Triumph & Defeat (Shaitan Wars Book 4)

by Sudipto Majumdar

  She zoomed out again instead, to concentrate on the formation of the fleet. An idea was forming in her mind, but she needed to bounce it off with another tactical mind, and she also needed some mathematical validation of what her instincts told her must be true. So she connect with Capt. Horo Tuvalu of USC Zanzibar, a recognized tactical genius within her fleet. Then she connected and joined in the conference Capt. Sigrid McFarlane of USC Kathmandu, the go to woman in her fleet for all things mathematical. Capt. McFarlane didn’t just graduate at the top of her class, but was reputed to be a physics and mathematics prodigy.

  “Captains, good morning to you both. At least is morning for me, I don’t know what part of the diurnal cycle it is for you, but since the time is short, I will get straight to the point. Let me ask your opinion on a simple point of missile warfare. We all know that in any missile battle in space, a large number of missiles are hurled by each fleet at the other. A vast majority of those missiles are stopped by the point defense of the opposing fleet, primarily by antimissiles.

  “It is the minority of the offensive nukes that get through that cause damage to the enemy fleet. In a high speed battle, not all missiles are able to hit their target, but this is not going to be a high speed battle. The Shaitan fleet has slowed down enough that both the opposing fleets’ missile will have a fairly good chance of hitting the ships of the other, once they get past the point defense system.

  “So this got me thinking about the other part in the equation – the point defense system. A small percentage of the incoming missiles are destroyed by the laser point defense system that both our species possess, but the bulk of the incoming missiles are stopped by the missile killing missiles, that we call antimissiles. What we have to remember though is that antimissiles are also missiles, and consequently have the same problems of targeting, as the nuclear missiles that we send to kill ships. In fact the antimissiles have a much harder time targeting than a nuke. A nuke has a big fat target in the form of a warship, moving relatively slowly compared to the target of an antimissile, which is a nuclear missile. The nuclear missile is far smaller than a ship, and moving faster, able to change its course far quickly and nimbly than a ship.

  “In fact if one looks at the equation from the perspective of antimissiles, one realizes that despite the fact that a vast majority of the nukes are destroyed by the antimissiles, the majority of antimissiles actually draw a blank. A majority of the antimissiles miss their target and go waste. The only reason that the antimissiles are able to destroy most of the nukes, is because we pump out so many of them compared to nukes. Our battle records show that depending on the angle and speed of attack, the success rate of antimissiles has been at best one in three and at worst one in ten.

  “So if a majority of the antimissiles go waste, and yet a majority of the nukes are destroyed by the antimissiles, then it stands to reason and plain mathematics that if we could improve the success rate of the antimissiles by just a few percentage points, it would make a vast difference in the amount of nukes those antimissiles can kill to the extent that they may be able to stop each and every nuke thrown our way and make us impervious to enemy attack. Do you agree on that basic point captains?” Josie asked.

  Both the captains nodded, but it was Sigrid who spoke up. “Of course we do admiral. In fact, there are battles where a five percent improvement in antimissile targeting accuracy would have ensured that not a single ship of ours suffered a casualty.”

  “Good. Now that we all agree on this basic point, the next obvious question is how does one improve the accuracy of the antimissiles? We all know the basics. It is far easier for an antimissile to target a nuke that has been aimed at its launching ships, since such a nuclear missile has no option but to come head on towards the ship and hence the antimissile. It is the antimissiles that are launched to protect another ship that have problems in targeting accuracy. The nuke that the antimissile is trying to kill, is not coming head on towards the direction of the antimissile. The antimissile approaches the nuke at an angle, which means that even the slightest mistiming would make the antimissile miss the target. To make matters worse, the nuclear missile can vary its acceleration rate to throw off the timing of the antimissile. Such a simple course of evasion is not available to the nuclear missile from an antimissile approaching it head on.” Josie looked at her two captains to see if they were still with her. She could see their faces on the screen nodding. Satisfied, she continued.

