Since the aliens had taken up stationary positions, it was hoped that the nukes would round Mars, return to the position of the alien craft and then detonate. It was an ingenious plan if it worked. The timing was critical. The nukes would have to be armed with a timer, their skin activated and then fired at Mars.
Since the launching of the active skin nuke was a detectable event it was hoped that the alien craft would not be able to determine what the Defenders were doing from their distance. It was bold and ambitious and was also the only idea that had been brought to the Battle Planners that did not significantly endanger our crews.
The nukes were fired and if all went well the outcome would be known in precisely 47 minutes. As a diversionary tactic the squad then split with three Defenders going in one direction and the remaining four heading another.
The 47 minutes soon became 25, then five and then one. A timer ticked away on everyone's screen. When the nukes were within the final few seconds of their target the skin would deactivate and the nukes would detonate.
The planners were all on edge because one major drawback to the plan was that if the seven nukes detonated late they would sink through the atmosphere and detonate just off the coast of Japan.
Since no other nation of the world was currently involved in the mission down in the chamber it was feared that it would cause an international incident. But, our Command thought those fears were easily justifiable when it came to war with the alien craft.
No other nation knew of the Defenders or our active skin technologies. When the previous mission had concluded with a nuclear explosion destroying one of the alien fighters the nations of the world had been screaming at us to know what had happened and exactly how it had been done. Our response had been anything but revealing.
When the counter hit ten seconds I could sense the nervousness in the room. Moments later the seven nukes detonated right on target. There was a momentary bright flash in the night skies off of Japan that could be seen from the Philippines to Korea to deep inside mainland China.
The target had been destroyed and the diplomatic phones at the State Department were soon ringing off their hooks. The problem for the State Department was that they had no knowledge of what was happening. Our entire program was still as covert as a program could possibly be.
A statement was soon released through the White House with minimal details. Another alien craft had been destroyed. They were then down two. The media was in a frenzy trying to get details but none were forthcoming. We were at war and that information was privileged.
As a consequence of our small victory the remaining two alien fighters soon joined forces. They also began making random movements. Our active nuke strategy was now useless. I wondered how it was that the planners had not foreseen that event.
It seemed such an ingenious method for taking out the remaining three and it had been largely wasted on one. When we left the Battle Room that was the exact discussion going on between all the Tacticians. Some of the words being exchanged were very heated.
We returned to our DSim to continue our training. Level three brought with it a new twist. We would be competing blindly against another crew. Level three had 126 scenarios to choose from. The crew with the most points would earn credits to be used at a later date. We weren't told what those credits would be for, but we were assured they were indeed useful.
The first DSim scenario selected was called "Moonbase Run". We would lift off to a designated point at which time we were to put into action our own battle plan. The "Moonbase Run" scenario consisted of first getting past an alien fighter and then attacking an alien base. More specifically it was to destroy a designated drone factory on the Moon.
We had no idea if the aliens even had such a factory, but it was thrown into a scenario and we wanted a chance to destroy it. We had been paired up with crew A33 who were much further along in their DSim training than us. I was excited by the chance to take on another team but wondered if we were being set up. A33 had just finished level-five.
The Moon base itself was backed up against a steep crater wall and was defended by much more powerful gravity weapons than the ones on the alien fighters. We had been given two hours to plan our strategy before the scenario would begin. After scratching our heads for most of the two hours we were left with no real plan of action.
We would be winging it as we went. This earned some grumbles from Red, but he had been directed to stay out of our way. It was a test of not only our skills of flying, but of thinking on our feet. As the scenario began I tried to ensure the others that we were going to win. All I received in return was empty stares.
When both ships had reached their initial rally points the scenario began. There was not just one alien fighter, but one that we each had to do battle with. As soon as we headed towards the sitting alien craft it began to move in a random pattern. Whip had one active nuke ready so we decided to take pot luck shot with it.
As soon as the nuke was launched the alien fighter turned hard in our direction and came on at full speed. I flipped our ship and pushed the throttle to full. We slowed dramatically and then began a rapid acceleration. In level-three scenarios we had use of 50% throttle. But our spur of the moment plan was not well thought out and the alien fighter soon came within striking distance before we had a chance to flee.
Its first shot took out all five rings of our BHD and the second shot, from less than a kilometer away, overwhelmed the active skin. We were dead within one minute of the scenario's beginning.
Crew A33 was much more prudent in their approach. They kept a distance while laying out three active nukes. They then attempted to draw the alien fighter in to where the active nukes were laying. The strategy failed and crew A33 spent the next hour simply running around trying to keep their distance from the fighter. The timed scenario ended with an alien victory because neither target had been destroyed.
The scenario was run three more times and each time it ended with a similar result. We would engage and be easily defeated while A33 played keep away. It was on our fifth try that Bigg had a suggestion. Once at our rally point we would launch an active nuke. This time however the nuke would stay stationary next to our ship.
