Scout Force

by Rodney Smith

  “As you command. Their screening ships have moved closer to the asteroid field. I detect that they are scanning the asteroid field. Indications are strong that they will conduct gunnery training soon. I recommend we move closer to record their weapon emissions and effects.”

  “Continue to monitor. Scan the space between us and the human fleet to see if there is a path we can use that will provide us the least likelihood of being detected.”

  “Scanning,” said the technician, dropping his head to his scope. “I see a way to cover our approach if we hug close to the asteroid field. It is heavy with high iron content asteroids. It should confuse their sensors and allow us to get within 50,000 km. At that range, we will be able to record the energy levels and effects of their weaponry. It will be a major coup for us, Shadow Warrior.”

  Shadow Warrior K’Tella imagined himself promoted and honored for this action. “Plot your course and enter it into the flight computer, Shadow Technician.”

  The technician lowered his head to his scope, ran his claws over the keyboard and replied, “It is done, Shadow Warrior. We must proceed cautiously. I will maintain a continuous scan ahead of us to detect any reaction from the human fleet.”

  “Let us proceed.”

  The K’Rang ship moved forward, slowly, stealthily, cautiously, alert to any reaction from the fleet.

  * * * * *

  LTs Shappelle and Blake left the dining facility for the squadron briefing room, where they studied the specifications of every known K’Rang scout ship. They studied everything from the 100-meter long bulbous planetary exploration ships with crews of up to 70 to small two-man ships that looked remarkably like mosquitoes. They headed to the hanger deck where their ships were prepared for the mission. As they came onto the hangar deck, they did not see their ships. A Marine guard at the base of the stairs stopped them, inspected their ID, and waved another guard over to escort the LTs. He led them through a personnel hatch in the blast shield at the end of the hangar deck, leading to a small area between the blast door and the outer atmospheric door. Their two ships were waiting for them. At least, they assumed they were their two ships.

  The fighters had been fitted with some sort of cover that hid the sleek lines of the fighters and made them look more like rocks. Kelly walked over to the officer in charge and asked, “What the hell is that, sir?” pointing at the covering on his fighter.

  “That, Lieutenant, is called camouflage. If the K’Rang ship is to pass you by without noticing and flaming your ass, you will need to look more like a harmless rock and less like a sleek deadly Fighter Force F-53 waiting to snatch them up. The camouflage cover is kinetically identical to your bare fighter. It won’t slow you down. It won’t throw you off balance. Other than a slight decrease in vision to the rear, you won’t even know it’s there. If it does become a problem there are explosive bolts to blow the cover. Now come over here to your cockpit and let me show you something.”

  Angie and Kelly walked over with the squadron maintenance officer to the open cockpit of LT Shappelle’s fighter.

  “If you look here on the panel you will see a slightly different throttle than you are used to. We replaced the standard throttle with an experimental model that electronically increases thrust to your engines. It will give you an additional 25 percent thrust. There is a stop on the throttle that engages at full military power. Push this button on the throttle to gain the additional thrust. Come back here to the rear.”

  They followed him around to the rear of the ship.

  “We modified your thrusters to help hide the exhaust. I recommend that once you break the magnetic lock from the Tenacious, you run your engines just to get you pointed toward the asteroid field. Then coast until you get within the field and use your retro thrusters to bring you to a stop and position you in among the rocks. Other than that, we did a major tune up and inspection of both ships. If anything was more than two percent out of spec we replaced it. Your ships are better than when they rolled off the factory floor.”

  The squadron commander entered the space and came over to them.

  “Are you two ready?”

  The two came to attention and saluted. The squadron commander returned their salute and told them to be at ease.

  “The fleet commanders are about to break up and get ready to return to their ships. The Tenacious’ skiff and two others will pass by this door. You will move out and fly formation with them. The other two skiffs will break off once you reach the Tenacious. Try and be set up at that point to be able to drift up against the Tenacious using only your retro thrusters. If you have any questions or last comments, now is the time, because we need to get you two strapped in and ready to go.”

  He waited a second and neither officer said anything. “Okay then, if you need to hit the head, now would be the time.”

  Both junior officers assumed stunned looks as they both realized they had left a significant aspect out of their mission preparations. They excused themselves and scurried quickly to the nearest heads. They came back a few minutes later with slightly sheepish looks on their face. The squadron commander and maintenance officer were both laughing as they returned.

  “Its okay, Lieutenants, we all have made that mistake at least once. Usually the worst thing that happens is the crew chief makes you clean and disinfect the cockpit. Let’s get you strapped in.”

  The crew chiefs stepped in to help the two pilots into their ships. Once they were strapped in and adjusted to their seats, the squadron commander came to each ship and wished them good luck and good hunting.

  At a signal from their crew chiefs, they fired up their engines at the idle setting and sealed their cockpits. Both crew chiefs saluted their officers and moved out of the space through the door in the blast shield. The squadron commander and maintenance officer gave them a thumb’s up and also left through the personnel hatch. As the hatch closed and sealed, the lights went out, leaving them in blackness. The sensors in the ship showed the atmosphere in the bay reducing. After a few minutes, the sensors showed zero atmospheres. The outer door of the hangar deck opened. Angie and Kelly raised their ships up off the deck and applied minimal power to move them out into free space.

