by Andrew Beery
"We need to move, and redeploy the jump shields as fast as we can." Cat said.
The Admiral looked puzzled, "Explain."
"Cal... Draw a vector along the path the bulge is taking... They will be the first to attack because they are dying... They've got to get their attack off while they can. That vector is the only angle they can attack along... So if we redeploy our jump shields along that vector we can force them to jump farther out and give us more time to react."
"Comms..." the Admiral said into the air. "This is Admiral Faragon. Cal will provide you with a transcript of the last 10 minutes of our conference. I want a copy sent to United Space Command, as well as the Earth and Mars directorates... On my authority they are to redeploy their jump shields accordingly... ASAP, Lieutenant!"
"Understood, Sir!" the disembodied voice of the bridge officer answered.
"Well, Cat, you bought us a little more time... How do you propose we use it?"
Ken broke in, "Since we know the path they will be taking... Why not deploy Dusties in their path?"
"Dusties?" Thais said quizzically.
"Clouds of disassembly nanites, programmed to replicate, based on any available source material, for about four hours... Then they automatically go into self-cannibal mode and destroy each other. For those four hours, anything caught in their path, that doesn't broadcast a shutdown code, is effectively torn apart." Cat explained.
"The problem is... Destroying the ships with a Dusty does not help us" Chief Wroblewski said. "Momentum in conserved... A ton of steel hurling at forty percent the speed of light, has the same kinetic energy as a ton of dust traveling at forty percent the speed of light."
"The Chief makes a good point..." the Admiral said. "But we may still want to deploy the Dusties. They effectively eliminate the ability of the attacking fleet to adjust course. Once done we have the option of simply deflecting the mass."
Cat looked at the hologram. "If we only had the ability to drop a line of nuclear charges along the flight path, we could subtly change the debris' direction."
"Damn..." Sherry muttered.
The Admiral looked pleased "I'll expect the credits deposited..."
"Already done, Sir." Sherry said glumly.
Ken looked between the Admiral and his aide... A slow smile growing on his face. “I understand what we were doing in engineering"
"My guess is you were setting up the nanite replicators to produce jump capable nuclear warheads with their own AIs... Or even better, entangled quantum communicators that would allow rapid precision deployment." Cat said.
Sherry's jaw dropped.
The Admiral's grin threatened to stretch from ear to ear. "I told you that PhD was not just wallpaper. What we spent days figuring out she had in minutes."
***
The First of the First sat in his small cabin. He knew he was only hours from death. His bitterness knew no bounds. He had expected to jump his armada within a scant three or four light minutes of the fourth world. Enough time for the humans to appreciate the author of their doom, but not so long as to allow any but the lucky to escape. Instead, their ships had been forced out of the hyper fold a good three light hours out. How the humans had managed that, was beyond him, but the result was a bitter pill. At .4c he was a good six or seven hours out. With most of his crew dead, it was all he could do to adjust the ships course to compensate for the translocation, and still hit the planet. A full forty of his ships would miss, because the crews were either already dead or too incapacitated to make the adjustment.
As it was, he was now near the rear of his attack formation, rather than leading it... Simply another shame visited on him by these humans. He kept his view screen locked on his forward most ships. If fate were to smile on him one last time, perhaps he would be privileged to see the first of his ships hit this world the humans called Mars.
The First of the First thought his eyes were giving out. The lead ship seemed to shimmer and dissolve into dust. Then the ship behind and off to the right dissolved. Soon ten, then twenty, then forty or more of his ships seemed to shimmer. Moments later, bright flashes, which the First of the First had long ago learned to associate with nuclear weapons, began to go off in front of the dust clouds that had been his ships.
***
"Excellent targeting Chief." Cat told her weapons officer.
"Sensor plots show the debris field will brush Phobos but that is as close as it will get" Ken reported.
"We still have the seventeen ships that managed to get by the Dusties." Cat said. Turning, she called out to the communications officer.
"Ziggy, let the Admiral know we are bringing up the holographic CIC and going to full battle mode."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Cat stood to face the CIC display. She rotated it with her hands. Ken stood next to her.
"They're still accelerating which is going to make this a little tougher... Their shields are stronger than ours and while we can program our micro-jumps to simulate their acceleration it's going to make ship to ship combat pretty tough"
"Don't forget it's not enough to disable them... We have to deflect their mass, and every second we get closer to Mars that task gets mathematically more difficult."
"Admiral on the Bridge." Ensign Zimmerman announced, as everyone came to attention.
"As you were." Admiral Faragon responded, as he walked up to the CIC.
He looked over the display for a moment before speaking. Cat kept running simulations on a side screen. She was not liking the outcome. She was just formulating a different approach when the Admiral spoke up.
"What's our ship count?"
"We have three fully configured and ready battle groups, each with forty-nine ships, plus about two dozen ships with enhanced shielding partially installed but not fully operational... Given the effectiveness of the of the D'lralu beam weapons, we might be better off holding those ships in reserve."
"Agreed, Captain." The Admiral looked at Cat with a speculative glance. "I'd like to hear your thoughts about how to proceed."
