by Darold Higa
But the sacrifice was important. Ellen knew that this move forced the Narthian fleet to remain in formation or risk Huffington slipping past the first assault wave and attacking its relatively thin-skinned carriers. The datatank visual was extrapolated from automated battle telemetry reports broadcast by every ship in the fleet and animated every detail of the battle that was raging far away. It would take hours for light of the battle to reach the 7th fleet, but through bubblespace communications, the battle was being relayed almost as it happened. Huffington was taking advantage of the relative speeds of two fleets. Borrowing from Linodan, it looks like he had pre-launched all of his missiles, forming a small cloud in front of his picket line. As the first few ships decelerated, the missiles activated. The missiles were mixed with real mines, and the improvised minefield ravaged the leading edge of the Narthian attack fleet. In mere seconds several hundred fast attack cruisers had vanished. The thousands that remained plowed forward, closing in on the thin lines of the 101st.
Ellen held her breath: next came the fighters. Weaving in and out of the Narthian fleet, the fighters attached themselves to the approaching fleet like a swarm of insects. Most of the initial Narthian attack wave consisted of cruisers and battleships, but even the capital ship-heavy attackers had a fighter screen. Explosions ripped across the fleet as the battle turned into thousands of small dogfights. Fighter pilots on both sides skillfully maneuvered themselves to destroy each other, locked in a deadly waltz lit by the explosions of laser beams, e-mag cannons and missiles. Any gaps left by destroyed ships in the Narthian attack line were rapidly filled. The endless stream of ships of the initial attack wave had been stung, but continued undaunted.
As the fighter combat waned, both fleets entered direct weapons range. Ellen adjusted her datatank controls to move about the battle space as the two fleets collided. The datatank lit up as beams of energy lanced out from each ship, filling the space between the fleets with an almost solid bar of light. The Narthian first wave consisted of ships that were mostly beam weapon ships, either turreted or spinal mount fusion cannon or lasers. At this range, the overwhelming superiority in numbers of the Narthian fleet was evident. An intelligence AI somewhere in the fleet had now tagged the lead Narthian ships as Banner Green, 3rd and 9th Shock Fleets. The thinly spread Renspan fleet offered very little resistance against the massive firepower of the Banner Green Shock Fleets as the Renspan formations began to disintegrate under the crushing barrage of energy weapons. One by one, ships of the 101st Fleet disappeared. As the fleets crossed each other, the final blows came with the short range e-mag cannons. As the ships were torn apart, Ellen thought about the hundreds or even thousands of her comrades lost to the empty depths of space. She clenched her fists, and continued to watch.
Despite the casualties inflicted by the 101st, the giant swarm kept moving towards Newport. In a matter of minutes the 101st Fleet ceased to exist, and the datatank emotionlessly removed the fleet icon. All told the 101st had exacted several thousand ships from the Narthian forces before being annihilated. Ellen whispered the one word transmission that had managed to make it from Admiral Huffington before the battle. “Thermopylae.” She did a salute to the datatank. The fleet signal from Linodan arrived signaling that it was time for her own battle. Fighting back a tear, she clenched her teeth and slammed her fist into the battlestation alarm.
Alicia had deliberately blocked out the battle raging between the 101st Fleet and the Narthians so that she could concentrate on her own fight. Alicia had no idea if her deception was working. All her sensors, plus the remnants of the Renspan sensornet that was still transmitting reliable intelligence suggested that the Narthian fleet hadn’t moved a centimeter. They had formed a three-dimensional wall between her combined fleet and the HyNet gate. She glanced at the mission control clock. If things had worked as planned, missiles from her first wave were about to hit the enemy flank. At these speeds, and with so many bubblespace fields in close proximity, extended communications was difficult. She relied on the automated data streaming from her ships to her datatank, knowing that they gave her information long before her visible light sensors could. Looking at her auxiliary datatank she could see the computer projection of her actual fleet disposition. Most of her fast attack craft had split off from the fleet, forming the head of a stretched figure eight, diagonal to the opposing fleet. She glanced at the datatank that was showing bubblespace data. The profile of the fleet still showed a round sphere, at least a few minutes from contact. The new powerful computer cores had paid off, without the upgrade she was pretty sure the complex math required to maintain this deception was impossible.