  The Tenacious’ skiff passed by the two fighters and they moved out to join in formation. Two other skiffs came up and lined up next to each of the fighters. They flew along through open space for a few minutes until they could pick the Tenacious out of the blackness. As they ran the length of the Tenacious, the two other skiffs broke off and continued to other ships further on in the darkness. The Tenacious’ skiff pilot said goodbye to the other two skiffs, which was Angie’s and Kelly’s signal to drift into the side of the frigate. They judiciously applied their retro rockets to gently bring their ships against the hull and energize their electromagnetic pads to hold them to the frigate.

  After about twenty minutes, the fleet began to move. The Tenacious moved out ahead of the fleet and then began to coast. As the ship ran along the fringe of the asteroid field it increased the radius of its shields, causing asteroids to be moved and ricochet off of each other. The Tenacious sent a signal to the flagship. The encrypted signal was the sign for the two fighter pilots to release from the frigate and move into the asteroid field. The sensors on the Tenacious could barely pick out the two small fighters from the rubble in the asteroid field. Angie and Kelly moved into a small pocket in the side of one of the larger, undisturbed asteroids and settled in to wait.

  * * * * *

  “Shadow Warrior, the human fleet is moving. Their small courier vessels returned to their home ships. The two escort ships on the port side of the fleet are bounding past one another, scanning into the asteroid field. They lack discipline, Shadow Warrior. See how their shields extend into the asteroid field and disturb the asteroids. My Pride Mother could track their movements.”

  “Move us closer. The clutter from their disturbance of the asteroid field will confuse their sensors and cover our movement. Let us see how close we c
an get. Monitor them closely. Tell me when you even think they have detected us. Have your recorders operating at maximum efficiency. We must glean as much information as possible during this opportunity. What we are doing will be dangerous, but with danger comes high glory. Long live the Empire!”

  “Long live the Empire!”

  * * * * *

  Angie and Kelly had extended their sensor probes out until they rested against each other’s ship. This gave them a rudimentary and un-interceptable communications means. Their sensors picked up the vibrations of each other’s voices and translated it into speech.

  “Have you detected anything, Kelly?”

  “No. I have all the ship’s passive sensors scanning as far as possible, but nothing yet. Wanda, do you detect anything?”

  “No Kelly, I detect no sign of the K’Rang ship. I will inform you the second I do.”

  An hour passed by and then six more. Kelly’s back itched in a spot that he could not reach. The blackness of space hung before him punctuated by only a few far stars. Kelly rubbed his back against the seat trying to scratch his itch.

  “Say, Angie, can you come over here and scratch my back? There is a spot right between my shoulder blades that itches like crazy.”

  “Yeah, hang on, I’ll be right over.”

  Wanda broke in. “Kelly, perhaps I can help.”

  “Yeah, right, I wish.”

  “No, I can help. Lean forward a little.”

  As Kelly leaned forward he could hear the seat adjust behind him.

  “Lean back, Kelly, and rub against the seat.”

  Kelly leaned back and found a bump in the seat right between his shoulder blades. The relief was instantaneous and felt wonderful.

  “Thank you, Wanda, that feels great. You can return the seat to normal now.”

  “You are welco... Kelly, we have company. I am detecting something blocking stars directly in front of us. It is moving very slowly. I do not have enough of a sensor lock to be able to tell you anything about it, but it is out there, dead ahead.”

  “Angie, did you hear that?”

  “I heard it. I don’t see anything yet. Try not to lose contact with it.”

  “I see it. At least, I see where it was. I just had a star blink on and one blink off. I’m adding all that I have into the targeting computer. Once we fire up, I'll transmit it to you.”

  “I think I see it, too. I can’t get a sensor lock, either. I get the impression it is only a few hundred kilometers out from us, but that is just a guess.”

  Angie and Kelly spent another hour waiting. Their sensor picture of the K’Rang ship slowly fleshed out. Each additional detection of its movement added a bit more information. After another hour, they had enough information to determine that it was one of the smaller scout ships and not one of the larger and better-armed ships. After yet another hour, the scout had passed out of sight of their sensor and about 20 thousand kilometers past their current position. To maintain their contact, they would have to move out from the pocket on the asteroid. If they used only their retro thrusters, chances were good that the scout would not detect them.

  * * * * *

  “Shadow Warrior, we are approaching 175,000 kilometers from the frontier. We are within 80,000 kilometers of the human fleet. I have no indication that we have been detected. The asteroid debris from their gunnery exercise is obscuring my sensors somewhat. I have set maximum sensitivity to our forward sensors. The data I am collecting is of very high quality. I am detecting pulse cannons, energy beams, and particle cannons. We have suspected the humans had developed and fielded particle cannons, but this is the first confirmation of that. We have done well, Shadow Warrior; we should retreat behind the frontier now.”