  “So how do we arrange our fleet formation such that our antimissiles from any ship protecting any ship have a straight head on line of approach vis-à-vis the approaching Shaitan nukes?” Josie framed the problem, which she was trying to solve.

  Capt. Tuvalu’s eyes lit up and he exclaimed in excitement. “By arranging our fleet in a single file one behind another facing the enemy fleet! That way the enemy fleet would see the profile of just one ship of ours and would have to throw all its missiles at that one ship. So all the Shaitan nukes would line up and approach in that one single straight line. Which would mean that all the antimissiles that our fleet releases can go past the ships ahead of them and approach the incoming Shaitan nukes in a straight line, making their job of targeting the nukes that much easier!”

  Josie smiled and said. “Your reputation is well deserved Horo! I expected you to see the tactically obvious, fairly quickly.”

  “But there is also a problem with that tactic, ma’am. Not so much a military problem, but more a moral one, I guess.” Capt. McFarlane said.

  “Yes Sigrid, I am painfully aware of what you are referring to. Now you know the burdens of command of an admiral, captain. They are no less than that of a captain, but usually more.” Josie said with a sad smile and then added. “I took the advice of my mentor, bless that man’s soul, and stayed aloof from the officers I command. I know it has earned me the nickname ‘ice maiden’, don’t bother denying it, I don’t mind it that much, because I know it is not that far from the truth. But I guess being an ice maiden has its advantages. I hope it makes it easier for me to send some of my captains to their deaths without feeling the need to explain or justify too much to anyone.” Josie said with a bitter smile.

  None of the two captains knew what to say to their senior officer, who was clearly struggling with her own dilemmas and struggles she had had to endure to reach this position in life. There was an awkward and uncomfortable silence that followed. Josie realizing that her internal struggles had spilt over to the discussion, quickly turned around the conversation to a more businesslike approach.

  “Ok. The reason I have called the two of you into this brainstorming session is because I need your skills to come up with a formation plan that is mathematically justifiable. I thought of this plan based on simple commonsense calculation. Unfortunately mathematics sometimes belies commonsense assumptions, and we cannot go into battle without solid justification of our strategy. I need you two to work together to first validate mathematically, that our antimissiles will have a higher probability of killing Shaitan nukes. Sigrid, please bring to bear your legendary mathematical skill on this problem. Next I want a precisely calculated formation plan, with exact distances and positions of each ship relative to the others in the fleet. This would need to be fed into each ships computer, so that they can hold those positions at all times.

  “As you pointed out Sigrid, I might be condemning the crew of the ships right in front to a very high probability of death. All the missiles from all those eighty two Shaitan warships would be heading directly at the foremost ships. If even one were to slip by, then it would almost certainly mean the death of the foremost ship. If I am going to take that kind of moral burden on myself, I better have a kickass formation plan. Something that is guaranteed to kick the asses of the Shaitans in the very first encounter.” Josie said.

  “Will start working on it right away, admiral.” Capt. Tuvalu said, and then added. “I am sure you are aware of this, but I thought I would mention it anyway. Even if this formational maneu
ver works beyond our wildest imagination, it just defends our fleet from taking any exceptional loss. It doesn’t in any way enhance our offensive capabilities.”

  “Yes Capt. Tuvalu, I am aware of that. There are others who have been working on that front for a long time. I am praying that their efforts will bear fruit, but I am not depending on it. If those efforts work out, then that Warmaster out there will find his advantage of superior numbers suddenly melting away. We have come a long way in our intelligence gathering capabilities since we first fought the Shaitans close to a hundred years ago. Then, we didn’t know anything about the Shaitan military or social structure. We didn’t even know whether the Shaitans had an admiral or a captain for their fleet. It is the sign of our intelligence gathering abilities that we not just know that their admiral is a Warmaster, but we also know the name of the Warmaster. If things work out as I am hoping and praying, then Warmaster Taste of Resolve is in for quite a shock!” Josie declared with a mysterious smile.

