Shiloh was about to order Tanaka to microjump the ship to Green4B to refuel, when the Bridge faded from his field of vision, and he saw himself standing in front of Admiral Howard. But this vision was different. Instead of the usual crystal clear image, this image was blurry, almost as if he were looking at the scene through distorted lens. Howard’s voice sounded strange too. The pitch was not quite right, and the words didn’t seem to be synchronized with Howard’s mouth.
“I congratulate you on your decision to remain at the star system where you detected the enemy fleet. If you had continued to track them, you would not have been able to detect the much larger force that was following in their wake, and we wouldn’t have been able to gather enough strength in time to stop it. For your brilliant strategy, I’m promoting you to the next higher level of rank.”
As Shiloh listened to Howard’s words, which were said in a calm, almost monotone voice, he noticed that Howard was repeatedly jabbing his pointed right hand in Shiloh’s direction and the expression on Howard’s face did not look particularly pleased. If he’d been watching this scene without any sound at all, he would have interpreted Howard’s body language as indicating anger. The dissonance between the visual and auditory impressions was striking.
What is going on, he asked himself. He looked around to see if anyone was looking at him. No one was. Tanaka was conning the ship from the Helm Station again. Falkenberg was down in the Hangar Bay supervising the fighters and their support teams. There was something not right about this vision, but Shiloh couldn’t put his finger on it, and he didn’t have time to analyze it further. Decisions had to be made. The fighter at Green4A would be following previously given instructions and maneuvering his drones under the assumption that the fleet would head for the nearest gas giant. Even if the drones didn’t detect any reflected sunlight from any of the alien ships before they reached the gas giant, those ships would agitate the planet’s atmosphere enough with friction and turbulence that their presence would be detected if the drones were close enough. The drones would then attempt to pinpoint the enemy’s exact locations and vectors using the range finding lasers as the ships emerged from the planet’s atmosphere. In theory it should work, but it had never been tried before, so no one really knew.
What Shiloh had to decide now was whether Defiant would proceed to Green4B, as planned, to refuel so that it could boost a high speed message drone, and also beat the enemy fleet to their next destination. But if the vision was correct about an even larger follow-on fleet, then staying right where they were would be the best option. On the other hand, if the vision were wrong somehow, then perhaps there was a third option that he hadn’t considered yet. His visions so far had all involved a change of plans from what he otherwise would have done. If he applied that parameter to this situation, he would proceed to refuel at Green4B. The mere fact that he was having some kind of vision to begin with, strongly suggested that refueling to boost to the next destination was NOT the optimal strategy, but staying in Green4 and doing nothing just didn’t sit well with him. The only other strategy he could think of was to attack that fleet before they could jump away. He needed to confer with his senior officers and to his mind that included Iceman as well. Falkenberg could join the discussion by video intercom, as could Iceman. Tanaka and Rodriguez could step over to his station as they had done before.
When all four were present, either electronically or physically, Shiloh said, “Valkyrie has detected 55 ships emerging from Jumpspace near Green4A. He’ll try to pick up their precise locations and vectors as they refuel. I now have to decide what our response will be. For reasons that I do not want to go into now, I’m having doubts that our plan to refuel at Green4B and then jump ahead of the enemy fleet is still our best option. I want to hear assessments from all of you on an alternative strategy to attack the fleet here in this system, and if you have a completely different idea, I’d like to hear that too. You first, Brad.”
The Deputy CAG took a deep breath and said, “Well, we have 19 fighters still aboard and we have enough attack drones to give them five each, which should be plenty, but the challenge will be to get targeting lasers on each enemy ship, unless we want to use active scanning. Without one or the other, the attack drones won’t know where to aim. Right now, Valkyrie doesn’t have enough recon drones to target more than half a dozen ships at one time, assuming that they can find their targets to begin with. If they were in fact intending to refuel at Green4A, then the ideal time to hit them would be while they’re still deep in the gas giant’s atmosphere. Their ability to see us will be limited, but we’d have to get drones and/or fighters in close to be able to precisely locate their ships from the wakes they leave behind as they plow through the gas.”
Shiloh nodded and turned from the video screen with Falkenberg’s image to his Astrogator.
“Can we get our fighters that close before the enemy re-emerges from the atmosphere, Astrogator?”
