---XXX---
“The Shaitans haven’t reacted to our sudden appearance admiral. There has been no change in their rate of deceleration or their direction, in trying to skirt us. They haven’t changed their formation either. It is as if they haven’t taken note of our fleet at all.” Ensign Costello informed Josie, as she returned back to the Flag Bridge. Josie had forced herself to take a nap. She wanted to be as fresh as possible when the time of the battle came, which was just a few hours away. She had slept fitfully and had checked the tactical situation in her room, the moment she woke up, so she was well aware of the situation, but she appreciated her young staff’s enthusiasm. It reminded her of herself so many decades ago.
“Oh, but they have taken note of us young Enrique, you can bet your bottom dollar on that fact. Warmaster Taste of Resolve is not prone to doing anything in a haste, he is not one to panic, and he is definitely not one to show his nervousness if he has any. We have a worthy adversary in Warmaster Resolve, if he lives up to his reputation. Right now he doesn’t need to change anything. He wants this fight, he has no reason to try and skirt us, because he knows that with our superior acceleration, that would be a futile and possibly dangerous gambit. He outnumbers us more than two to one, so he has no reason to want to run away. No sir, he wants this fight very much. He has been decelerating in the open for years, announcing to us humans that his fleet is coming. He slowing down in the open to challenge our fleet to an open stand up fight toe to toe. Just as we have intelligence on them, they would have intelligence or estimation on our fleet strength. He is playing on his strength – strength of numbers.” Josie said to Ensign Costello as much as she said it loud to herself.
“You are right ma’am. It is just that I was a bit disappointed at their lack of response to our sudden appearance. I would have thought that coming out of the surface of Proteus in such a dramatic manner would have spooked the hell out of the Shaitans.” Ensign Costello said a bit disappointedly.
“You can be sure that it surprised the hell out of them, although spooked is probably too strong a word. They would have called an emergency huddle. Noted the new capability of our warships, and then realized that they didn’t need to act in a hurry if at all. I am sure the Shaitans had a battle plan ready long before they entered our system, so they probably simply have to execute it, for they were expecting to encounter our fleet some time or the other on their way to Earth.
“What our dramatic appearance from the surface of Proteus would have done though, would be to put an element of doubt and uncertainty in the mind and planning of the Warmaster. I would love to see how they behave as they approach the asteroid belt. I am sure they would be jumping at ghosts as they approach that belt of large floating rocks, suspecting warships behind each of those rocks. It is a pity that our Asteroid belt is not actually as dense as they show in movies. Otherwise you can be sure, that is where we would have actually hidden to spring the Shaitan bastards a surprise that they would have remembered on their way to hell. There were no rocks on the path of the Shaitan fleet behind which we could hide a fleet, otherwise that is exactly what we would have done, like Admiral Montero did in his legendary encounter during the first Shaitan invasion. As it is we had a lucky break that Neptune was so close to the line of approach of the Shaitan fleet.” Josie said.
‘So close’ was a relative and a subjective term, for Neptune was well over twenty million kilometers and slightly above the point of approach of the Shaitan fleet. Still, in astronomical terms that was relatively close. It was just over a third of the distance between sun and mercury. It was a distance that the new human warships, with their improved acceleration, could cover in three days’ time, although the fleet would not be able to come to a complete halt. The residual velocity of the human fleet was not a problem, because the Shaitan fleet was moving inwards into the solar system at an even higher velocity. So their encounter was going to be a passing one in any case.
The admirals of both the fleets knew that this would not be the final encounter between the two fleets. It was unlikely that any of the fleets would be able to destroy the other completely in this passing encounter. Both the admirals would be hoping though, that this would be the decisive encounter, where they are able to inflict a mortal blow on the other fleet without taking too much damage. The human fleet would be able to chase down the Shaitan fleet well before they were able to reach Earth, and that second encounter would decide which fleet lived and which one died.