  ---XXX---

  “Warmaster! You are not going to believe this, but the scanner reports are unambiguous and independently corroborated by multiple vessels. Only after independent corroboration, have I come to report to you.” The novice had scampered to the niche of the Warmaster from his niche in the vessel control and command center to physically convey the news to Taste of Resolve. The taste of incredulity apparent in the skin slime of the novice. When the seasoned Warmaster skimmed through the report, he didn’t blame the inexperience of the novice for his excitement and incredulity, for the new was incredible indeed. Once again the Ka-Baal had pulled an unexpected surprise out of the box for an invading fleet.

  Warmaster Resolve would have been disappointed if the Ka-Baal hadn’t come up with a novel tactic in this campaign. The reputation that the Ka-Baal had developed, meant that the Warmaster was expecting, almost certain that the Ka-Baal Warmaster would display some novel and unexpected tactic of warfare. That is what made this spawn of Ka so terrifying and deadly. It also made the Ka-Baal a worthy adversary. It was the privilege of Resolve to live in the times of the Ka-Baal wars. It was an honor to fight such worthy adversaries on behalf his beings, and should he be killed in the battle, it would be a warrior honor to have died battling such a worthy species. He just hoped that he as the Warmaster, would be equal to the challenges and the innovations of the Ka-Baal Warmaster, and that he wouldn’t be judged by history as having failed to live up to the challenge.

  “Call a conference of the masters of the vessels immediately.” The Warmaster ordered the novice, and let him go. Then he connected with Seer Taste of Logic. “Seer Logic, I want you to be present for this conference as well, we need your inputs as a curious caste elder on this new capability being displayed by the Ka-Baal War vessels. I want your input on the physics of this. I assume that you have gone through the report that the novice just brought me?”

  “Yes Warmaster, I am going through the scanner report. It is an amazing and very useful capability to say the least, and the Ka-Baal seem to have used it to good effect to spring a surprise. Hope this is not a huge setback for us.” Seer Taste of Logic replied from his niche.

  “It is a surprise, but not a huge setback for our fleet, seer. We had to meet up with the Ka-Baal fleet somewhere on the way to their home world. We expected them to lie in wait for us on the way. We are already inside their home system, so we were prepared to get sight of the enemy fleet any time now. The manner of their appearance may be a surprise, but if this is all the defense fleet has, then it is actually good news. It would mean that our estimates we correct. The numbers shown by the scanner report is forty Ka-Baal war vessels. That would mean that we outnumber them two to one. This was our best case scenario!” Resolve replied.

  When the conference with the masters of the vessels of the fleet started a few moments later, Warmaster Resolve opened by saying, “No doubt, all the masters would have seen the report of the sighting of the Ka-Baal defense fleet. The nature of their appearance is unconventional and surprising to say the least, and Seer Taste of Logic would have something to say about it later, but first we must ensure that our fleet is battle ready.

  “The report estimates that our fleets will intersect each other in a cycle. So we have one cycle to make final preparations for the oncoming battle. As of now, there is nothing I have seen of the fleet that makes me change any of our planned strategy. I will be observing the movement and the formation of the fleet over the course of the cycle, and if warranted, will give you instructions for any change of strategy if deemed necessary. Do any of the masters of the vessels have any opinion of theirs, that they would like to share, or any doubts about our situation?” Resolve asked.

  One of the masters spoke up. “The enemy fleet appeared from behind one of the moon of the eight planet of Kalshuk, the last major planet that orbits the star. The enemy fleet must have actually landed and was positioned on the surface of that moon! I reran the calculations many times, to come to this conclusion. If the enemy fleet had been in orbit around the moon, we would have detected them much earlier. So they were definitely not orbiting the moon but actually lifted off the surface of the moon! Only shuttles have such capability, war vessels are not supposed to be able to do that! If the Ka-Baal has developed this capability in their war vessels, then it has profound implications for us approaching any of their worlds. We may approach any of their worlds making the assumption that it is unprotected by war vessels, since we didn’t detect any, only to find ourselves being ambushed by a fleet of war vessels that were parked on the surface of the nearby moon!”