I would then pilot the ship so that the nuke was centered in front of the BHD. Bigg would push our own gravity wave out in front of the BHD allowing us to push the active nuke in front of us.
The first active nuke was not armed to go off but only to become unshielded after a three minute push. We needed practice. I entered the parameters into the flight computer and then pushed the stick forward. For three minutes I made modest maneuvers while the active nuke supposedly was riding just in front of us.
When the three minutes came to an end the active skin on the nuke shut down and our sensors showed it to still be riding on the gravity wave in front of us. We calculated our distance and speed to the waiting alien fighter and then reset the timer on the nuke. This time it was armed for detonation.
When the active skin enabled we turned the ship at a ten degree angle to the side of the alien fighter and then accelerated. While still at a very long distance from the enemy fighter we turned so that our path was momentarily aimed directly at it.
At that moment I slowed and veered hard left. Since the alien fighter had not detected an active nuke launch and since we were not coming at it in a threatening manner it remained in its initial stationary position. We watched our countdown timer as the invisible silent nuclear weapon closed in on the fighter. Our calculations had been perfect as the simulated alien fighter disappeared in a brilliant flash of light.
Team A33 was still working hard at their game of cat and mouse with their fighter. Our next move was to take out the Moon base. This is where Whip made her contribution to our mission.
Instead of firing our weapons and having them easily deflected by the alien gravity weapon Whip had come up with a different plan. We would approach the base from its blind side behind the crater wall and then fire two of o
ur remaining nukes into that crater wall. The active skin would allow a nuke to bury itself deep within the rock and when the detonation occurred we hoped to let the rock do the work for us.
As an extra precaution we would also fire our remaining nuke directly at the base with a five second delay. If the initial nukes collapsed the crater wall as planned the final nuke would only be wasted powder, but well worth the extra precaution.
Within two minutes of Whip spelling out her plan we were putting it into motion. I moved our position to the far side of the Moon and began our attack. Two active nukes were launched followed by our remaining one five seconds later. I banked hard away and began to make distance at full throttle.
Eight seconds later the first two nukes found their target and detonated. While the gravity of the Moon was not sufficient to give the falling rock the momentum it needed to overwhelm the enemy shielding the push from the nuclear explosions was.
The crater wall collapsed and the Moon base was destroyed in a storm of rock. Five seconds later the last active nuke detonated in another spectacular white flash. We had completed "Moonbase Run".
In a final gesture I sped outward from the Moon and then turned towards where A33 was still being chased by its alien fighter. Again I pushed us to full throttle at a slightly off angle from the alien craft. When we reached one quarter light speed I shut off the BHD and hid our sensor array making us invisible to the enemy.
I did a quick calculation with the ships computer and then at the very last possible second turned on the BHD and adjusted course. The alien fighter was engaging A33 and was unable to adjust to our showing up behind it in time. Our BHD clipped a small portion of the fighter’s tail knocking it into a violent spin.
The resulting high speed collision coupled with the fighter swinging its gravity weapon around instantly overwhelmed our skin. We were nothing but space dust in less than a pico-second.
Team A33 was quickly able to counter attack the damaged alien fighter ending its reign of terror over them. My crew was yelling at me for getting us killed, but I was sitting with a big smile on my face.
The DSim shut down and Paige and the other handlers came in to unhook us from the system. Red was waiting when we exited the back of the DSim. Whip and Bigg were still yelling at me while Pop displayed his usual grin.
Red came up to me and stood looking me in the eye. He asked why I had done that and I told him we were told to do maximum damage and that I was not leaving fellow fliers to fend for themselves.
Red then held up his hand as he received an incoming audio message. We were once again being summoned to the Commanders office. This time I wondered if I would be in for a medal.
Chapter 7
We sat down once again in General Buck’s office. The General circled around our chairs stopping briefly behind mine. I expected a pat on the back but got nothing. The General then sat on the front of his desk looking at us. He began to discuss the Moonbase Run mission. At first I was giddy with excitement of the praise that was to come.
But, praise was nowhere to be found. The General went over one mistake after another and then began to ride me about why I had gone on the suicide run at the end. He preached about how I had thrown away the lives of my crewmates and lost a valuable ship in the process. His words were that Team A33 was fully capable of exiting the scenario without being harmed... they had been doing it all day.
General Buck then said that he wanted to congratulate us on winning a previously un-won scenario, but he could not because we were dead. And, despite his better judgment we were being moved up in schedule to level-nine.
Level nine would put us only one month from activation as fully flight qualified. Flight qualified meant that we would be going up against the real thing. There would be no restarts from live mistakes. My prior giddiness had quickly turned to a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was a good pilot, but I was not mentally ready to go up against a real alien fighter.
