by J W Murison
When the engines were stowed safely Mark cornered John. He pointed to the big silver wall that was in fact one of four giant engines. ‘I know we were supposed to do it later but we are well ahead of schedule and got plenty air.’
He thought it over, ‘yeah why the hell not. Reid do you here me.’ He called his main man on the bridge.
‘Yeah what is it John.’
‘Let’s go straight to deploying the big engines.’
‘Sure thing boss.’
Mark and John were joined at the doors by another full bird colonel Alfie Lloyd. He watched in wonder as the ship took off and flew across the massive field of metal. With Mercury as a backdrop each of them was in awe of the beauty of the moment.
‘Guys this is the life,’ Alfie sighed. They merely nodded their heads in response. The other cargo bay doors slid open and they were joined by the rest of their companions. No words were said as each lived the moment. The freighter came to rest on top of the mass and giant rams shoved the first engine out. It took all of them to manoeuvre it into its exact place and then massive self-tapping bolts began to drill themselves into the mass. Long slivers of metal were ejected by the drills.
‘Be careful with that stuff,’ he warned one of his men as he got too close to it, ‘it’s probably razor sharp.’ The man backed off. The four engines were deployed round the four corners of the butt end of the huge block of metal pointing towards the planet.
‘Why don’t we just toss this thing at their bloody city ship? I'm sure it would cause major damage.’ Alfie mused.
John grinned, ‘I will make the suggestion.’
Mike patted him on the shoulder and pointed, ‘you won’t have long to wait to ask here they come.’
They watched the Teardrop shaped ships glide towards them, ‘beauties aren’t they?’ Alfie sighed.
John had to agree, ‘they sure are.’
‘Do you think we will get to meet the man himself?’
‘I don’t know Alfie.’
One of the ships broke formation and glided towards them. It set down close and a ramp was extended.
‘If you guys fancy a late breakfast and hot coffee come aboard.’ A strange voice greeted them. They didn’t need asked twice. Each man felt a little pressure as they passed through an invisible barrier. Inside a woman was waiting to greet them.
Her smile was returned by all, ‘hi I'm Hailey, if you come with me I will take you to the dining hall. I am sorry about the glare it is an internal security measure. The dining hall has false wall so there is no glare in there. We have hot coffee, fresh rolls and believe Cookie has fresh sausage bacon and egg, or if you prefer a sandwich of your choice, just follow me.’
The men were disappointed to find there was only a small Scotsman waiting for them. Hailey excused herself and went back to her duties. ‘Help yourself lads. Coffee is in the machine by the back wall there or if you want you can have tea or hot chocolate. There's freshly baked bread and rolls with butter as well.’
‘This is great,’ Alfie stated with a mouth full of roll and sausage.
Logan washed down a mouthful with hot coffee and had to agree, ‘makes a change for the crap we have been eating.’
Mike nudged him, ‘is that Gordon there?’
He had spotted a small man walk in with a tablet stuck in front of his face. He made his way to the coffee machine without looking down from the tablet and poured himself a coffee; stirred in some sugar and was half way back out the door when he suddenly realised his way was blocked. It took a moment for his eyes to focus and another to realise he was surrounded.
‘Uh! Can I help you gentlemen?’
The tall handsome square-jawed blond six-footer in front of him offered his hand, ‘Captain Gordon I am Commander John Logan, I would like to thank you on behalf of myself and my men for the opportunity you gave us by selecting us for this mission.’
Steven seemed surprised, ‘ah, no problem gentlemen, a pleasure, I take you have enjoyed the mission then.’ They were all nodding and murmuring.
‘It was a blast sir,’ Logan confirmed. ‘May I ask why you never chose an astronaut to join your crew?’
Steven shrugged, ‘none ever applied.’
‘Oh!’ The answer seemed to catch Logan flat footed.
Alfie stepped into the silence left by John. ‘Can I ask what's going to happen now sir?’