  “For the moment, we will be fighting in open space, so we don’t need to worry about this capability of the Ka-Baal warship. But you are right, we will have to take this into consideration when we approach any of their worlds. For the moment, the Ka-Baal fleet has used this capability to surprise us and give an extremely short time for battle preparation. Before I read too much into the appearance of the enemy fleet from the surface of a moon though, I would rather take the opinion of Seer Taste of Logic about the science and engineering of this capability.” Resolve replied and then indicated Seer Taste of Logic to give his opinion.

  “You are right about reading too much into the capability. In fact the warrior tactic of landing on the surface and hiding is more surprising element of this episode, than the science or engineering of it. My initial calculations show that the moon from which the Ka-Baal fleet lifted off is an extremely weak gravity moon. So weak a gravity in fact, that the moon has not been able to form a perfectly spherical shape. The gravity of the moon is just about 1 by 128th of the gravity of their home world. Yet the moon is fairly large, ideal for a large fleet to hide on the surface by landing without being cramped or risk collision.

  “This doesn’t mean that the engineering challenges for a large fleet to land on such a moon are insubstantial. Our war vessels in their current form would struggle to reach the escape velocity from the surface of such a moon, although if we were to make modifications to our thruster systems, we should in theory be able to achieve escape velocity from such a moon. The bigger engineering challenges are to do with the landing and takeoff from such a moon. The war vessels would have to be equipped with landing struts to prevent damage to sensitive sensors on the skin, as well as brace the impact of landing on the hull of the vessel. Such moons from where the Ka-Baal fleet appeared are low density, dust and regolith filled moons. The thrusters blow up a lot of the dust, which can damage the sensitive thrusters if the dust were to get in. Special engineering of the thruster outlets would have to be considered to be able to safely land and take off from such a moon.

  “All in all, the Ka-Baal builders have made the effort to build one more feature into their war vessels which gives them an additional option in battle. It may not be provide a huge advantage, but does provide an advantage of surprise, as we have seen in the current situation. The big question is how powerful and sophisticated is this new surface landing system, of the Ka-Baal war v
essels? What is the maximum gravity well of a moon that these new war vessels can climb out of? That answer would help us be wary of the moons that these war vessels can land on and hide, which would make them almost undetectable till we are right next to those moon.

  “Unfortunately we don’t have the information to make any definitive conclusion on that answer. What I can give though, are some general guidelines. Given the moon from where those Ka-Baal vessels took off, it is almost certain that those vessels have the capability to land and take off from any asteroid in this system, because all of them have lower gravity than that moon. It would be too much of a coincidence, if the moon from which the vessels took off, is at the limits of what the vessels can achieve in terms of escape velocity. It would be safe to assume that those vessels can take off from moons with three to four fold higher escape velocity if not more.

  “That in effect means that except the bigger moons on every planet, i.e. the moon of the Ka-Baal home world, and the fifteen odd large moons of the four outer gas giants, almost every moon in this system can be used to hide their vessels. A few of the moons of the gas giants have atmosphere, like the moon where the first invasion force from World #12 had landed. These moons are completely ruled out, as far as I am concerned. Landing inside an atmosphere would be incredibly difficult and risky for a war vessel of that size. I am afraid, that all the guidance I can give you at this time.” Seer Taste of Logic concluded.

  “That certainly helps in guiding us where to look out for danger, and from which moons to steer clear, Seer Logic, but that guidance is for the future. First we must encounter the enemy defense fleet in open space, and get past them. When we get closer to their home world, we would seek your counsel again on which planetary bodies in the void are likely to have enemy warships lurking on their surface. Now, if no one has anything more to add, let us begin our final preparations. Dismissed.” Resolve said in conclusion of the conference.