Proteus had been the ideal moon of Neptune to land and hide on. It had less than one percent the gravity of Earth, so landing these new warships on the moon was no big deal. The warships didn’t even have to use their emergency thrusters. Just the main thrusters had enough thrust to do the job. Yet Proteus, the second largest moon of Neptune, has a rough diameter of over four hundred and twenty kilometers. Rough, because the moon wasn’t exactly spherical, although it was close. It gave ample space for the entire fleet to land comfortably without having to cramp and crowd themselves.
Josie was in her thoughtful reverie when Ensign Costello called out to her. “Admiral, the captain informs that the fleet has started its formational maneuvers.” Josie nodded her acknowledgement. So the moment of truth had finally arrived!
---XXX---
“Warmaster, I am not sure what to make of it, but the enemy fleet’s formation is changing. Their approach formation had been unconventional to begin with, but now it is getting stranger.” It was the master of his flagship himself who was reporting to Taste of Resolve. The Warmaster quickly checked his tasting station, and as the master of the vessel had reported, the formation of the Ka-Baal fleet was changing. The original formation of the enemy fleet had been a two dimensional square, roughly six by six with the four extra vessels accommodated one on each side of the square. The formation was an exact copy of the formation made by the Warmaster for his own fleet.
That in itself was strange because the Ka-Baal had always fought in three dimensional geometric formations in all their previous battles. Three dimensional patterns were not favored by Shaitan warrior doctrine. It put some of the vessels at more risk than the other, and the vessels got in each other’s way when point defense tried to protect each other. The catch in a two dimensional formation was that the formation had to be pointing in the right direction with respect to the enemy fleet. If the enemy fleet were to be in the wrong direction, then the flat two dimensional formation was actually worse than a three dimensional one.
The Warmaster had initially assumed that the Ka-Baal had adopted their beings’ warrior doctrine, just as their beings had adopted many of the tactics of the Ka-Baal. Now though, the Ka-Baal fleet formation was changing. Either the enemy Warmaster had had a change of mind, or the previous fleet formation was merely a feint to prevent Resolve from knowing in advance what their actual formation would be. Why would the Ka-Baal Warmaster need to hide his intended formation until the last moment? That would make sense only if the formation were to give away their tactics for the battle. That thought made the Warmaster even more curious, as he strained to figure out from the ever changing and ever evolving fleet formation of the defense fleet, what the final configuration of the fleet was going to be.
---XXX---
“Captain, it is time for the Judas Prayer. Is everything on course?” Josie asked.
“Yes Admiral. The transmission recording is already on the communications computer, and programmed to be transmitted with the exact specifications that was provided by your office. I know that this is classified, and I am not even supposed to be asking you about it, but will the information get declassified anytime soon for mere mortals like us? As you can surely understand, if a mysterious signal with a name like ‘Judas Prayer’, is asked to be transmitted from a captain’s bridge, the captain can be forgiven, if he starts dying of curiosity.” Capt. Tuvalu said with a sheepish smile.
“All in good time captain. All in good time.” Josie said in a mysterious tone. The she changed her ton
e, and said. “I was only teasing you captain. An old lady gets her vicarious pleasure by teasing her subordinates. We have a flag announcement in five minutes. That is the time the information gets declassified. Make sure that your bridge crew, XO and the backup bridge crew are all listening in. You will get to hear this from me only once. We don’t have any more time. This was deliberately kept till the last moment to prevent any leaks.”
---XXX---
Warmaster Resolve was agonizingly, tantalizingly close. He had been tasting the enemy fleet formation change for some time now, replaying the formation movement on his tasting station. The computer simulation gave a number of possibilities by extrapolating the observed movement of the enemy fleet till that point of time. Resolve had a few of his own hypothesis on the final formation, but none was very convincing. One thing was clear though, the slow dance of the Ka-Baal war vessels was deliberate and meant to keep Resolve and his fleet guessing on the final formation till the last moment. He couldn’t understand what could be so sensitive about the formation that the Ka-Baal needed to choreograph this elaborate dance. That question kept niggling at the back of his multiple brains.
