Shaitans didn’t have the harvester technology, and had no conception of refueling on the fly. Shaitan ships refueled in remote locations either by harvesting from a gas giant, as their ship had done on Saturn, or by harvesting water from a comet like the Watering Hole. The hydrogen from the water was extracted and processed just like the hydrogen from a gas giant to get Deuterium and Tritium.
The harvesting of a gas giant was preferable because it was much faster and energy efficient compared to harvesting water from a comet. The Warmaster expected the human ships to be critically low on fuel as Shaitan warships would have been after making such a long journey.
He assumed that the human ships were going to harvest the comet to refuel themselves. It was perfectly logical to go to a comet to refuel rather than come to Alpha Shaitan gas giant to refuel for the enemy, even though it is slower. The Shaitan fleet would not have let the enemy refuel over the gas giant.
The Warmaster further assumed that just like the Shaitan technology the humans refueling from the comet would be painfully slow, and a delay of less than 3 cycles would not make any substantial difference to the amount of fuel the human ships would be able to harvest and add to their tanks. It was worthwhile to spend that time and increase his fleet strength from 5 to 6.
The Warmaster would confront the human fleet at the Watering Hole. If the human fleet decide to run, then they would be denied the chance to refuel at the only alternative they had close to the Alpha Shaitan system. That would force the human fleet to either get stranded without fuel or force them to do something foolish.
If the humans decide to stand and fight, that was an equally fine as far as the Warmaster was concerned. He had superior numbers compared to the humans, and even if the humans somehow managed to destroy each and every one of his 6 ships, as long as the Shaitan managed to destroy all the 4 human ships, it was a perfectly acceptable outcome to the Warmaster.
He would have performed his primary duty of defending the home world from this invasion. More ships could be built and more Warmasters would come forth in the future. The best part about the strategy as far as the Warmaster was concerned was that the entire battle took place outside the Alpha Shaitan system, exposing no further infrastructure of the home world to risk.
The Warmaster was wrong on many counts. Although the Avenger and Kali were low on fuel having done more maneuvers, and they did receive fuel transfer from the Redeemer and Genghis Khan to equalize the tanks of all the ships, none of the human ships were critically low on fuel. As long as the harvester on an Avenger class ship worked, it could never be stranded and would rarely be critically low on fuel if it has been moving through space.
The Warmaster was also wrong about the use of the water and its criticality to the human ships. The water was being taken on simply to top up the emergency acceleration tanks of Hydrogen and oxygen, which might be needed for the coming battle. The emergency acceleration tanks were half full in any case so there was no desperation in filling them up either. Consequently it took far less time to fill water than the Warmaster had anticipated the humans would take.
The first six hours after meeting up at the Watering Hole went in transfer of fusion fuel between the ships. The next 12 hours went into maneuvering and holding a steady position near the comet, then attaching a special circulating hose to the surface ice a hundred meters away. The internally heated hose melted water and pumped it in to fill the tanks.
The only reason filling water took 12 hours instead of 6 was because the captains were extra careful. They had practiced this process in Earth orbit using artificially made comet chunks, basically ice mixed with all kind of organic impurities and silica. However this was the first time they were doing the actual thing on a real life comet. In fact this was the first time that a human ship was extracting any kind of natural resource for operational use from a space body.
Within 18 hours, the four ships of what was officially designated as the 5th Fleet were united and ready for battle. The 5th Fleet used the rest of the 10 days or just less than 3 cycles, which the enemy Warmaster had graciously granted them in preparing for the battle, which the Warmaster so desired. The extra time granted to the 5th fleet would however ensure that the battle was fought on the terms of the humans.
One of the innovative gadgets on an Avenger class ship was the ‘Active Decoy’. It was really not a very high tech gadget by the standards of the early 22nd century, but it was included for the first time in the arsenal of the Avenger class ship because for the first time, bigger ships of this class had enough extra weight allowance to accommodate such a device without having to skimp on any of the critical stuff that a ship might need.