Steven took a deep breath, ‘yeah sure. You guys are all becoming part of the first fighter wing aren’t you?’
‘Yes sir,’ Alfie confirmed.
‘You will be glad to know that your fighters are ready and waiting for you. You will begin full training a couple of days after you return; they are giving you the weekend off.’ The men laughed. ‘This metal will provide us with enough for a dozen battle cruisers and I think its thirty destroyers. If we have time we will come back again. Of course there is an enormous amount of training to be done for every single member of the corps; if the Albany come now, we are completely stuffed. The only safeguard humanity has is the fact that our enemy has no idea we are now a space-going world; so they seem to be in no hurry. Our friend the emperor has been supplying us with information. Word is slowly coming in about the battle readiness of the Albany. It would seem they are a fair bit away from being able to launch an attack, but we cannot become complacent. They already have a huge attack fleet and know how to use it. We on the other hand don’t have a clue.’
‘Well we would all like to thank you for this opportunity sir.’ Alfie insisted.
Steven shook his head, ‘you may not be saying that when an Albany attack fleet come screaming down your necks.’
Alfie shrugged, ‘at least we can met them head on sir, if it wasn’t for you most of us would probably have ended up dying in our beds.’
‘I am glad some see it like that, it makes a change from the anti-Christ perspective I seem to get a lot of.’
The men laughed, ‘just a few million crazy’s sir, they will change their mind rapidly if the Albany ever gets their hands on them and toss them into a blender.’
Steven laughed and held up his tablet, ‘this will interest all of you; I am in the process of rewriting space fighter tactics into a form that you will all understand. Many of the concepts and ideas need to be simplified, given names that humans will understand.’
Alfie interrupted him, ‘excuse me sir but are you a pilot?’
‘Uh! Nope.’
‘Do you think you are actually qualified to rewrite those notes?’
‘I believe so yes.’
Alfie grinned, ‘sir I am a top-gun pilot, like every man here I came out on top of my class. We are the best fighter pilots on Earth; don’t you think one of us would be more qualified?’
Steven took a sip of his coffee, ‘no I don’t.’
Alfie was stuck speechless but Logan jumped back in. ‘Sir have you ever even sat in a fighter or handled the controls of an aircraft.’
‘No.’
Logan laughed, ‘then I must submit that you are certainly not qualified to dictate to us how to fly and fight these new craft.’
‘Oh you think so do you?’
Logan grinned, ‘yes I do; do I feel a wager coming on here sir.’
Steven shrugged, ‘if you want. We have a spare fighter, I suppose you could give me half an hour to familiarise myself with it.’
‘One on one sir.’
‘Actually commander I was thinking more like myself against the whole squadron.’ They roared with laughter. ‘In fact I will even paint my craft white to give you all more of a chance.’
Alfie almost fell over and had to cling to Logan for support. When Logan managed to talk again he took a deep breath and wiped away a tear. ‘What would the wager be sir?’
Steven shrugged, ‘I have no idea, this is the first bet I've ever made in my life.’ That made them laugh even harder but Steven wasn’t finished. ‘To make it a bit fairer I will give you a week to train in your craft and will send the manuals along as well.’
‘We don’t need the manuals sir.’ Logan boasted.
Steven shrugged, ‘as you please. I will see you in a weeks’ time gentlemen.’
Their laughter followed him out of the canteen. There was only one man not laughing and that was Cookie. He was clearing up the cups and plates when Alfie spotted him and didn’t like the wry smile spread across the man’s face. ‘What you grinning at Scotty?’
Cookies laughter seemed to have a dampening effect on the astronauts, ‘cos I love it when a bunch of smug bastards like yourselves, get you arse’s handed to you on a plate.’
Chapter 31
Commander Logan spoke into his microphone, ‘OK men gentlemen we are now in the combat zone. Double check your weapon controls are set to simulation.’ He glanced at his radar it was clear. ‘I believe we are looking for a white ship.’
