Triumph & Defeat (Shaitan Wars Book 4)

by Sudipto Majumdar

  Sigrid was feeling guilty to be positioned absolutely in the rear of the formation, as safe as one could be, while her fellow captains out in the front along with their crews were in mortal danger. She said a silent prayer for the Sakhalin and Zenith. She had dated the captain of the Zenith a long time ago in the academy. She tried hard not to think about it at that moment, but those days at the academy kept drifting into her thoughts.

  When the ‘Duvall formation’ would be taught later in military academies, it would be recommended with qualifiers. Young officers aspiring to join the USC would be advised to use the formation pioneered by Admiral Josephine Duvall sparingly. It didn’t work under all conditions, and it didn’t always yield the desired results. Sometimes it resulted in a missed offensive opportunity, as would be proved just a few weeks later, and sometimes it exposed a very vulnerable flank to the enemy fleet, especially if the formation was deployed in a low speed battle.

  In the current encounter though, no such drawbacks would be observed, because the Duvall formation worked best as a surprise maneuver, when the enemy was expecting it the least as in this case, and the Duvall maneuver worked best in a moderate speed battle, where the two fleets were rushing towards each other almost headlong. Exactly the kind of circumstance being faced by the human defense fleet.

  If the Shaitans had been unnerved by the number of offensive nukes that the human fleet had thrown at them, then Sigrid could not imagine what the Shaitans would feel about the number of antimissiles that the human fleet had deployed.

  Since the development of the Ka-Let designed nuclear reactors, the human warships had gone through a major upgrade in terms of thrusting power. This had meant that the amount of tonnage that the warships could carry had increased, and hence certain aspects of the warship design had been upgraded. The basic design was still that of the Avenger class warship. The military being conservative didn’t change something that worked well, and the Avenger class of ships had provided excellent service to the USC. More importantly, all the three ship building yards were tooled and geared to manufacture Avenger class ships, and this was hardly the time to tear all that down to have a new class of ships, which would slow down the production of warships, just as the Hadean fleet was approaching the solar system.

  What the designers had done was to upgrade the Avenger class ships, and had designated them as Avenger-E class ships, where ‘E’ stood for enhanced. The navy had simply started calling them Battle Cruisers. Some of the increased tonnage capacity had gone into providing material comforts inside the ships, because some of the missions lasted a decade or even more. Better the creature comforts that could be provided onboard the ship, more the number of recruits who would be willing to spend a significant part of their lives going on a long mission. The internal goodies for the crew however, did not take up too much of the tonnage.

  Almost all of the increased tonnage had gone into two aspects. First was an improved and thicker armor on the Avenger-E class of ships. It did not just provide better protection in a battle, but had become an almost necessity because humans were going further and faster now, than when they first assaulted Alpha Shaitan many decades ago. The speed of the ships was slowly inching towards the speed of light. On those long journeys at a fairly significant fraction of the speed of light, one encountered a lot of small dust particles that impacted the hull of the ship, which at those speeds caused continuous damage. Some of the original Avenger class ships with insignificantly armored hulls, had suffered significant hull degradation bordering on the dangerous due to this fact.

  The second aspect was the increased space and tonnage allocation for antimissiles. The amount of offensive nukes carried by the warships was adequate and rarely had there been a situation where the armory of offensive nukes fell short of what was needed. However, in a battle situation, one could never have too many antimissiles. Captains were always falling short on the number of antimissiles, and wished they had more. The more the number of antimissiles you can have in the volume of space that is being contested, the better the chances of survival, which was equally important as offense.

  So the number of antimissiles had been doubled. Each Battle Cruiser carried a complement of twenty four hundred antimissiles. There were an incredible ninety six thousand antimissiles that were moving ahead in a slow, deliberate and computer controlled algorithmic manner to meet the four odd thousand Shaitan missiles. Add to this about a thousand odd antimissiles that had been released by the heretics to aid the human defense efforts. All of those antimissiles were moving roughly in a straight line one behind the other to meet up with incoming Shaitan missiles, also forced to move roughly in a straight line.

  In theory, not a single Shaitan nuclear missile should be able to get through to the human fleet, but Sigrid knew that things were not as simple as they usually appeared, and theory and practice were two different things. That is why she said a silent prayed for the Sakhalin and the Zenith, and for the few ships behind them as well.

  “Captain, the heretics have reached our position and are just crossing over. They seem to be following our instructions and staying away from our fleet. The heretics have maintained enough separation with our fleet to ensure that they cannot use their rail guns on us in the passing as well as launch any missiles, although as per our count, they should have expended all of their missiles in that barrage they sent on their own Shaitan ships.” The tactical office on the bridge informed Sigrid.

  “Acknowledged.” Sigrid gave a terse response. She was too fixated on the incoming missiles and the duel with the antimissiles which was about to ensue in moments.

  The tactical office was persistent though, and asked. “After all that the heretics have done, and they have fulfilled everything that was agreed, we still do not trust them, do we captain?”

  Sigrid tore her eyes away from the screen to turn and look at the officer. “There is no point trusting your former enemy more than is absolutely needed. Is there? Especially if those former enemies are turncoats who have betrayed their own species. There is very little stopping them from betraying us lieutenant, when they can betray their own kind.”