Put simply such a gadget was way low in the priority of the Navy due to the estimated weight and the probable benefits it could bring to a battle. The Avenger class ship with its relatively generous weight allowance had two of these ‘Active Decoy’ devices attached to their exterior. The Active Decoy was the size of a family 8 seating van, and weighed about 6 tons. It was attached to the exterior hull of the ship, and could be armed and released on demand anytime.
Ships detect each other through electronic sensors only. Abundant light is a rarity in space. The heart of the solar system is one of those rare places, and even within the solar system, unless two ships are a few hundred kilometers apart or less, visual observations, even through a telescope would not yield too much visual details about a ship. The ship would be visible only as a blob few pixels wide.
Consequently a decoy for a ship need not look anything like a ship. All it needs to mimic is the sensor and scanner signatures of a ship to be able to fool another ship. There is neither the need to match the volume of a ship, nor the weight of a ship for a decoy to be successful.
All that a ship observes is a profile of another ship, from which there is no direct way to measure the volume and hence the size, unless the other ship turns to present multiple facets of its profile. Similarly there is no direct way to measure the mass of a ship being observed from far. The mass of a ship is usually inferred from the acceleration of the ship compared to the visible vigor of its thrust.
The Active Decoy devoted a large part of its volume to house an elaborate folding mechanism, which when unfolded in various configurations could present the profile of an Avenger class ship’s aft and port sides. The folding mechanism was not big enough to present a sideways profile, but that was generally not required. The profile presented would not have fooled anyone looking at it close up in light. It looked nothing like the profile of a ship.
However if the picture were to be reduced to just a hundred pixels, then it would start looking like an Avenger class ship. This was the view that can be expected at best from another ship’s telescope a few thousand kilometers away, assuming there was light. Where the fold out mechanism really excelled was in reflecting radar and infrared profile, the EM spectrum most commonly used to detect a cold ship. It replicated the skin coat of a ship, and gave an almost exact replica of the signature of an Avenger class ship.
The decoy could mimic an avenger class ship when it was hot as well. That is when the ship was in active acceleration mode burning its engines. A large part of the mass of the decoy was dedicated to fuel. The decoy had a small chemical rocket that could accelerate the relatively light decoy at the same rate of acceleration that an Avenger class ship using its ion plasma thrusters. The rocket fuel would last only a few hours depending on how hard it was accelerated, but it would keep up the illusion of a moving ship.
To make the illusion complete however, a separate type of fuel was burnt simultaneously, which provided almost no thrust but expelled heat and light almost similar in spectral analysis to that expelled by the 8 ion plasma engines of Avenger class ship. This was the trickiest part of the entire exercise. It is almost impossible to replicate the exact spectral signature of one process using another.
That is the reason scientists and the military use spectral analysis as a reliable measure of chemical
composition. The R&D labs had spent almost all their time in the development of this one piece of deception while designing the decoy. Trace amounts of over 43 different elements were added to the basic Helium-4 ion plasma to mimic the spectral signature of the engines.
It was accurate to an extent of nearly 99%, but if seen very carefully, human spectrographs could make out the discrepancy. If there was any piece of equipment, that might give away the game for the decoy, it would be the ion plasma mimic.
The Active Decoy had been tested in the solar system on many unsuspecting USC captains and crews, both as a test of their alertness as well as to measure the efficacy in a real life situation, when a ship had no reason to suspect anything. Only one crew had ever reported the discrepancy out of almost 25 crews so tested. The assumption was that if the decoy managed to fool human captains and crew, it should be able to do the same to the Shaitans. That theory was about to be put to the test.
The Shaitan fleet had started slowing down in anticipation of the coming confrontation with the human fleet at the Watering Hole. Standard space combat doctrine said that it was a good idea to approach a stationary enemy fleet at high speed if the enemy fleet was located out in the open with no object nearby, behind which the enemy fleet could take cover.