  “Shadow Technician, I wish to record some of their tactics as well. Can you see how their battle cruisers form a shield on the enemy side of the carrier? Do you see the way the large escort ships use their pulse cannon turrets to destroy the bits of asteroid coming at the fleet from the field? Look there. One of the small escorts is using a tractor beam to pick out asteroids and hurl them into the fleet. Even their supply ships have pulse turrets. We must get closer to gain as much of this data as possible.”

  “Shadow Warrior, this data will do us no good if the enemy discovers our presence. This type of information is only useful if the enemy does not know we possess it. I urge you to turn back.”

  K'Tella's ears pointing straight forward and his pupils wide open, he responded, “No, I am moving us forward. Concentrate on gathering information on their tractor beams. Our designers may be able to use this data to make our ships stronger.”

  * * * * *

  Kelly did not want to take a chance of alerting the K’Rang ship, but he and Angie couldn’t stay where they were and still monitor the scout ship’s movement. He came up with an idea.

  “Angie, I think I know how we can change our view point without tipping our hand to the K’Rang. They put those extensions on our engine exhaust cones. If I push my ship back against the asteroid using my retro jets, I think I can move the rock. It won’t be much, but I should be able to move us a few degrees. I need you to monitor for when we get the K’Rang ship back in our sensor field.”

  “Okay, but take it real slow. They may notice something as large as this rock if you move us too fast.”

  “I’ll take it real slow. Now watch for when they come back into view.”

  Kelly slowly applied his front thrusters until he felt the ship touch the rock. He nudged back further until all three exhaust cones were firmly pressed against the back of the indention. He slowly fired a sequence of short retro thrusts to try and determine the feel of the rock and the minimum thrust necessary to slowly spin the rock. After a few minutes he thought he had a feel for it and applied a long burst and stopped. The rock moved ever so slightly. A few more bursts and he had the rock slowly moving in the direction he needed. He let the rock spin and then told Angie, “I need you to back up and do the same as I just did to stop us when we get lined up.”

  “I’ll try. I’m not as comfortable with banging up my ship as you are with yours.”

  Angie backed her ship against the rock and emulated Kelly’s retro thrusts. The rock slowed.

  “Don’t push too hard. We need another ten degrees to be facing right at them. I just have them at the edge of my sensors.”

  “Say when,” she said as she hit the thrusters again.

  “When. Don’t over correct.”

  Angie gave a couple of thruster bursts and the rock slowed to a stop.

  “How’s that?”

  “Great view. I think if we give them another hour, we have them.”

  * * * * *

  “Shadow Warrior, we are at 190,000 km from the frontier. We are 20,000 km from the fleet. I have collected a great deal of data on their tractor beam. Once again, I recommend we retire and deliver our information to our forces.”

  Reluctantly, the Shadow Warrior conceded his point. “Agreed, Shadow Technician, I will hold here. Prepare the data for transmission.”

  * * * * *

  “Kelly,” Wanda announced, “the scout ship has stopped moving. I am detecting some sort of turret rising up from the hull of the scout ship. It appears to be swiveling toward our position.”

  “What? Do you get any indication of a weapon charging up?”

  “No, Kelly, but it is still swiveling in our direction.”

  “Angie, he’s got some sort of turret swiveling in our direction. He may be on to us.”

  “Didn’t that mosquito looking thing have some kind of comms turret on the upper hull?”

  “Yeah, I think it did. If he’s stopped moving and is getting his comms turret pointing back our way, he must be getting ready to send any data he collected back to his forces. I say we jump him. Maybe we can stop him from getting his data home.”

  “I agree, fire up and let’s go get him.”

  Angie fired her main engines and blasted out of the hole in the rock. Kelly follo
wed close behind. As they cleared the asteroid field, the magnetic interference on their sensors cleared. The image of the scout ship appeared in high resolution on their screens. They were looking at one of the K’Rang mosquito ships about 40,000 km in front of them. They moved their throttles beyond the detent to give them maximum speed to close the gap quickly. It would only be a few seconds and they would be on them.

  * * * * *

  “Shadow Warrior, our data will be ready to transmit in 15 seconds. The communications turret is deployed and lined up with our relay satellite near the frontier.”

  The Shadow Technician looked down at his control panel and saw the orange light come on and waited for it to progress to red. With the large amount of data they had collected it would take a while. As he waited he returned his sensors from emphasis on front coverage to all around coverage. A bright spot appeared instantly directly behind them. It resolved quickly to indicate two human interceptors closing on them at a high rate of speed.

  “Shadow Warrior, two human interceptor ships in-spiral of us at 30,000 km and closing fast! Evasive maneuvers now!”

  After a split second’s hesitation to look at the sensor scope, the Shadow Warrior rotated the ship 90 degrees and applied full power. This caused their ship to shoot upward perpendicular to the human ships approach. He looked over his shoulder at the technician and said, “Send our data, now!”

  “Shadow Warrior, it will require a few more seconds to compress and be ready to send.” He looked down at his instruments and said, “It will be 20 more seconds before the data can be sent.”

  “Shadow Technician, send the data as soon as it is ready. Do not ask for permission. Just send it. We must get that data back to the home world.”

  * * * * *