  ---XXX---

  “It is as I feared, master. None of our missiles are getting through that incredibly dense cloud of antimissiles that our missiles are forced to travel through. The Ka-Baal Warmaster has played a master stroke with that formation. Our superior numbers count for nothing when our missiles are forced to travel in a straight line, and the Ka-Baal fleet’s inferior numbers is no longer a handicap, when all they are presenting to us is the profile of a single war vessel from our vantage point.” Warmaster Taste of Resolve rued as he saw the nukes that his fleet had launched destroyed one by one in rapid succession, as they tried to approach the human fleet.

  “There is still hope. Our nuclear missiles are reaching closer with each explosion, as it clears the antimissiles in that volume of space as well. If the stream of our missiles can last long enough, then we might be able to reach the Ka-Baal fleet and at least destroy a few of their war vessels in the forefront. It was an inspired decision of yours Warmaster, to change the programming of the nuclear missiles at the last moment such that they approached as a continuous stream, rather than bunched together, as they are normally programmed. At least some of our missiles in the rear have a chance of causing some damage, otherwise all our missiles would have been destroyed all at once.” The master of the flag vessels said, full of admiration and adulation for his Warmaster.

  “I was just trying to make the best of a bad situation master, I wouldn’t call it an inspired idea. If there is anyone whose idea is inspired, then it has to be that of the Ka-Baal Warmaster, whose formational tactics show that he has outthought and hence outfought his adversary, viz. me! It is not good enough an outcome if we manage to destroy a few of their war vessels in this encounter by expending half of our missiles. We do not have any ammunition replenishment forthcoming.

  To make matters worse, our fleet is in a very convent
ional formation, and the sheer amount of Ka-Baal missiles coming our way means that our point defense system would be taxed to the extreme, and we would lose far more warships. As far as I am concerned, the Ka-Baal have already won this round of the battle. We now have to make the best of the situation by losing as few vessels of our fleet as possible. Let us concentrate on our point defense, Master. What is the current position of the incoming Ka-Baal missiles?” The Warmaster asked, and then on further thought realized that his fleet was also facing a barrage from the renegade vessels. He had still not gotten used to the fact that he had to consider a part of his fleet as the enemy.

  “The Ka-Baal and the renegades seem to have talked to each other, either during this battle or long before Warmaster, because the missile targeting seem to be coordinated at a basic level. The missiles are all targeted towards the north-east quadrant of our square formation. Specifically the missiles are targeted at the corner of the square where most of the renegade vessels were formerly holding position. Consequently this corner of our formation has holes in it, making the rest of the vessels in that corner more vulnerable.

  “By choosing a corner and that too the one with holes in it, the rest of our fleet will find it difficult to provide point defense to the vessels in the targeted corner of our formation. We have started the realignment of the formation to bring those isolated vessels closer in a tighter grouping, but there isn’t enough time, the enemy missiles are almost upon us. The Ka-Baal haven’t streamed their missiles like we did at the last moment. The enemy missiles are coming in bunched in a conventional manner, because we are in a conventional formation, thus the slight delay in arrival of their missiles at our position, compared to ours reaching their position.

  “The enemy seems to be targeting only a fraction of our fleet. I am not sure what their strategy is, but it is both good news and bad news. The good news is that we cannot lose more than sixteen to twenty four vessels, because that is all that the enemy is targeting. We will know the exact number of vessels targeted shortly. The bad news is that the fire is so heavily concentrated on those targeted vessels, that there is a high probability that each and every vessel targeted would be destroyed or wounded, even with those puny missiles of the Ka-Baal.” The master reported.

  “Those Ka-Baal missiles are puny as a deliberate strategy, Master. From the state of the enemy technology, I am sure that they can produce larger missiles, but they have taken a strategy of more missiles at the cost of each one having lower yield. It may not be a bad strategy, because the larger number of missiles tax our point defense system ensuring that at least some of the missiles slip through, even if a single missile may not always be able to guarantee destruction, like our missiles can. In this mission, a wounded vessels of ours is no better than a dead vessel. We don’t have the time or the support to repair vessels. The Ka-Baal are in their home system and can tackle the wounded vessels at leisure.

  “As far as the strategy in targeting only a fraction of the vessels, which ensures that they can destroy whatever they target is concerned, their strategy is obvious. It is a good strategy if you are defending something which you cannot afford to lose – your home world, and you have a limited number of war vessels, but a much larger amount of support spread around the system, because it is your home system. The strategy is to win this battle by attrition, make small cuts in our fleet strength by making multiple runs, and at each encounter take less risks to ensure that most of your fleet stays preserved, and target only a small fraction of our fleet, which can be destroyed realistically.