The speed imparted to the missiles of the attacking fleet gave them an advantage over the stationary fleet. This was what had been exploited by human fleet during the opening round of the attack on Alpha Shaitan. The same doctrine also said that it was a bad idea to approach a stationary enemy fleet at high speed if the enemy fleet was near an object behind which it could take cover at a short notice.
In fact Admiral Dar had several alternative attack plans in case the Shaitan fleet had chosen to make their stand near one of the moons of Alpha Shaitan, or near Alpha Shaitan itself. If the enemy can quickly duck for cover behind a large object, then the speed of the approaching fleet becomes a liability instead of an asset.
The missiles launched by the attacking fleet would be at too high a speed to turn and go behind the object where the enemy fleet has taken cover. At the same time the enemy would be able to launch missile safely from behind their cover at the very last moment, giving very little time for the approaching fleet to evade or shoot down those missiles. The high speed of the approaching fleet would work against it.
The Shaitan fleet seemed to be following the same space warfare doctrine. They had started slowing down in the last few days, and were most probably planning to confront the human fleet at a very low speed, if not aiming to come to a complete halt before they reached the human fleet.
The million dollar question was this – would the Shaitan admiral follow the doctrine to the Tee? If he was given a choice of the human fleet far away from an object behind which it could hide, would the Shaitan admiral stop decelerating and even start accelerating if the human fleet were to start advancing towards the Shaitan fleet? There was money riding on this between Admiral Dar and Capt. Brogan.
The ships of the 5th fleet had to do their disappearing act one by one behind the comet. That would arouse minimum suspicion. The Genghis Khan and Kali were behind the comet to begin with, parked close to each other. The Genghis Khan had transferred some of its fuel to Kali, and then both of them had topped up their water supply from the comet.
Kali was the first to release its decoy system. The decoy unfolded itself and went into active mode. It slowly turned round the comet and parked itself close to the Redeemer and the Avenger. Genghis Khan was next to release its decoy, which did the same thing and went and parked next to the Redeemer and the Avenger. While the second of the decoy was parking itself, the Redeemer turned round and went behind the comet, and released its decoy. Last was the turn of the Avenger.
In five minutes four decoys were parked in front of the comet in full view of the approaching Shaitans. Then on cue, all the four decoys accelerated forward together towards the approaching Shaitan fleet. The acceleration had been programmed at 60% of the maximum to give the impression that the human fleet was rushing at high acceleration, and yet at the same time stretch out the available fuel to maintain the illusion as long as possible.
Even with that measure, the fuel onboard the decoys was expected to last 4 hours or so. After that the decoys would stop accelerating, and to be consistent, the ion plasma emitter would also shut down. At that point, if the Shaitans had bought the ploy, then they would have a very confused admiral, who would wonder why the humans had stopped accelerating.
Within 10 minutes of the decoys starting to accelerate ahead, the Shaitan fleet stopped its deceleration. The 5th fleet hidden behind the comet were watching the proceedings through two small spy probes floating at some distance on either side of the comet. The Shaitan fleet was many days away, and as such there was no imminent danger of combat, so the crew of the 5th fleet were not in their combat suits.
Admiral Dar looked through the window of his Flag Bridge and connected to Capt. Brogan on a private channel. “Alright. Time to pay up Captain.” He said with a broad smile.
Capt. Brogan looked up from his captain’s chair and said hopefully. “Only half the wager has been won Admiral. If you notice they have not started accelerating yet. Perhaps the Shaitan admiral is just making up his mind and put a hold on the deceleration. He may yet decide to continue to slow down. My wager is not completely lost yet Admiral.”
“Ah… the eternal optimism of the young! So be it captain. We shall wait to see the outcome, although I would not hold out too much hope if I were you. I have a gut feeling about this Shaitan admiral. He is aggressive, but more importantly, he is desperate. He wants to wipe out our fleet at any cost. Even at the cost of his entire fleet. That is what I would be thinking if I was in his position.” Admiral Dar said with a smile and cut the line.
