our future leaders.”

  Annie listened to Ryan and decided that she had much to learn. Swagger wasn’t necessary when your actions spoke for you. “Admiral Fox, will you start training my pilots?”

  “We should do that immediately.”

  Kregen looked at them, “You know what you need to do. There’s not much time to do it, so get on it.”

  The two saluted and left the room talking animatedly among themselves. Marissa said, “We now have a good team.”

  Kregen smiled, “That we do.” Marissa stood and went over to Kregen and hugged him.

  Chapter Five

  The Sovereign looked at the recently promoted Ship Controller and said, “How are we doing on the production of the new missiles?”

  “We’re producing them at a hundred thousand a day. That number should double in another month.”

  “Why aren’t we producing more?”

  “We’ve modified them.”

  “Oh?”

  “What makes them so deadly is the mass that hits at an incredible velocity. We’ve added more mass to them.”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Inside the FTL field, the missiles have no mass and that’s what allows them to fly at light speed. Our ships are larger than the ones used by the Green Ships and can carry a larger missile. We’ve collected the remains of an exploded neutron star and put pieces of it in the warhead.”

  “I didn’t think we could handle that material.”

  “We couldn’t until we were given the FTL field to do it; we’ve put our construction facilities inside a FTL field and can manipulate them as long as the field is intact.”

  “How do you store them on a ship?”

  “We put the ship inside a field and load them. The missile magazine maintains a field around the missiles until they’re launched and the missile’s own field takes over as it leaves the launch tube.”

  “Isn’t this dangerous?”

  The Fleet Controller moved his shoulders back, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

  “What happens if the field fails on the ship?”

  “It will be compressed to the size of a shuttle instantly.”

  “Killing the entire crew.”

  The Fleet Controller rocked his shoulders forward in agreement. “We need it to survive. We haven’t trialed it yet but it should make a difference in the next attack.”

  “Have you shared this with the Green Ships?”

  “I have and they’re modifying their own missiles.” The Fleet Controller paused, “There is one other modification that makes them less dangerous.”

  “What is that?”

  “They can be launched from a greater distance. Those ships are so large that they can be targeted from much further away.”

  “Outside the range of their beams?”

  “We think so.”

  “Won’t the missiles be burned out of existence by the Invader’s beams before they hit?”

  “The body of the missile may be vaporized but nothing will damage the neutron warhead. It will continue on its trajectory.”

  “I don’t want this technology given to any other civilization here.”

  “We have promised the Green Ships that it would not be shared with anyone else but our Grey allies.”

  “What do they say?”

  “If it hits, a ship will either die or suffer a debilitating high gravity shock.”

  “What would prevent it from hitting?”

  “If the missile is hit early by one of the Invader’s main beams, the missile surrounding the neutron particle will be vaporized and the warhead will lose FTL speed. However, the neutron material would continue on its path at an incredible velocity
with its full weight. The ship might be able to jump out of its path and avoid being hit.”

  “They won’t be able to do that if space is disrupted.” The Sovereign thought a moment, “Those warheads will pose a real hazard if those pieces are flying around space.”

  “If they hit and don’t penetrate the Invader’s force fields, it will stop at the point of the hit. If it penetrates and blows through the ship, we can use the blue field to collect them later. We’ll be able to track them easily for collection.”

  “Where did you find this material?”

  “Our scientists think that only one neutron star in the universe has ever shattered. We found it centuries ago but had no way to handle the remains. With this new field given to us by the Green Ships, our engineers came up with the new missile design.”

  “Can these missiles kill the Green Ships?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Why?”

  “They can detect them coming and go into green space to avoid them. Their computers are advanced enough to make the escape possible. They also have the FTL field to escape and can collect the missiles that miss.”

  “Then it’s in our best interest to make sure our civilizations stand together.”

  “That goes without saying, Sovereign.”

  ***

  Cole saw Ian’s distress at learning about the new neutron warhead, “You don’t need to worry about this development.”

  “For God’s sake, why not?”

  “A boson beam would blow the material apart.”

  Ian stared at Cole and shook his head, “I thought that material was indestructible?”

  “It is for the most part, but remember, a boson beam causes matter to fly apart. The neutron matter will also fly apart if hit by a high intensity boson beam.”