The Ka-Baal proved the point by actually attacking and taking the core worlds, with the splinter fleet nowhere near the core, and no prospect of getting there any time soon. In effect the Grand Council through its folly weakened Resolve’s assault fleet for no reason at all! Imagine what he would have done with a fleet of 114 war vessels! There would have been nothing that could have stopped him from marching right into the Ka-Baal home world. The defense fleet arrayed in front of him would have been no match at all.
And as if two blows to his fleet strength weren’t enough, now comes the third bolt from the blue. Suddenly ten of the war vessels go rogue, or probably plain mad, and make a suicidal dash towards the enemy fleet! Resolve needed a lucky break. He had had too much of bad luck, and the law of probability had to catch up. Sooner rather than later, luck should turn his way. When his tasting station gave a sharp taste to intimate him of an incoming communication that is what he was hoping for, half expecting it. That his luck has finally turned round the corner, and he was about to get some good news finally. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
“Warmaster, the renegade vessels have started releasing their missiles! It is too early for them to be doing that! The renegade vessels are closing in on the Ka-Baal fleet at a fairly high velocity, just like us. The Ka-Baal fleet is making no attempt at evasion. So their optimal missile release distance is far shorter than their current distance from the Ka-Baal fleet. I cannot understand this strange behavior. Releasing from such a distance would give extra time to the Ka-Baal point defense system, and increase the chances of the missiles being shot down.” The master of the vessel reported.
“What are those missiles doing? Are they heading off towards the Ka-Baal fleet or just floating free in space alongside the renegade vessels?” Resolve asked on a hunch.
“That was the next strange things I was about to report Warmaster. The missiles are floating free in space, not even bothering to keep pace with the renegade vessels. It is as if the renegade vessels are simply ejecting their missiles into space. I think that the beings on those vessels have truly gone mad!” The master of the vessel replied.
“Perhaps not master. It may be the first sign of warrior competence that the masters of those renegade vessels have shown in a long time! Remember that we can detect the dumping of the missiles due to the unique tracking codes of our beings’ missiles that we possess. The Ka-Baal may not have detected the dumping of the missiles. The renegade vessels intend to throw every missile they got on board at that Ka-Baal fleet. To be able to do that, and do it with the least possibility of enemy detection, they would have to dump their missiles early, because they can dump only sixteen at a time.
“The Ka-Baal fleet is only tracking those ten renegade vessels, they would not be able to track the huge amount of missiles that are floating behind them. The renegade vessels are accelerating towards the Ka-Baal fleet, while those missiles are floating free. By the time the renegade vessels meet up with the Ka-Baal fleet, the floating missiles would be some distance behind the renegade vessels, closer to our position.
“The stupid renegade vessels may be toast, as they meet up with the Ka-Baal fleet alone, without the point defense support of the rest of the fleet, but their missiles will suddenly light up and rush towards the Ka-Baal fleet, taking the enemy fleet by surprise. Since those floating missiles would have drifted closer to our position, the missiles when they come to life, will reach the Ka-Baal position just a small fraction earlier than our missiles. The Ka-Baal point defense system would already be busy trying to counter the missiles from the renegade vessels, making our missiles far more effective!
“It is a brilliant strategy, worthy of a warrior. What I can’t understand, is why the masters of those renegade vessels would not consult with me before embarking on such a mission. Perhaps they felt that such a suicide mission would not be allowed by me. They would be wrong in that assumption. I would have happily blessed such a mission. Such altruistic sacrifice is part of our long cherished warrior tradition. No warrior would have considered such a sacrifice as futile.” Resolve wondered if he really would have allowed the masters of the rogue vessels to do what they had done. Perhaps not. May be whatever was happening, however inexplicable, was happening for the better. Perhaps this incident of the renegade vessels was not a disaster, but a blessing in disguise, a lucky break he had been hoping for.