Their laughter was cut short by a streak of green. ‘What the hell was that!’ Cried one man as his ship fell out of formation under computer control, ‘hell I’m out.’
Logan cut across the chatter, ‘what's going on Joe?’
The exasperated pilot released his controls with a sigh, ‘I've just been taken out, that’s what's going on.’ Before Logan could reply there was another flash of green and two more ships slid out of the formation.
‘We are under attack,’ Logan growled. ‘Tighten the formation.’ Thirty-seconds later when they had completed the manoeuvre he realised he had made a mistake when three ships suddenly fell out of formation. The airwaves turned blue quickly.
‘Can that shit, if you are out of the game then shut up. Break up into pairs and take evasive action.’ It delayed the inevitable. Only once did he catch a glimpse of the white ship as it took out the two ships to his left. By the time he began to react the ship was gone.
‘Holy shit did you see that!’ Alfie shouted.
‘Just,’ Logan admitted.
‘Hey I got something on this fancy radar, about a hundred clicks.’
‘I see it, let’s get him.’
They rushed in having to slow down to get the white ship in their sights. Green light shot from the noses of their craft and hit the white ship dead centre; only the craft shimmered and the light passed clean through. Alfie cried out in alarm as his ship was hit and Logan was alone. He realised the shimmering ship was a decoy. He tried a few manoeuvres swinging back towards the decoy. As he passed the nose of it, green light shot out and hit his fighter.
‘What the hell!’ He screamed.
The white fighter began to move towards him. Steven waved at the infuriated pilot as he passed then disappeared. Their commander’s voice sounded in his ears. OK Eagle squadron, control of your ships is being returned to you. Form up and return to base.’ He sounded pissed. Logan knew he had lost a packet in a wager with Gordon’s second in command Buzz Anderson. Their commander had been as sure as his pilots that it would be over quickly and Buzz had taken advantage of that. Now they all had egg on their faces. He never encouraged any chatter on the way back, not that many really wanted to talk about the beating they had just received.
Their commanding officer was waiting for them in the debriefing room and took the podium as they sat down. His eyes swept over the unhappy pilots. ‘Ya’ll just taken a sound whipping boys. I know you ain't happy, but if I hear one derogatory remark against Captain Gordon you ass is on the next shuttle home.’ He turned to the flag behind him. He thought it was beautiful, black and gold with a fierce golden Eagle in the centre. They had only had it a week. He took it down and began to fold it. The men remained silent. That morning when Steven had arrived Logan had pushed him into naming his wager. He had spotted the new squadron flag and it had been agreed upon.
They were still silent when Steven, Buzz and Cookie arrived. All three were pushing trolleys laden with manuals. Cookie had specifically asked for the job and was well satisfied by the morose looks on the pilot’s faces. Steven stepped up to the podium and accepted the flag presented to him by the commanding officer.
‘Thank you.’ He laid it on the podium and regarded the sullen faces. ‘Morning again gentlemen. I won’t keep you long as you all have a lot of work to do. I sincerely hope you are all beginning to understand where you all went wrong. It must be obvious by now that you cannot fly and fight in space the way you would back home in air. You all used your own radar while I used telemetry from my ship which has long range scanners; as will your mother ships when you go into battle. Your ships are sub-light yet none of you flew more than a thousand miles per hour. I used telemetry from my ship to predict where one of your ships was going to be. Came in at about ten thousand miles per hour faster than you were flying at. Fired on the spot I calculated your ship was going to be in and moved off again at a ninety-degree angle. Jump in, fire jump out. That is space fighter tactics one O one. You are thinking in two dimensions you need to be able to think in five. Just because your machines can bank and roll as they do on Earth it doesn’t mean that is the way you fly them.’