Those words made a cold shiver run down Capt. Brogan’s spine. He wondered what was there to be smiling about facing an enemy that was desperate enough to be willing to sacrifice itself in order to wipe them out. Capt. Brogan would learn over time from Admiral Dar, just like Admiral Dar had learnt from his mentors Admiral Fabi Kalinin and Admiral Daniel Cloutier – desperation sometimes brought out the best in an enemy, but more often it just made them commit mistakes.
It got confirmed that the Shaitan fleet had bought the fake decoys some four hours later. The decoys ran out of fuel and went into cruise mode, emulating the profile of ships that were simply cruising without their engines but with their internal lights turned on. It was at this time that the Shaitan fleet started accelerating towards the decoys.
“Pay up young man. There is no more point ignoring the inevitable conclusion. You have lost the wager!” Admiral Dar said with a taunting tone over the private line.
Capt. Brogan walked over to the Flag Bridge, where Admiral Dar was alone. He was carrying a duffel bag, which he placed on the small desk in front of the Admiral’s chair. “Wager conceded gladly Admiral. For such a good news, I would be happy to lose a hundred such wagers.” Capt. Brogan opened the duffel bag and took out the bottle of Scotch whisky.
“There you go sir. Johnny Walker Blue label, vintage 2031. The absolutely best aged Scotch you can get in the world for love or money. It must have cost my foster dad a king’s ransom. It is part of the ‘Tuck box’ he gave me as a parting gift for the journey. He was a great man, as you know sir. I am going to miss him.” Daniel said a bit sadly.
“Yes that he was. I have known your foster father all my working life captain. He is a legend in space administration circles, and one of the first people to fight the Shaitans. I am sorry about your loss. It happened recently didn’t it? I read about it in one of the routine dispatch circulars.” Admiral Dar asked.
“Yes, it happened 6 months ago. It was Alzheimer’s. He was 96, but he had led a happy, fruitful and a very successful life, so there is nothing to mourn. I celebrate his life every day. He shaped me to be the man I am today Admiral, and for that I will be eternally thankful to him.” Capt. Brogan said.
“So we need to raise a toast to his life don’t we?” Admiral Dar said, as he started opening the bottle.
“Just out of curiosity sir… I mean… like… aren’t Muslims like… not supposed to drink alcohol and stuff sir? I mean I have seen you pray regularly, so I guessed like… you would be religious and stuff…” Capt. Brogan said hesitantly.
Hamid Dar gave a hearty laugh. “Muslims are not supposed to gamble and place a wager either captain. I guess I will cross that bridge on judgment day. For now I am hoping that Allah will overlook my small indiscretions given that I am fighting for His cause.” He handed a tumbler to Capt. Brogan, raised a toast and took a swig of his drink.
“Ah… the very finest of Scotch ever made. Thank you captain for this treat. The Brits taught us Indians about Scotch whisky. Now we love it so much that we consume many times more Scotch in India than they do in the entire UK. Some say that Indians consume more Scotch than is made in Scotland. Go figure!” Admiral Dar said in good humor. The two men continued their conversation in happy ‘spirits’ for the rest of the evening.
Only after the records of this battle were hacked on Jehannum would the two men enjoying an evening of fellowship come to know the real reason why the Shaitan fleet started accelerating the moment the decoys stopped accelerating. The Shaitan Warmaster took the cessation of thrust from the human ships as a confirmation of what he had been suspecting – that the human ships having been forced to abandon their refueling stop after being critically low, had run out of fuel.
The Warmaster intended to take advantage of the situation by engaging in a series of high speed runs on a stationary and stranded human fleet. Each time the Shaitan fleet would be able to engage in a relatively riskless missile run, turning away after sending high speed missiles on their way towards the human fleet. It would be similar to what the human fleet had done in the first encounter to the Shaitan fleet.
Retribution (Shaitan Wars) Page 22