The master of his flag vessel interrupted Resolve’s thoughts. “Warmaster, this to inform you that the Ka-Baal fleet has started firing. The timing of Ka-Baal firing is as expected. Our fleets’ firing countdown has also begun. The computer will start firing our fleets’ missiles in moments. The renegade vessels’ missiles are of course already out and floating behind them, drifting slowly towards us. We expect the renegade fools’ vessels to be destroyed shortly as the Ka-Baal missile barrage reaches them. The missiles of the renegade vessels would most probably start firing after their ships themselves have been destroyed. As a default process I expect those missiles to auto pilot to their target that have been fed, even if the launching vessels are destroyed.”
“Understood, master. I am monitoring the feeds as well. I do not see any point defense coming out of the renegade vessels?” Resolve asked.
“With the amount of missiles coming at the renegade vessels, fired by the Ka-Baal fleet, I don’t think it makes any difference whether the renegades fire up their point defense system or not. Those fools have no hope in hell either way. Still, it is disgraceful for warriors to give up in such a manner and literally commit suicide. It is not an honorable death. They should have fired every point defense they have as a symbolic gesture of defiance. I cannot get myself to have any sympathy for those renegade masters of the vessels. They deserve a worse death than they are being accorded.
“I am more concerned at the lack of point defense fire on part of the renegade vessels, because it would have reduced the number of missiles, at least by some fraction that would come towards us. It would have made our point defense more effective and saved many vessels. By failing to use their point defense system, the renegades are implicitly helping the enemy! It is almost as if the renegades have decided to go over to the side of the Ka-Baal!” The anger and frustration of the master could be tasted clearly by Resolve.
Something that the master said struck Resolve. Something had struck a chord with a thought that Resolve seem to have had at the back of his own mind. Something or some thought that was as yet amorphous, but slowly taking shape once the master had spoken his words. Something to do with implicitly helping the enemy? No… it was not just that. It was obvious the renegades implicitly helped the enemy’s cause the moment they broke formation. It was something more, something subtly different and yet insidious to the extreme… a word that Resolve was not being able fix in his mind.
Resolve had almost gotten to the exact word that he was searching for, when the huge Shaitan missiles started firing out of their tubes at a rapid rate. Sixteen massive missiles launching simultaneously from each vessel at a time created an unholy racket. The sound and the vibration was almost unbearable inside the vessel for a few moments, especially for the Shaitans who were hypersensitive to touch, which was one of their primary sensory inputs. Seer Taste of Resolve bore the pain and disorientation of the vibrations as best as he could. He had gotten old and wasn’t as resilient as he used to be.
When Resolve had embarked on this mission, he had known that the rest of his life would be spent on the mission. He had known, that after the long journey from the core worlds, to the heart of the Kalshuk system, he would be almost at the end of the life expectancy of his beings. He had hoped and prayed that he would not die of old age before the fleet reached the Ka-Baal home world for the final assault. Thankfully that was one prayer that had been heard, but his body was showing its age. It twitched uncontrollably for quite some time from the overload of sensory stimulus due to the missile launches.
During the peak of the bout of twitches, Resolve had let his attenti
on slip from the tasting station. As his body started recovering, he could feel the sharp and urgent taste of the master hailing him. “Warmaster… Warmaster. Please acknowledge. Are you functional Warmaster? Please reply. This is extremely urgent!”
“I am here.” Resolve replied shakily.
“Warmaster please check your feed. It is the Ka-Baal missile barrage! The Ka-Baal missile passed by the renegade vessels, bypassing and ignoring them completely! They left every renegade vessel untouched! All the missiles are heading directly towards our fleet, Warmaster!” The master said in surprise and panic at the same time.
Resolve forced himself to concentrate and checked the feed. He confirmed what the master of the vessel was raving about. He was too shocked and dumbfounded to reply. This was a situation he hadn’t considered could even occur when those vessels went renegade and broke formation! Or was it? What was the thought that had been floating in the back of his mind, which was triggered by the master’s words? What was the exact word that he had been struggling to comprehend, and had almost gotten within his grasp, when he was shaken to the core by the missile launches?