Alicia sounded battlestations. Reports began to stream in from the lead edge of the fleet. Alicia slumped back into her seat. In these kinds of fleet actions, once fighting went ship to ship, there was little for a fleet commander to do. She sat back and watched as the surprised Narthian fleet suddenly found 3,000 ships appear out of nowhere at the flank of their wall formation, exactly where their sensors told them was empty space.
∆ ∆ ∆
“Admiral Tseng, the Northeastern flank is under heavy fire! Whitney Fleet is reporting heavy damage.” Tseng looked at his datatank. The datatank still showed the enemy fleet right in front of him, minutes away from contact. “Confirm those reports!” he barked to his CIC crew. Intelligence had warned him that Admiral Linodan was a clever adversary not to be underestimated. Back on Luna the invasion had been planned down to the smallest detail, based on simulated fleet movements. As Tseng had feared, the enemy was not responding as simulated. Instead of waiting for a confirmation of something that he felt was true, he ordered his fleet to change formation. Realizing that somehow the Spincoran Princess had figured out a way to deceive bubblespace sensors, he used his datatank to sketch out a mental picture of the fleet engagement.
“Whitney Fleet estimates that they are engaging 3000 ships of the 7th Fleet and Linodan Fleet.”
Tseng did some quick mental calculations and adjusted the image in the datatank. “Order Kilimanjaro Fleet and Himalayas Fleet to move here and here,” marking points in the datatank. For whatever reason, he faced a large force attacking his flanks. If he didn’t pivot his remaining fleets he would be destroyed piecemeal.
“Admiral Won acknowledges orders and is moving Himalayas Fleet into position.”
Tseng nodded as one of his fleets slowly wheeled to face the attacker. Since the simulations hadn’t anticipated such a large force going after the HyNet gate, his fleets, which were composed of older, slower ships, could only sluggishly respond to his orders. Still, Himalayas Fleet would now have a chance to defend itself properly.
“Admiral Chien is saying that she is about to engage the bulk of the enemy fleet and Kilimanjaro Fleet refuses to acknowledge the new orders.”
“Tell her to turn off her bubblespace sensors and follow orders!”
“Admiral Chien wants to communicate with you sir.”
“Put her through.” Frustrated, Tseng explained to his Admiral the need to wheel her fleet. His annoyance was only compounded by the fact that his flag was in the Kilimanjaro Fleet, which only magnified his agitation. As the seconds ticked by and visual sensors confirmed that the bubblespace sensors were indeed wrong, Admiral Chien slowly relented. Too slowly, thought Tseng.
∆ ∆ ∆
Rick Blanchard let out a low whistle. Since the computer core was tightly integrated with the CIC display system, he was monitoring all of the screens in the CIC. He had been curious what the Admiral had been up to, and now he got a glimpse at what she had used all that processing power for. The concept behind the Admiral’s deception was simple, but the math required to execute this trick was not. Still, the plan was ingenious, and it took more than a casual understanding of bubblespace sensors to pull it off.
Rick had access to a vast depository of human knowledge while in his datatank, and looked up references as he deciphered what Admiral Linodan had done. Faster than light travel within a star
system made the ability to detect enemy movements vital to modern space combat. The only way this could be done without remote sensors broadcasting visual information via faster than light transponders was the use of bubblespace sensor technology. Bubblespace was the nickname for the deformation of space-time that made faster than light travel possible. While there had been three generations of FTL drive systems using very different technologies, the effects that these drives had on space-time were similar. As a result these engine signatures could be detected by examining changes in the fabric of space-time. Rick knew from his work on the sensor suite and intelligence AI work that these sensors were range dependent. In order to make any kind of detection at range required large disturbances to space time fabric.