“There’s no way to know for certain. We don’t have any data on how fast they can refuel, Sir. But if their refueling time is similar to ours, then the answer is yes. Defiant would have to jump as close as possible to the opposite side of the gas giant from where the enemy fleet is, so that their jump detection gear wouldn’t pick us up. We’d launch our fighters, which would accelerate at maximum in order to make a close, high speed pass, and then fire their attack drones when they had visual contact with the enemy ships.”
He was about to say more when Tanaka interrupted. “What if they keep some of their fleet in orbit to stand guard while the rest refuel? If I were their fleet commander, I wouldn’t risk exactly that kind of ambush by refueling all ships at the same time. How would we deal with that?”
There was a short pause, and then Iceman spoke. “We launch our fighters and use the gas giant’s atmosphere against them. Our recon drones will monitor their position and speed as they refuel. The fighters will enter the atmosphere far enough away that the enemy won’t spot them. When the distance has dropped to less than 100 kilometers, our fighters will swing around so that they’re behind the alien ships still refueling and then move back up to the edge of the atmosphere. The enemy won’t be looking down at the planet for signs of human activity. They’ll be watching the space around and above them. When all 55 ships have finished refueling, our recon drones will relay that data to our fighters, which will emerge from the atmosphere, stay behind the enemy fleet at close range and launch attack drones. At precisely that same time, our recon drones will go to active scanning, use that data to triangulate each enemy ship’s exact position, and relay that data to our attack drones. The enemy will react to the radar scanning from above and fire at our recon drones while our attack drones get within one kilometer of their targets. They can then use their own radars for terminal guidance, and that fraction of a second before impact won’t be enough time for the enemy to retarget their lasers.”
No one said anything for almost five seconds.
Finally Shiloh said, “That plan will require split second coordination to work, but other than that, I don’t see any flaws with it. Does anyone else?”
The responses were uniformly ‘no’.
“Iceman, have you calculated all of the vectors and signal times needed to make this work?” asked Shiloh.
“Ah, roger that, CAG,” was the immediate response.
Shiloh took note of the fact that Iceman referred to him as the CAG and not as the ship’s CO.
“Very good. In that case, I want Iceman to coordinate this attack. He will issue the necessary orders to Defiant’s Helm and all the fighters involved, as well as monitor the attack as it proceeds, and react as needed if things don’t go as planned. Iceman, make sure you keep the Defiant’s tactical computer updated on all vector changes and transmissions. XO? You’ll monitor but not interfere with Iceman’s Helm directives.”
As Tanaka nodded, Shiloh continued, “Iceman, how soon do we need to begin the attack plan?”
“The longer we wait,
the less chance of pulling this off, CAG. I would not recommend waiting more than five more minutes. The sooner, the better.”
“Understood. Does anyone have any questions?” No one spoke up. “In that case, return to your stations.”
When everyone was back at their assigned stations, Shiloh took a deep breath. I hope I’m doing the right thing, he thought to himself.
“Okay, Iceman. The mission objectives are the total destruction of that alien fleet. With that as your goal, you have my permission to commence that attack plan.”
“I won’t let you down, CAG.”
Almost immediately, Defiant’s engines started pushing her onto a new vector. The main display showed a countdown to a microjump. Shiloh’s station started showing increased activity in the Hangar Bay as the support teams began to load more attack drones onto each fighter. The moment that Shiloh had been dreading, being in command of a major battle WITHOUT any reliable vision to guide him, was now upon him. If this plan went wrong, and he survived the battle, Howard would be within his rights to court martial Shiloh.
It was time to roll the dice.
To Be Continued
Author’s Comments:
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Also by Dietmar Arthur Wehr
Swordships Odyssey
Scimitar's Glory
Excalibur's Quest
Tales of the High Avenging Angel
The Tattooed Angel
The Synchronicity War
The Synchronicity War Part 1
The Synchronicity War Part 2
The Synchronicity War Part 3
The Synchronicity War Part 4
The System States Rebellion
Rumors of Glory
Rumors of Honor
Rumors of Salvation
Thunder In The Heavens
The Complete Thunder Series
Standalone
The Retro War
Empire in Crisis
The Last Valkyrie
Watch for more at Dietmar Arthur Wehr’s site.
The Synchronicity War Part 1 Page 25