Before Resolve could zero in on the word he was trying to get, he was interrupted again, this time by the panic messages from the master, which seemed to have become a routine. “Warmaster you need to scan the feeds again. You are not going to believe this! It is about the renegades’ missiles this time! They are coming the wrong way! They are coming right at us!” There was more than a hint of panic in the taste of the master.
The master had of course been right. There was no mistaking it. The full complement of missiles of the ten renegade vessels was headed straight at Resolve’s fleet! In the name of the supremely wicked Ka! What trickery was this?! Resolve corrected himself. This was not trickery, but treachery! That was the word he had been struggling these last moments to zero in on – Treachery! The concept of treachery was so alien to their beings, that there wasn’t even a proper word for it in their holy language. It was basically a word for a lie, with a sharper taste to indicate that the lie was of a material and physical nature, rather than a misinformation.
The concept of one being behaving treacherously towards their own kind was an unthinkable a concept, which neither Warmaster Resolve nor any of the masters of the rest of the fleet had even given it a serious thought till now. Somehow the entire fleet had been in a mode of denial about the truth, despite the obvious and glaring actions of the renegades. Those signs could no longer be ignored or denied. The renegades had turned treacherous and betrayed them at the most crucial moment of the campaign, designed to hurt the rest of the fleet as much as possible! Why any being would even want to do that was beyond comprehension, but right now Resolve need to tackle the situation.
As Warmaster Resolve was about to give an order, the master of his flag vessel opened up the channel again. This time before the master could speak, Resolve spoke. “Let me guess… it just would happen, that the missile barrage of the Ka-Baal and that of the renegades would arrive at our fleet position at exactly the same time!” Resolve did not really ask the question. It was almost a statement that he made in bitterness.
“You are absolutely right Warmaster! The Ka-Baal fleet is closing in with us at a much higher velocity, so their missiles are travelling a lot faster. The renegade vessels are travelling at almost the same speed as the rest of our fleet, so we are at relative rest in relation to each other. Even though the renegade missile have drifted a lot closer to us than the current position of the Ka-Baal missiles, they would arrive at the position of our fleet at exactly the same time!” The master said.
Resolve opened up the broadcast channel to all the masters of the vessels. “Stop accelerating immediately. Turn around quickly and execute a hard deceleration with emergency thrusters, now! The missile barrages of the Ka-Baal and the renegades are travelling at different speed, and are timed to arrive at our position at the same time based on our current acceleration. Let us upset those calculations by changing our acceleration to a hard deceleration. That would make the two missile barrages arrive at slightly different times, helping our point defense.”
Seventy two Shaitan war vessels stopped their engines turned around fairly quickly and started braking as hard as they could. While the ships were turning, Resolve was seething in anger. He had half a mind of ordering some of the missiles his fleet had fired to be directed at the renegade vessels. Right now he hated those renegades more than he hated the Ka-Baal. In fact as he thought about it, he didn’t hate the Ka-Baal at all! If there was anything he had tremendous admiration for the Ka-Baal warriors, and a healthy respect for the Ka-Baal fleet in front of him, despite the fact that it was half the size of his fleet.
Not half the size of his fleet anymore! Resolve didn’t know if the Ka-Baal had engineered the treachery, or whether it was the sheer bad luck of his beings. Whatever be the reason, he was now fighting with seventy two vessels, while effectively the Ka-Baal had added the ten vessels to their fleet in terms of firepower, and probably point defense as well. So the Ka-Baal were fighting with fifty vessels.
On top of that, the tactical computer had reported that the number of missiles fired by the Ka-Baal vessels was equal to the known munition carrying capacity of those vessels. Most probably the Ka-Baal had fired all the missiles they carried. They were in their home system, and most probably had supply ships waiting for them somewhere on the way back to the home world. The Ka-Baal fleet could afford to expend all the missiles it carried in this encounter, because it could replenish their missiles before they chased Resolve’s fleet once again on the way to the home world.
