Distant Children_Book 1_Invasion

by Darold Higa

  Alicia watched her datatank as the two massive fleets approached each other. She made sure that all of her missile carriers were in the front of the fleet. She kept her eye on one particular indicator as the fleets closed to missile range. “All ships hold all missiles until my signal.” The fleets closed within the very edge of missile range. Bubblespace erupted as the Narthian fleet unleashed a huge barrage of faster than light bubblespace missiles. The allied fleet’s missile launchers remained silent. Suddenly, one of the indicators in Alicia’s tank began to blink. “All missiles fire!”

  Admiral Choi kept watching the datatank. The delay in the allied missile barrage was troubling. Why had they waited? She scanned the space near both fleets again in her datatank. It seemed that Admiral Linodan was somehow nudging her fleet towards an area of space near one of the Lagrange points of New Boston. It was filled with rocky debris from the time when the system probably was formed, but intelligence and scanners both confirmed that the area appeared harmless. There was no evidence of permanent installations or bubbledrives anywhere in the vicinity. Pausing for a moment, she was suddenly gripped by panic. Her hands deftly flew over the controls to the datatank as she projected past fleet movements over the map of the region. Damn. Damn! “Emergency priority broadcast! All fleet commanders, redeploy to formation gamma three to vector against fighter attack coming from the Lagrange point!”

  Admiral Choi cursed under her breath. She quickly began to reorganize her fleet to face the new threat. General Tsai was absolutely correct. Admiral Linodan was more like a devil than a princess. Admiral Choi gritted her teeth and completely reorganized her strategy for a second time. That devil woman had passed her two carrier fleets by the Lagrange point earlier in the leadup to the battle. Close enough to hide a surprise there.

  “All fighters, commence attack!”

  When the signal came through her environmental suit radio, Amy jumped in surprise. The tension of waiting hour after hour with all of her systems powered down had numbed her, and it took her nearly a full second to emerge from her meditative state. She hit the emergency boot switch, powered up all her systems and sent the wakeup order to the rest of her flight and to her SACVs. Natalenko wing sprung to life, and within seconds had left the shelter of New Boston’s leading Lagrange point and was bearing down on the rear flank of the massive Narthian fleet, bubbledrives straining to accelerate the craft at maximum speed.

  Commodore Cadwell sat observing her datatank intently. With her fleet being the smallest of the four allied battle groups, she had the least management duties as the battle began. Admiral Linodan had once again managed to pull together a strategy that evened what were seemingly impossible odds. The plan itself was simple enough. The goal of the allied fleet was to make sure that the Narthian fleet would engage the allied fleet near the leading Lagrange point of New Boston. This would give the allies additional firepower from New Boston’s defenses. What was the stroke of brilliance was the use of the Lagrange point to hide most of the fighters of the Linodan and Sokolov fleets amongst the rocky debris. All pilots are usually equipped with self-powered life support suits for emergencies. In this case, they were used as the pilot’s primary life support. That made it possible for the fighters to power down their power cores and turn off their bubblespace drives. The result almost completely masked the profile of the fighters. The Narthian commander had chosen to place all of her screening ships and picket forces in a defensive line facing the Allied fleet, that put them on the exact opposite side of where the fighters were lying in wait. The Narthian commander would have to decide between using her interception picket to either face the salvo of Allied missiles now bearing down on her fleet or the fighter swarm closing in from the opposite direction. If she kept the fleet in the existing formation, the fighters could attack the backside of the Narthian formation unabated. On the other hand, if the Narthian picket ships tried to turn and face the fighters, the rest of the fleet would face the onslaught of the missiles without a full interception screen. To make it worse, they would have to hastily coordinate a defense, since they would barely make it in time to intercept the fighters rapidly closing on the fleet. The only thing that troubled Ellen was that the Narthian commander had started reorganizing her fleet before the trap had been sprung. She was used to Admiral Linodan achieving total surprise. Any commander that could anticipate Alicia’s plans would be a dangerous foe.

  Alicia watched the Narthian fleet motions carefully. She had managed to catch the enemy commander off guard, but she had failed to achieve total surprise. Not only had the enemy commander anticipated her trap, but in a matter of minutes she had managed to execute an effective countermeasure. She had left all of her picket ships facing the missile barrage, but she had pulled them back towards the main body of the fleet. She had then moved all of her heavy capital ships to the side facing the oncoming fighter assault. They would be able to absorb the brunt of the attack better than auxiliaries or lighter ships. With such a dangerous opponent, she had only one option left. Once again she warned Rick Blanchard that she would be using a lot of computational power. Against a foe with equal skills, all she could do now was rely on any material advantage her ships could provide.