It was in the middle of his struggle with the enemy fleet formation, that he felt a sharp taste of alarm on his tasting station. The alarm had been raised directly by the master of his flag vessels. “I am not sure, what is happening but some of our vessels have just broken formation!”
“What?! How is that even possible? Aren’t all the vessels guided by the central fleet formational program, being directed by computers?” Resolve asked incredulously.
“Yes Warmaster, but these vessels have deliberately detached their navigational controls from the formational guidance program, or are not receiving signals, the later seems unlikely.” The master replied.
“How many?” Resolve asked.
“Ten, Warmaster. I have sent the feed directly to you tasting station.” The master replied.
Resolve checked the feed, he couldn’t believe this was happening, just moments before they were to enter into battle with the Ka-Baal! “What in the name of Ka is happening? Hail those vessels and ask them to get back into formation immediately.”
“We tried hailing those vessels Warmaster. All the other vessels of the fleet are making continuous and desperate attempts to make contact with those ten vessels, but to no avail. It is not just that those ten vessels have broken formation and stopped communicating with the rest of the fleet, but check the maneuvers that those ten vessels are performing. It is as if all the beings on those vessels have collectively gone mad!” The vessel master replied.
Resolve checked the feed more carefully to figure out what crazy maneuver the vessel master was referring to, and his body started twitching in astonishment once he realized what those ten vessels were doing. The renegade vessels had stopped their engines initially. This meant that immediately the renegade vessels started drifting ahead of the rest of the fleet, which was still decelerating at full throttle to slow their speed down. Resolve had scheduled the fleet to turn off their engines in some time, just before they would encounter the Ka-Baal fleet. That would ensure that the fleet had their thrusters free to maneuver in any direction that might be necessary in the heat of the battle.
The renegade vessels had however switched off their engines far earlier, there was still some time to go before the scheduled shut down of the thrusters. Had the renegade vessels misunderstood the command? Had there been some kind of malfunction on those vessels? No that was not possible, all the ten vessels developing a problem at the exact same time was a statistical impossibility. Why had the beings on those vessels cut off communication with the rest of the fleet? This was a mystery of epic proportions. Even Ka couldn’t have engineered a worse disaster for his fleet at such a critical juncture.
Resolve played the log further, and realized what the master had meant when he said that the beings on those vessels had gone mad. The maneuver those renegade vessels had engaged in, was surely the sign of a suicidal maniac! Not satisfied with breaking formation and moving out of the safety of their fleet, the ten renegade vessels had turned their thrusters around and had started accelerating, rushing headlong directly towards the Ka-Baal fleet!
What madness had befallen the beings on those vessels! Those renegade vessels would soon come into the missile range of the Ka-Baal fleet. The renegade vessels would find themselves isolated and outnumbered four to one. The Ka-Baal fleet would slaughter them to the last vessel!
“Warmaster, there is no use. All our fleet vessels have been trying non-stop to get in touch with those ten vessels, but to no avail. It is hard for me to say this, and I can’t believe I am saying this of our own vessels, but we still have the option of blowing those rogue vessels.” The master of his flag vessel said over the link.
“And what purpose will blowing those vessels server master?” Resolve asked testily. “As you pointed out that beings on those vessels, or at least the masters of those vessels have gone mad. That, or this is the display of incredibly foolish bravado, trying to take on the enemy fleet all by themselves. Yes they have broken every conceivable warrior code, and deserve to be put to the liquefaction chamber, but expending our missiles to blow up those vessels would be foolish to say the least.
“Let us make the best we can, out of this disaster and use those renegade vessels as bait. The enemy will expend their missiles to mete out a justly deserved punishment to the beings on those vessels. We would be foolish to waste our own missiles. This presents us with an opportunity! As we approach the Ka-Baal fleet, those ten renegade vessels would be ahead of us. The Ka-Baal missiles would be forced to concentrate their barrage on those ten vessels, while the bulk of our fleet would be relatively safe behind.