The General then let us in on a secret. The bulk of the alien fleet was indeed still close to two years away but there was another advance set of ships coming that would likely arrive within four months.
This was the primary reason we were being moved up in level. The top six crews had jumped six levels and the rest had jumped three. New batches of recruits were arriving on a weekly basis.
I asked the General if we knew what the makeup of the advance fleet was and he replied that it consisted of two large ships, of about a half kilometer in diameter. They were only guessing that each had a complement of fighters although we had no way of knowing how many.
We left the general's office in a somber mood. Suddenly our casual DSim attempts at completing missions alive took a hard turn. We would now have to plan diligently and execute with precision each and every time we entered a scenario. Level nine would also be our first cooperative missions. We would have to coordinate our efforts with up to three other crews.
I could multitask within a small group but it was not my strong suit. I would also likely be answering to a squad commander. By the time we arrived back at the DSim my head was swimming with negative thoughts.
We still had our final two hours of the day ahead. The handlers connected us back into the ship and Red gave us a quick briefing on the ongoing scenario that we were about to join into midstream.
As we raced around in our first level-nine scenario we attempted to use some of the tricks we had used earlier in the day. They failed miserably as the main simulation computer had learned from its earlier mistakes. We ended our shift with two quick deaths. The deaths that day had been our first deaths other than my suicide run since we had first begun at level-one.
During the two hour fraternization time we all huddled at a table in the corner of the lounge. It was beer Friday for Pop, but he had no interest in it. It seemed that once again the spirit of the team had been sucked out, leaving our fight shriveled up and near death.
At that moment I decided it was up to me to try to change our eroding attitudes. I looked at the mopers sitting around the table and I then banged my fist on it loudly. I did not chastise any one person. I instead began to talk of the team and how far we had come.
I talked about us winning scenarios that no other team had come close to winning. I talked about how we had already been pushing the limits of the scenarios and that it did not matter if we died every day from here until the end of training. It only mattered after.
This war we were in was bigger than us. We were fighting not only for our survival, but for the survival of Mankind. I then tried to turn the focus to something positive. I asked each of the others to try to come up with one new strategy, move, weapon or just any idea per day. It was a tall order but I had already seen what this crew was capable of.
I asked everyone to take ten minutes and then toss out an idea, any idea, no matter how crazy it sounded. We only had one month left to try them out in simulation. After that it would be against the real thing.
When our contemplation time ended I started with the handlers. Bigg's handler chimed in first. He had been toying with an idea about how to extend our shields. He reasoned that if we could build a mini unmanned vehicle and pack it with the alien gravity tech, a mini BHD and a nano-reactor to power it we might be able to extend our shielding further out by sending the small ship out away from our own.
We discussed the prospects of building our own RPV and I flagged it in my audio recorder, starting a list of our new possibilities. Bigg would talk to his son about getting the components together to build one.
Next up was Pop's handler. She had been thinking about the reclamation suits and specifically about what it would take to build a backpack unit that would function in the same way as the ship’s system.
If we needed to land and exit the ship for any length of time we would have a built in food supply that could potentially last weeks. It might be useful in a survival type scenario. Whip's handler then moved in with an idea for removing the propulsion part of the
missile and just having the nuclear warhead and timer surrounded by the active skin.
It would save time in manufacturing and room aboard our already crowded Defenders. Again, I flagged the idea for further review. Paige then looked at me with pursed lips. I asked her if she had anything at all. She then began to give us a physics lesson in quantum entanglement.
Back in the day of the S.A., physicists had come across a strange phenomenon, Quantum Entanglement. QE was where two like particles could be bound together by a strange and unusual force. If one particle was put in one state the other would instantly transition to the opposite state of the first one. The geniuses of the day were not sure why it happened, but only that it did. Many years of research had gone into discovering the secret, but no answers had come forth.
If you took the two entangled particles and moved them far far away from one another, the QE stayed intact. Change the state of one and the other instantly changed too. After 20 years as a hot topic in physics it had been relegated to only the occasional fringe physicist taking an interest in it.
Many had attempted to use it to send data instantly between two points only to be confounded with the randomness of the initial states. As Paige continued to try to explain it to us my eyes glazed over. Most of what she was saying was well beyond the physics knowledge of the rest of us.
As she continued schooling us on QE I stepped in with a question. Why was it that she had brought the subject up? Was there some way we could make use of it. Her response was a definite maybe. She had been working on a theory that if we could start with a particle in a known state we might be able to then use that information. With the power of the magnetic fields used in the Sodium reactors it might be possible to set the initial particle state to whatever we wanted.
As she continued to explain her reasoning my eyes began to wander and my brain was soon tuning the conversation out. I then got a small balled up fist to my shoulder and a scowl from Paige. I abruptly apologized and then moved on to an idea of my own.
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