He turned to the large white board behind him and began to draw, ‘I will explain some of the basics. Fighters in space aren’t there to dogfight. They are there to support their mother-ships in battle.’ He drew a sausage shape then a dotted line all around it. ‘This is the force field around an enemy battle cruiser.’ He drew another sausage ship and changed to a green pen. ‘This is your mother ship. Each ship carries ten squadrons. When a battle cruiser engages another battle cruiser they fire at each other. This causes the force field generators to react in a predicted way. They will reinforce the area that is being attacked, tracking the enemy’s fire, and reinforcing that part of the shield just before the beam of the enemy’s weapons hit it. They do not have an unlimited supply of power however. Much depends on the tactics their enemy are using. I have been assured that a modern battle cruiser can with stand the power from a vessel of the same size for months, if they are doing nothing else, but just sitting there on minimal power and just feeding their shields and weapons.’
He began drawing arrows that were attacking the first sausage, ‘if you hit the enemy battle cruiser with your ten squadrons at the same time in a precision attack then you can overload the shield generators; or weaken the shields as it tries to divert power from one point to another. The idea is to weaken the shields enough so the heavy guns of your cruiser can penetrate your enemy’s shields. Each attack has to be carried out with precision. Every squadron arriving and firing at the same time, and each squadron firing at their appointed target. Attacks are synchronised with the cruiser with pinpoint timing. Each fighter must arrive at his firing point on his own vector. Your ship will fire for one hundredths of a second and then you will bomb-burst away on a different vector. The enemy ships can track you from thousands of miles away; as you arrive at your firing point they will be firing at you with their secondary armament, and if they have dealt with your battle cruiser their main armament; which you won’t survive. The tactics I used against you were the most simplistic and basic taught.’ He held up the flag, ‘I will be keeping this until you can take me out. I will see you all in six weeks’ time. Any questions?’
‘Yes sir I have one,’ Logan sat forward, ‘was that a decoy you used?’
‘Yes it was and as you were blundering about looking for me I switched it off and took its place until you wandered across my nose. Decoys are always used as part of an attack strategy. Instead of ten squadrons, the enemy have to select between twenty, which ones to target.’
Logan nodded, ‘I understand now sir, thank you.’
He left them to it and Buzz and Cookie to hand out the manuals. Cookie handed Alfie his one personally, ‘you still laughing yank?’
‘Smart arse,’ Alfie growled.
‘I slipped a few recipes into the back of yours in case you want to change jobs yank.’
Alfie wanted to take a poke at him but the whole world knew who Cookie was; his doll had three uniforms, a chefs, the blue of the Space Corps and the camouflage one with the SAS beret. He k
new because his eight-year-old son had one. Instead he took the offered manuals and kept his mouth wisely shut.
Chapter 32
Dawn was beginning to rise above the savannah grasslands. In the hollows a fine mist hung lazily in the early morning air. As the sun broke the horizon a fine breeze announced the coming of the heat and the mist began to move across the great savannah. It was these things that greeted Gairloch as he limped out into the open grass using Steven as support. He indicated for Steven to stop and he lowered himself onto a dense patch of grass. Almost idly his tongue grabbed a mouthful of grass heavy with seeds and he munched on them contentedly. He was dying and knew it but refused to die in bed. Steven sat beside him and kept his peace.
Gairloch’s eyes scanned the grasslands, ‘what a beautiful place to die. Your world is a jewel Steven my friend, it is no wonder the Albany have sacrificed and risked so much to possess it. There isn’t a race on our side of the barrier who wouldn’t fight to the death to possess it. Do you know what we would do then Steven, we would wipe out every living thing on the planet and plant grass for profit. Your way is much better. Who knew a race of meat eaters could care so much as to preserve all this.’
Steven laughed, ‘are meat eaters rare in your universe?’
‘Yes, quite rare, simply because we wiped them out and stole their planets. Meat eaters like to fight each other; that holds back invention and innovation. When your race doesn’t kill each other and faces hunger from over population then you tend to reach for the stars quicker.’ He took another mouthful of grass and munched away thoughtfully. ‘The emperor has received those seeds we sent and they are now growing in his garden. Do you know they are worth a bucket of fire diamonds?’