“The renegade vessels will fire their missiles at the Ka-Baal, and the rest of the fleet will simply add our missiles to the barrage toward the Ka-Baal fleet. In effect our overall offensive firepower will not reduce at all despite this fiasco, while the amount of enemy fire on the rest of our fleet should reduce drastically at the expense of those ten renegade vessels. We need not bother expend our point defense to protect those renegade vessels, we won’t be able to defend them anyway, because they are out of formation. The point defense of the rest of the seventy two vessels should be extremely effective on the reduced number of missiles heading towards us thanks to the renegade vessels.
“If everything goes well, then we may even emerge from this encounter with our seventy two vessels relatively unscathed, and be rid of those ten renegade vessels, who in their death would have protected the rest of us. The Ka-Baal fleet in the meanwhile would face just the same amount of fire as they would have faced earlier, had those ten vessels not gone renegade. Their fleet is likely to take a very hard beating. We come out on top on the encounter, turning an adversity into an opportunity!” Warmaster Taste of Resolve declared, feeling good and a bit pompous about his own brilliance.
“Outstanding, Warmaster! This could be a masterstroke; a sheer creative genius! If I am not mistaken Warmaster, for your strategy to work, the rest of the fleet would have to be right behind the renegade vessels.” The master of the flag vessel complemented his Warmaster.
“You are right about that fact master. Calculate the optimal distance the rest of our fleet needs to maintain behind the renegade vessels. Stop our decelerating thrust immediately and accelerate behind the renegade vessels if necessary. If the renegades open up their emergency thrusters, then open up ours too and chase the renegade vessels in order to maintain the calculated optimum distance.” The Warmaster ordered his flag master. He also conveyed his orders to all the other masters of his remaining fleet.
Remaining fleet! It felt so strange to think of those words! The battle hadn’t even begun, and he was already counting his losses! This campaign had been jinxed from the start. He had been approaching World #11 with 128 war vessels, with another thirty two already orbiting World #11, waiting to join the fleet for a massive 160 war vessel strong
fleet final assault to finish off the most difficult enemy their beings had ever faced.
First came the unexpected, and incredible attack from the Ka-Baal on his fleet just as they were reaching World #11. That brilliant piece of offensive whittled down the number of effective war vessel capable of making an assault on the Kalshuk system to 114. That loss was still understandable, because it was due to enemy action. The next shrinkage of his fleet was an unjustifiable and unpardonable folly. It was a self-inflicted injury, which Resolve hoped his beings would not rue one day on the brink of their own extermination.
Taste of Resolve had never had a very high opinion about arm chair warriors and assorted seers, whose only talent, that had gotten them into the Grand Council, was they ability to play politics. The fact that such incompetent fools made decisions that affected the day to day lives of their beings was bad enough. What could turn fatal for their beings, was the fact that the same bunch of self-serving fools also made decisions that affected the very survival of their beings.
The Grand Council was so scared and worried about saving its own sorry sphincter, that it ordered thirty two of the vessels to split from an already depleted fleet in order to return back to the core system. Resolve couldn’t understand where each of the members of the Grand Council had flushed their multiple brains, when they came to the decision to split the fleet and order thirty two of them to return to protect the core world?!
The Grand Council didn’t even have to calculate how much time it would take for that splinter fleet to return to the core world, although such a calculation was trivial. All they had to do was remember how much time it had taken to assemble the fleet all the way to the edge of their beings’ domain at World #11. It would take almost the same amount of time for this splinter fleet to return back to the core. In effect the splinter fleet would be of no use in defending the core worlds from Ka-Baal, if they decided to attack, because the Ka-Baal could reach the core worlds directly a lot faster.
Triumph & Defeat (Shaitan Wars Book 4) Page 37