  Admiral Choi grunted with satisfaction. Her fleets were performing exceptionally well. Task Force Westerlies, Polar Easterlies and Owl, which had previously operated as independent units, now behaved as a single battle formation. Once she had made it clear that she expected her fleet commanders to carry out her orders without question, and with the training and simulations that she had run during the voyage between Newport and New Boston, she had managed to turn the hastily organized New Boston Attack Force Flag into an acceptable fighting force. She noted with pride that her fleets had managed to move into defensive positions even before the leading edge of her missile barrage was reaching the Devil’s Fleet. Again she nodded as the missile barrage broke through the enemy picket line and cut a swath of destruction across the 10th Fleet. Unfortunately that devil had even thought of making sure that her missile carrying fleet would absorb the brunt of the missile barrage, leaving her beam weapon heavy ships intact to carry the fight to the enemy. Now it was their turn to take damage. She watched dispassionately as the unexpectedly large missile barrage hammered through her own defensive picket. Unlike the battles against the unprepared Renspans at Newport, she noted that combat ready Renspan fleets packed a disproportionate number of missile launchers. Renspan fleets also had a lower percentage of unarmed auxiliary vessels. As a result, the missile attack from the Devil’s fleet did far more damage than expected. Since her heavier capital ships in the rear were facing the incoming fighter swarm, her frigates, destroyers and light cruisers took the brunt of the missile hit. Admiral Choi looked at her battle board. The losses were troubling. Also troubling were the number of bubblespace drives detected from the incoming fighter swarm. There were rumors that the Spincorans had developed new fighter technology, but there was so little intelligence that she was unsure what to expect. At the moment it appeared that she was facing a swarm of fighters at least double the size she had anticipated. She had read the intelligence reports from the Battle of Newport, and she couldn’t be sure that this wasn’t the same sort of deception that had caused Admiral Tseng so much trouble. As the first reports came in from the battle, it was clear that there were indeed far more fighters than expected. Admiral Choi clenched her teeth as updates came into her datatank. All she could do was advance towards the enemy and rely on her superior numbers to crush the Devil’s fleet. The time for clever maneuvering was over. All that was left was an all out brawl, and it was a fight that she had every intention of winning.

  Amy banked her Hurricane so hard that her inertial dampeners started to redline. Two Cavaliers from one of the few Narthian escort carriers had managed to get close enough to intercept Natalenko’s flight as it made an attack run on the battlecruiser Kaffekluben. Before she could even react, one of her SACV, Natalenko 2, pulled an impossibly tight high-g man
euver, spun around and unloaded a burst of e-mag fire into the pursuing Cavalier, completely vaporizing the Narthian fighter. Undaunted, the second Cavalier closed in on Amy’s rear. Amy could hear the sound of the alarms buzzing in her ear as the Narthian missile guidance system locked in on her tail. As if in slow motion she watched as the missile began to streak away from her pursuer, getting closer and closer. She released a barrage of countermeasures and entered a high-g evasive maneuver in attempt to shake the missile lock. She braced for the impact. Suddenly there was a blur and then two blinding explosions. Her datatank indicated that Natalenko 3, unable to shoot the missile down with e-mag fire, had maneuvered itself to smash into the pursuing missile to protect her. While that was happening, Natalenko 1 had maneuvered into position to destroy the remaining Cavalier. Now Natalenko 3 tumbled uncontrolled in space, bubbledrive hopelessly ruined. Before she could even think, she called out to Natalenko 3. The response from the wrecked fighter completely caught her off guard.

  “No problem chief, I told you you could count on me! Give them hell for me!” replied a cheerful voice.

  Amy nodded to herself and issued new attack orders to the rest of the flight. Even before the stunned human pilots could respond, Amy’s remaining SACVs had acknowledged her orders. Amy had made up her mind. As soon as she got back to the ship, she would be having a talk with her lead technician. Everyone’s SACVs were going to get names.

  4563 July 06

  Federal Sea Patrol, New Boston 2nd Fleet, RFSSOD Farrington

  Deepsea New Boston

  Free Renspa

  “All hands, secure for emergency blow! Chief, EMBT blow authorized! Hit the chicken switch!”

  “Aye aye Captain!”

  Captain Lawton of the RFSSOD Farrington braced himself. He couldn’t help but grin. EMBT Blows were his favorite part of the job. The Space Navy might get all the attention, but he could never imagine himself a space jockey. The giant submarine shuddered and groaned as the ballast tanks were blasted with highly compressed air. The giant sub twisted and shook as the Farrington shot towards the surface of New Boston’s southern ocean. The hull groaned under the stress and creaking noises reverberated throughout the hull. As the submarine broke through the choppy ocean surface, the Farrington momentarily shot into the air. Dipping back down into the water, the submarine then bobbed back above the waves.

  “All hands, prepare to fire salvo! Missile crew, relay attack solution from orbital satellite network.”

  “Aye sir! Attack solution relayed! Computer calculations complete and transmitted to missiles!”

  “Open all missile doors! Prepare to fire!”

  Captain Lawton looked over to the missile crew. Lieutenant Bradley nodded to him.

  “Remember the 101st! All tubes fire!”

  The ship shuddered as 12 chemical propellant missiles launched sequentially from the giant sub. The 12 missiles arced into the sky riding on giant plumes of smoke.

  “Missiles away sir. 2 minutes to orbit.”

  Captain Lawton crossed his arms and tapped his fingers on his shoulder. Even when it was a simulation the two minutes for the missile to reach orbit felt like forever.