  “The Ka-Baal fleet can then quickly make a run to rearm themselves at supply depots which must me dotting the system, after which they would come back and make another run, and repeat their strategy. As our fleet gets smaller, our point defense gets weaker, making it easier for the Ka-Baal fleet to kill our vessels. All the while we would be expending our own offensive missiles as well as defensive antimissiles. The Ka-Baal hope that by the time our fleet reaches close to their home world, our fleet would not just have been whittled down to a much smaller size, but also that the entire fleet would have gone dangerously low on ammunitions. It is not a bad strategy at all. We have to be cognizant of it, and ensure that the enemy designs do not succeed.” Resolve said, as his mind started racing ahead to the next encounter with the Ka-Baal fleet that was sure to happen. He would observe the efforts of his fleet’s point defense system, but there wasn’t much for him to do personally. It would all be controlled by computers from this point onwards.

  ---XXX---

  “Admiral, the Shaitan missiles are progressively getting closer to the foremost ship in our formation before they are being destroyed, at this rate those Shaitan missiles will reach the Sakhalin within a few moments!” Ensign Costello exclaimed in alarm.

  “I know young Enrique,” Josie replied sadly, “and a third of the Shaitan missile barrage is yet to reach us. Looks like we aren’t going to emerge out of this encounter unscathed. It was too much to hope for in any case. Warmaster Resolve isn’t stupid. He changed the deployment of his missiles to a stream from a bunched up configuration, the moment he saw our formation. I would have done the same. I was just hoping that the Warmaster may not be able to keep his wits around him at the crucial moment. I guess it was too much to hope for. Any competent admiral would have done what the Warmaster did, so it would have been too much to expect that an experienced and competent warrior like Warmaster Resolve would have failed to do it…” Josie said, half to herself.

  There was a morose momentary silence in the flag bridge, then Josie suddenly asked Ensign Costello. “Did you know that he is almost hundred and fifty years old?! He is almost at the end of his natural life. He was already a well-known and well accomplished warrior within his species when he was chosen to lead the Hadean fleet. He has spent all the rest of his life leading the Hadean fleet all the way here from the heart of the Shaitan Empire! That is dedication to service for you!”

  After a few more moments of silence, Josie spoke again to ask a useless question. Even a greenhorn like Enrique could make out that she was nervous. “I guess the tactical computers have started increasing the distance between our ships, to minimize our losses as much as possible?”

  “Yes ma’am.” Enrique replied after checking the fleet formational data in his head once. “The ships in the fleet have been repositioning themselves relative to each other from the moment those Shaitan missiles were released towards us, exactly as programmed. As the missiles come closer to our fleet, the ships of the fleet keep increasing the distance between each other just enough, so that they are as far apart from each other as possible, and yet the rearmost vessels cannot be reached by the Shaitan missiles by moving out of the tight line in which we have forced them to approach us.”

  Josie was nodding in acknowledgement, but Enrique realized that she was really not listening to him. She was in the combat suit, but Enrique could have sworn that there were tears in the admiral’s eyes. Enrique realized that while he was talking, he missed and important event – the destruction of USC Sakhalin. Enrique couldn’t be sure, but he thought that he heard the admiral mutter under her breath. She said something like “… I am sorry…”

  ---XXX---

  “Warmaster, the traitorous renegades have definitely talked and coordinated with the Ka-Baal during this battle. Nothing else can explain the perfect coordination.” The Master reported to Resolve. “The Ka-Baal are targeting exactly twenty of our vessels, and the renegade missiles are also targeting those same twenty vessels.

  “That is not all! The renegade missiles are divided equally to target each of those twenty vessels with sixty four missiles each. The Ka-Baal missiles seem to be playing a supporting role, by clearing the path and acting as a shield for the renegade missiles, which are obviously much higher in yield and hence more dangerous. It may seem incredible, but I suspect that the missile control systems of the renegades and the Ka-Baal are talking to each other! Computer to computer! The renegades s
eem to have interfaced their computers with those of the Ka-Baal! I am not sure how they have done that in such a short period?! I didn’t think that it was even possible!”

  “Oh, it is definitely possible Master. Any two machines of automaton can be interfaced to exchange data, however different and alien they may be to each other. All it requires is time and a lot of communication and coordination between the makers of those two computer systems. It would seem that the treachery of World #6 has been deep and going on for a long time. Dispatch this piece of information immediately to the core worlds. They need to be warned about this!” Resolve ordered the Master, while he watched with morbid fascination at the clinical precision with which the Ka-Baal and the renegade missiles coordinated and flew in a specific swarm formation to cut through the point defense of their fleet and eventually manage to reach their targets.

  The Ka-Baal had chosen their targets well, and they had calibrated their ambitions perfectly. One by one the targeted vessels started dying. But no vessel died due to an overkill. Every vessel of his fleet that died, was killed by just a few missiles. If one of those few missiles that managed to reach the targeted vessel happened to be a renegade missile, then the massive explosion left nothing of the targeted vessel. Otherwise, some of the vessels did manage not to be blown to smithereens, but they were still dead and of no use.

  Resolve realized that the number of vessels targeted had been calibrated so well by the Ka-Baal, that had they targeted a few more vessels with the same amount of missiles, then his fleet’s point defense system would have been able to stop far more of those Ka-Baal missiles, as each vessel would have been under less intense fire. As a result the Ka-Baal would have been able to destroy less than twenty vessels. If the Ka-Baal missiles had targeted any less than twenty, then they would have surely destroyed all that it targeted, but it would have been a missed opportunity.