Solarans 1: The Gift From Aquarii
Page 27
"Wow, we really stepped into it this time. Ok here is what we do. First, park these super ships out in the Grell Oort cloud with a beacon that only our ships can detect. That way we don't have to worry about them until after the invasion of Fair is resolved. Next, I want Paulo, Rosa and Estella on a destroyer bound for Fair within the hour. Warn them what is coming. Give them as much intel about the Grell as you can. Let them know that we Solarans are in pursuit and will try to stop them before the invasion fleet can reach Fair. Let them know some more reinforcements are on the way from Earth. They will rendezvous about five light years out from Fair and should arrive there within a day of your arrival. They will let you know when they are in place. That is a 30 hour trip ahead of you. Godspeed. "
"Thanks Nikolay, I will keep you posted.
"OK, here is how we play this. We have 160 teams of Solarans aboard and all are Type one active. That is a lot of firepower. You each powered up with an 80% to 90% charge before we left. That should be more than enough. Anya and I are going to do an appearance on the flagship and ask for their surrender. They will likely refuse. When that happens, on my signal, I want you to take out the primary arms on the all ships. Each battleship is assigned three Solaran teams. Start by disabling all weapons on the battleships. The carriers are each assigned four teams. Two teams for weapons and two teams to shut down launch capabilities. so do the same for the carriers. Also disable all carrier launch capabilities. After that, work your way down to the smaller vessels. Try to avoid damage to the drives, I would like to be able to salvage these ships if possible. They do not have anything on board that can hurt you. So the tactic to use is to board each vessel and attack from within. Aston and I have been looking over the schematics so we can show you where fire control is located and then where all weapons capable of autonomous fire are located. Use your invisibility and teleport to the various locations within the ship you need to reach. They have no means to detect you in invisible mode. Leave their communications alone because I want them to be able to talk about their losses and your invulnerability. I do not expect any of this fleet to reach their target destination in a fighting condition. In fact I want them to return to Grell under their own power after being disarmed. I want to leave them with a lasting impression that they are better off staying on their own planet rather than try to take that belonging to someone else. We will overtake them in a bit over four hours and once there we are going to be very busy. Study those schematics and get some rest."
# Five hours later #
"Thanks Aston, I appreciate that, doesn't do a lot for the butterflies though. Anya are you ready?"
"Yes my love, this will be fun."
"Ok then here we go." Hand in hand they teleported to the bridge of the flag ship in visible mode and waited until the Captain reacted.
When the Captain realized that his eyes were not playing tricks on him, he shouted, "Intruders, shoot them." Several of his crew fired hand energy weapons at the pair to no avail.
Nikolay whispered to Anya, "Next thing you know he will ask who we are and how did we get here. That's the old 'shoot them dead and then ask questions,' trick."
The Captain blustered,
Almost immediately reports arrived from other ships that they were under attack from invisible sources within. In 30 minutes all battleships and all carriers reported that all of their weapons were disabled. Fire controls were blobs of melted plastic, wiring and steel. Interestingly there were no reports of injury except from friendly fire. The carriers reported that all of their bays had been locked down and were inoperable. Then the reports started coming in from the destroyers that their weapons were disabled and they could not launch fighters because all launch mechanisms were disabled.
He did so and all ships stopped.
He gave the order and the Grell ships reversed course and headed for home.
# An hour later #
Chapter 25 - Restructuring
# Earth Orbit on the Solaran Ship Aston #
# Friday, August 12 #
Collum had pointed out that as the 71 ships that brought the Lotans to the Sol system were emptied to the bases on Luna and to the ships of the growing fleet, they could be repurposed. These ships were roughly the size of the battleships but were designed to carry almost three times as many people. Finally it was decided to let a team of engineers play with the schematics of the vessel to see what they could come up with. The group came up with three separate plans for the ships including an exploratory ship, a special purpose equipment transport, and a population mover.
The exploratory ship would have every known scanning device, scores of s
cientific labs, every thing that they could think of that would be useful on an extended exploration. They planned to make 20 such conversions.
The special purpose equipment transport was to be capable of transporting something as large as a carrier or several battleships. Five of these conversions were anticipated.
The population mover would be a vessel loaded with stasis units. Each vessel would hold ten million stasis units with automated monitoring of each unit to assure viability. Ten conversions were anticipated.
The remaining ships would be reserved in their current structure until it was decided where the need might lie.
There was also a suggestion for a new task force structure. The new structure would include a battle fleet task force, a defensive task force, an exploratory task force and a reconstruction task force.
Since the fleet had a number of fighter/gunships and the Solarans had essentially usurped that function there was some ongoing discussion about whether to retain that vessel. That was a decision that would be placed on hold for the time being.
The battle fleet task force would have six battleships, three carriers and a full complement of auxiliaries. The carrier auxiliaries were typically comprised of 20 destroyers, 20 scout ships, 100 fighter/gunships and 100 troop/shuttle ships. The battleship auxiliaries typically contained two destroyers, five scout ships, 10 fighter/gunship and 10 troop/shuttle ships. Full complement for a battle fleet task force was 59,130 crew, including a minimum of 3,000 Solarans. This latter number was likely to be higher since other crew member functions would typically be filled by Solarans. This task force is intended to be the primary response unit to incursions from invaders.
A defensive task force would have two battleships and one carrier and a full complement of auxiliaries. Auxiliary make up is the same per carrier or battleship as noted for a battle fleet task force. Full complement for a defense task force was 19,710 crew, including a minimum of 1000 Solarans.
The exploratory task force would have one exploration ship and one battleship with auxiliaries. Full complement for an exploration task force was 8,000 crew, including a minimum of 1000 Solarans.
The reconstruction task force would have a minimum of 3 battleships and a complement of other ships as needed. Crew would be normal for a battleship plus additional Solarans since the amount of heavy moving would be comparatively large.
Chapter 26 - Aftermath
# Task Force A Flagship en route to Grell #
# Friday evening, August 12 #
Nikolay chuckled and told him what had happened in detail.
Nikolay left a squadron of destroyers from one of the carriers to escort the Grell fleet back to Grell. He left word that the returning battleships were to pick up the super ships left in the Oort cloud and return with them to orbit about Grell.
Aston gave Nikolay the coordinates,
Nikolay and Anya teleported to the office of the Leader in their visible form.