The result of this imprecision in bubblespace sensors meant that smaller groups of ships were much more difficult to detect, which had allowed the Linodan Fleet to sneak her strike force so close to the 7th Fleet during the mock battle with Admiral Huffington. By contrast the large space time distortion profiles created by Banner Blue and Banner Green fleet had given over an hour of warning time to the defenders of Newport. To fool the fleet at the HyNet gate, the deception was different, but the basic physics were the same. The Admiral had tasked the computer with creating a complex set of maneuvers that kept the average space time distortion centered around a fixed point while her ships had actually formed two offset groups balanced around the center. The result was the figure eight formation that Rick saw in the telemetry data based datatank view. The commander of the Narthian fleet on the other hand would see a single group instead of two offset groups in front and behind the mass. Carrying off this trick had taxed the computer cores of the fleet heavily, and would not have been possible without the newly installed Newport Cybernetics cores. Rick was pretty proud of the AI cores he and his team had built. The incredible computational ability the cores provided seemed to be paying off. Rick opened another bottle of soda and watched the battle unfold from his surround datatank deep in the heart of the ship.
Knowing that she would have to fight her way through three smaller Narthian fleets, Linodan had ordered that her fleet not pre-launch missiles. Instead, her fleet opened up with a standard double volley of missiles. A swarm of hyperdrive-propelled missiles streaked towards the unsuspecting enemy fleet. With no time to launch interceptors, the volley smashed into the fleet from the flank like the impact of a great hammer. Watching her datatank, Alicia winced as the Narthian fleet turned into a sea of missile explosions. Nearly a thousand ships were eliminated in a matter of seconds. By the time the fighters closed to engagement range, it was obvious that the volley had decimated Banner Green McKinley Fleet. The fighters darted about the broken fleet, picking off any ships that had managed to escape damage by the missile barrage. By the time Linodan and Caldwell’s combined fleet had closed to beam weapon range, Fleet McKinley had been completely destroyed.
Pushing forward, the combined fleets launched a second missile barrage, this time targeting Himalayas Fleet. Linodan was a bit surprised that Himalayas Fleet appeared to have anticipated her movements and were desperately wheeling around to deploy maximum firepower against her. With the advantage of surprise lost, the second missile barrage was not nearly as effective as the barrage that destroyed most of the McKinley Fleet. The return volley was feeble however, since most of the Narthian ships were still attempting to maneuver into position from a dead stop. A few ships that were able to get into firing position launched their long-range hyperdrive missiles at the lead of Linodan fleet, but the attack was out of formation. Her missile defense picket forces were able to eliminate the small, scattered waves of Narthian missiles.
The difference in relative speeds still played to Alicia’s advantage as her fighters closed in on the Himalayas fleet. Himalayas Fleet lacked heavy carriers, and the thin fighter screen was easy prey for her fighter forces. Himalayas Fleet put up a valiant defense against the allied fighters, but without adequate fighter cover, the fighters could target the cruisers and battleships, disabling a large portion of Himalayas Fleet’s firepower. Linodan’s capital ships, which had more beam weapons than Caldwell’s fleet, took the lead and swept through the remaining Himalayas Fleet, pounding the ships with relentless fire.
Alicia looked at her fleet status board. At a cost of a few dozen ships, she had managed to sink or disable at least 5,000 Narthian vessels. McKinley Fleet and Himalayas Fleet had been reduced to a few hundred ships that were fleeing the combat area under a white flag. The remaining ships of her fleet had finally caught up with the attack fleet, giving the Linodan Fleet and 7th Fleet a combined ship strength of 6,000 ships, along with the thousand or so transport ships. All that remained between her and the HyNet gate were 2,500 ships of Kilimanjaro Fleet. Seeing that her fighters were low on fuel and ammunition, she authorized her carrier fleet commanders to begin recalling the fighters. The next nearest Narthian fleet was at least two hours away, giving her more than enough time for a quick refit before the final encounter. Alicia watched her carriers carefully, making sure that they rotated their refit in waves, not willing to be caught by the same mistake she had exploited in training.