Even the renegade vessels had fired all of their missiles in this barrage, although there probably was no more replenishments forthcoming for their missiles out here in the Kalshuk system. After this encounter, the renegade vessels would effectively be out of the fight. Still, the effective amount of firepower the Ka-Baal fleet and the renegade vessels had managed to throw at Resolve’s fleet was almost the same as the seventy two vessels of Resolve’s fleet had managed to throw at the Ka-Baal fleet. Resolve couldn’t afford to expend all his missiles in this one encounter. He had to plan for another encounter, which was sure to follow. He had no backup, and no replenishment options.
In one fell swoop the Ka-Baal had managed to even the odds, and make this encounter a much more balanced contest than anyone would have ever expected… or maybe not, thought Resolve. Even if the renegades join the point defense system along with the Ka-Baal, there would still be only fifty war vessels protecting each other from similar firepower, for which Resolve’s fleet would have seventy two vessels protecting each other. In theory Resolve’s fleet should still come out on top after this encounter, with higher number of saves and hence fewer losses compared to the Ka-Baal. Same firepower trying to kill a larger fleet, should give the larger fleet an advantage both ways. Resolve still had the advantage. Just that it was not as large as he had originally envisaged, or could have been if those vessels had not committed treachery.
Resolve noted with a bit of a worry that his attempt to throw off the timing of the two barrages of missiles arriving with different speeds was foiled by the Ka-Baal missiles. The Ka-Baal missiles turned off their engines to stop accelerating towards his fleet, then turned around and actually started decelerating to reduce their speed further and delay their arrival to give the missiles from the renegade vessels a chance to catch up, so that all the missiles would arrive at the same time. So be it, Resolve’s fleet would face all the missiles at the same time. His seventy two vessels still stood a better chance than the Ka-Baal fleet facing the same firepower but with fifty vessels.
Adjusting the timing of arrival of the missiles is one thing. It is not just simple, but also doesn’t require any coordination with the renegade missiles. Resolve was going to have fun watching the renegade vessels coordinate point defense with the Ka-Baal fleet. Resolve knew that the Ka-Baal used an alien computer system that was incompatible with their beings�
� computers, which were installed on the renegade vessels. Point defense without computer coordination was far less effective. Yes. His fleet still had the advantage.
Seer Taste of Logic pinged the Warmaster, which was unusual. A curious caste being rarely had anything report in the middle of a battle. That was not their job. “Warmaster, I have pulled out the records of all the ten renegade vessels. There is an obvious pattern, common to all the renegade vessels. Do you want to hear about it now, or later, after the battle perhaps?”
Now this was interesting, Resolve thought. If there was something common to the ten renegade vessels, then it was an important information that he needed to know. It might help him in some way, in the battle. “Tell me now, Seer Logic.” He commanded.
“All ten vessels come from World #6. In fact those ten vessels represent the full contribution of World #6 to the Grand Coalition fleet, minus the two vessels that were damaged in the Ka-Baal sand attack on our fleet near World #11. There is one more curious fact about the vessels from world #6. The total contribution of World #6 to the Grand Coalition fleet was 12 vessels, out of which two were badly damaged, leaving these ten vessels. When the decision to splinter the fleet was taken, and a proportional formula was adopted, three of those ten renegade vessels were slated to go with the splinter fleet back towards the core systems.
“If you recollect, those three vessels had made a special request to you, to remain in the fleet that would continue onwards towards the Kalshuk system, to assault the Ka-Baal home world. The vessels of World #6 had requested that they be kept together, and in the assault fleet. The vessels of World #6 had offered their position in the splinter fleet, to vessels from other worlds, who may wish to join the splinter fleet. I remember there had been a veritable rush, as many vessels slated to continue as part of the assault fleet had scrambled to take the place of the three vessels who gave up their positions in the splinter fleet.
Triumph & Defeat (Shaitan Wars Book 4) Page 38