  “10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3...2…1…orbit reached. Chemical stage dropped. Bubblespace drives engaging!”

  Captain Lawton did a prayer to Gaia under his breath. While he doubted that Gaia would approve of him destroying an enemy carrier, he justified to himself that it couldn’t hurt either. Watching his datatank he followed the missiles as they lazily arced towards the Narthian escort carrier. There was a sudden flash from the datascreen.

  A cheer erupted from missile control. “7th Fleet confirms that the escort carrier Hammerhead has been sunk!”

  Captain Lawton smiled, then barked out “All hands, prepare for emergency dive!”

  The Farrington silently disappeared beneath the waves. In a matter of seconds, the sea where the sub had once been erupted in a sea of beam weapon fire.

  Alicia studied the data analysis a second time. The results seemed pretty clear. With both fleets in beam weapon range, most of the action now rested in the hands of ship squadron commanders and individual ship commanders. So far it had been a brutal slugfest, with neither side gaining any particular advantage. The Narthians had superior numbers, but the cumulative effect of the missile attack and the fighters had reduced that advantage considerably. The allies had the powerful beam weapons of the battlecruisers and battleships of the Spincoran fleet, as well as the swarm of fighters that continued to pick apart the Narthian fleet. The result was a giant melee, with both sides making assaults against each other’s formations, advancing in some places and retreating in others. Casualties were mounting on both sides. At first this had kept Alicia busy, but she had decided to release Fleet command to Admiral Mitchell, Admiral Sokolov and Commodore Cadwell. This had given Alicia the opportunity to concentrate on these complex calculations. Confident in the results, she located the closest allied forces to the Battleship Kobenhavn in her datatank. Fortunately there were a number of allied fighters in the vicinity. With grim determination, she issued orders to destroy the Kobenhavn.

  Admiral Choi’s frustration was becoming difficult to conceal. Her numerical superiority in this battle was insufficient to create any kind of decisive advantage. Instead she had been forced into a war of attrition, with both sides taking heavy casualties. If she had been given the forces she had asked for, this battle would already be over. Instead, she was now forced to contemplate retreat. She knew it would be far better for her career to leave now, accepting moderate losses instead of risk the total annihilation of her fleet. The new Spincoran weapon had been a nasty surprise, and she knew that the failure of Narthian Military Intelligence to warn her about them would give her sufficient political leverage to deflect criticism over her existing losses. Still, retreat meant defeat, and defeat by the Devil’s Fleet was a bitter pill. The only silver lining she saw in all of this was the fact that this battle would force the allies to abandon New Boston. She had inflicted heavy losses on the Spincoran and Renspan forces. Any retreat would be temporary, and if anything her defeat would convince the Narthian fleet commanders back at Newport to allocate the carriers she had originally requested. Once reinforced with carriers, the New Boston Attack Flag would have more than enough firepower to crush the Devil and her allies, clever tactics and all. Most of all, Admiral Choi knew that the Devil would also be aware of this. After all, it was pretty clear that they both thought alike. That made her smile. Maybe they didn’t think exactly alike. If she were the one with the fighter advantage, she would be targeting that Devil directly. Perhaps she was just a bit more devious. With that thought, Admiral Choi began to focus her efforts on planning an orderly retreat from New Boston.

  Amy maneuvered her fighters and SACVs into attack formation. Natalenko Flight was charged with leading the assault against the Battleship Kobenhavn. Her long-range scans of the battleship showed a rather old and unremarkable ship to justify the large number of fighters forming behind her. Still, Admiral Linodan had issued the orders, so she figured the ship must be important. Seeing how the few remaining Narthian fighters were already flying combat patrols around the ship, apparently the Narthians had thought it was important as well. The defenses of the ship had been very discrete, but once it was clear that the allies were sending fighters against the Kobenhavn, defensive forces had sprung from nowhere, presumably being held in reserve for just this contingency. Still, the battle up to this point had gone relatively well. The SACVs had dramatically increased her flexibility, and their ability to absorb punishing g-forces without using inertial compensation had meant that the human fighters could stand back and focus on the larger picture while the SACVs did most of the heavy fighting. Now she was about to lead a massive attack wave, and she would lean heavily on her SACVs again.

  Amy gritted her teeth and throttled her bubbledrive to maximum. The first wave of Narthian defenders were vectoring in on her location. Her mission was to
hold off the defenders so that other units could punch through the defenses and attack the Kobenhavn. Her SACVs screamed ahead, throwing themselves mercilessly against the lead edge of the Narthian defenders. She was starting to grow attached to the quirky default personalities of her SACVs, but she knew that was dangerous. They were weapons, and she had to remind herself about that. Relying on her datatank interface, she rapidly tapped out a sequence of commands. Whoever had designed the SACV AI must have been a pilot, because they were engineered with just the right amount of independence so that she didn’t have to worry about either micromanaging them or worrying about them not following orders. The best part is that they seemed to anticipate her intent. She had thought that those kinds of AI could only be fitted on spaceships. As the fighters began to engage, Amy was drawn into her third fight.