Admiral Tseng looked bitterly at the Linodan Fleet in his datatank. They were close enough now for him to have confirmation with multiple sensors on her exact fleet location. The deception with the bubblespace sensors was obviously temporary, since all of the sensor readings now agreed with each other. He snorted to himself. He had very few options, aside from waiting for the attack that he knew would come as soon as Linodan had reloaded and refitted her fighters. He could try and attack while the fighter screen was noticeably reduced, but it would be quite foolish to charge a fleet three times his size. Even without her fighters, her fleet had more than enough speed and firepower to rip his fleet to shreds. The irony of his situation didn’t escape him. As he watched the rest of the Narthian forces decimate the three fleets sitting in the drydock in orbit around Newport, he found himself in this ludicrous position. He knew that the invasion of Newport was all but over, yet all his forces could offer would be to slow the retreat of the Linodan fleet. Surrendering in the middle of such a momentous victory for the Narthian fleet would also be unacceptable. He knew how high command functioned. If he spared his crew now, chances are his fleet would be tagged for difficult, if not suicidal missions in the future as an opportunity to “redeem” themselves before the Empress. That gave him one last option. Taking a few moments to assemble the plan on the datatank, he relayed instructions to his fleet. Admiral Tseng paused. There was a battle from ancient Greek history that had come to mind. It was a story of how a thousand Greek troops had managed to hold a narrow ridge against an army of millions of Persians. It was one of those battles that he had been taught back on Luna at the Naval Academy. He had even participated in a virtual simulation of the battle. Still, it was never associated with any practical lesson about modern space combat aside from the importance of morale. Thermopylae, he thought to himself. His only hope was that the other 3 Narthian Fleets racing to his position could get here in time to make the sacrifice meaningful. He had no desire to share the fate of the Greeks who were eventually annihilated. No, he promised himself, he would do everything possible to avoid becoming a historical footnote to future generations of military students.
Lieutenant Natalenko immediately launched her Hurricane from the launch deck of the Relentless. Running low on fuel and ammunition after two fleet engagements, she knew how important it was to refit. Still, sitting on the flight deck during a battle made her feel insecure. After the simulated victory against the 7th Fleet only a few days ago, she hardly wanted to be the victim of exactly the same maneuver herself. Amy checked her flight status datatank. She was down 2 fighters; LaSalle had been killed by a Narthian fighter defending the Himalaya Fleet, and Petrov’s fighter had been grounded by the flight crew due to heavy damage to his fight control system. She checked the pilot status monitor for Kishimoto, Radek and Romani. The loss of LaSalle had b
een a blow, but everyone was intently focused on the battle at hand. “We’ll all mourn later,” she thought to herself.
Captain Skoboev had informed Natalenko that her priority was to get back into space, and that her specific mission orders would be relayed midflight. Admiral Linodan wanted to take no chances that a Narthian counterattack would catch them with her fighters unable to respond. Skoboev simply directed Natalenko to move her flight into a holding position near the Relentless. She watched as one by one the different flights on the Relentless cycled on and off the flight deck. 30 minutes passed by in an instant as the complex ballet of incoming and outgoing fighters took place. She often marveled at how effortlessly the Relentless AI could handle traffic control. Once, Captain Linodan had ordered drills practicing mid-combat replenishment without AI traffic control. The result was so bad, Natalenko remembered how the Captain came down to the flight control deck herself and ran the drill over and over again. Eventually the crew was able to perform the complex task without the benefit of AI, but it never had the grace that the AI control exhibited. This time however, with the AI in charge, everything ran smoothly.