"Well, Sir, given what we know of the D'lralu from the Heshe and Ben... I don't see us effectively taking them on ship to ship... Our nanite regenerative shielding is effective for making a heavily damaged ship combat ready again, but it's not a significant advantage during the primary engagement... Simulations are showing a heavy crew loss with any direct confrontation scenario I've run through the computers" Cat answered.
"That's assuming the D'lralu are fighting at full effectiveness..."
"Yes, Sir, it is."
"Can I assume you have a different proposal?"
"Sir... I'd like to reconfigure one of our smart missiles to carry a shield array."
"If we can't adequately shield our ships why would we shield a missile?"
Cat paused to think of a quick way to describe what she was thinking. "Sir, we've talked before about jumping a nuclear payload directly into an enemy's primary hull."
"Can't be done with active shielding in place... The hyper field prevents the jump in."
"Sir, it occurred to me, in World War Two, the lowest ranking soldier would be ordered to wear padding and jump on the Concertina wire that would protect an enemy's position... Not dissimilar to shielding... The advancing troops would then run over the breach made by the first soldier."
"Not a bad approach, so long as you are not the lowest ranking enlisted." Ken added.
"True," Cat said... "Now suppose you jumped a missile with a hyper field shield generator right next to another shield..."
"The ships AI would simply tune the field to compensate for the interaction." the Admiral stated.
"Yes Sir it would, but remember... Our computers seem to be much faster. We can leverage that speed differential to jump a second missile in..."
"Before they can close the gap in the Concertina." the Admiral finished. "I like it. What do the simulations say our success rate is likely to be?"
"Well, Sir, it's hard to calculate but I'm conservative
ly estimating 15%"
Ken looked at Cat and the Admiral. "Excuse me if I'm being dense here, but with those numbers you are only going to get two or three of the remaining seventeen."
The Admiral winked at Cat. "Not if we adopt terrorist tactics."
"Exactly, Sir." Seeing the confused look on her First Officers face she paused to explain. "The D'lralu can successfully stop us many times... We only need to be able to get past them once."
"How soon can we deploy?" the Admiral asked.
"We can go now but our ordnance counts are low... We may have to slug it out with the last of them."
"Alright, I'll brief the fleet on our approach... I want the Yorktown out of the fray, but doing real-time combat analysis, and feeding the results into the general battle grid. I want our reserve ships in position to engage in any way possible, should any of that first group get through"
Chapter Nineteen – The Attack…
An alarm klaxon woke the First of the First. Initially he was confused. It was becoming more and more difficult to remain awake. The AI was reporting a proximity alert. Something had jumped right next to the ships shield array. The array was momentarily disrupted. The AI which was among one of the best in the fleet quickly compensated. The ship rocked as a twenty megaton blast impacted against the newly reestablished shield.
The First knew that if his systems had been any slower compensating his ship would not have survived that last blast. These humans were a force to be reckoned with. In a different time and under different circumstances he might have liked knowing them.
A flash in the corner of his view screen told him one of his remaining fleet had not been so lucky. The ship rocked again.
"Computer... Report... How many ships remain?"
There was a brief pause as the cybernetic AI reviewed the existing sensors and tabulated a result. "Seven vessels remain intact, however, four are no longer on an intercept course for the primary target. Most probable explanation would be that the crews are incapacitated."
"Assume remote control and bring those ship back into attack posture" The First barked at his AI. The effort resulted in a bloody coughing spell that lasted until the First collapsed in exhaustion.
His ship rocked four more times. In that time he watched five of his remaining ships destroyed by relentless human bombardment.
***
"That's it. The last missiles just launched." Cat said. "It's a slug fest now. Ziggy, advise the Admiral we have two ships left to deal with."
"The Admiral has been apprised, Ma'am."
"Cat?"
She mentally activated her comlinks. "Yes, Admiral?"
"I want you to coordinate the Alpha battle group while I handle the overall board."
"Roger that, Sir."
"And Cat..."
"Sir?"
"We stop them at all costs... There are 28 Million people on Mars depending on us."
"Understood, Sir."
"Ziggy... Tie me into the Alpha battle group's comm hub." Cat said to her communications officer.
"You're on, Ma'am"
"Attention Alpha battle group, this is Captain Kimbridge of the Yorktown. We have two bogies left to deal with. They are now traveling at .47c. If even a fraction of one of those ships hits the surface at that speed... Well let's just say that can't happen."
Cat nodded to her First Officer. "Commander Kirkland is sending you your assignments. We are going after bogie one, which is five minutes closer to impact. Our only option, at this point, is to try and overwhelm their shields. This will not be easy, and in order to match their current velocity and acceleration, we will need to use highly coordinated micro-jumps. Unfortunately we did not anticipate this level of coordination, so we are not setup with fleet-wide, ship-to-ship entangled quantum communications. When we jump out of our current formation, there will be a sub second delay between signals as we relay through the communication hub on Lunar One. Therefore, each ship is being assigned a spherical wedge to focus your attacks."
Cat up at looked at Chief Wroblewski, "Chief... Who did you say had EMP rounds left?"
"The Rutledge and the Pinecrest each have one, Ma'am"
"Captains Stover and McKay... Hold back and ready your EMP's. The Yorktown will jump in close enough to disrupt that ship's shields... You fire your EMP's at exactly 23:45 aught aught... To the millisecond. You won't have visual, but your Hyper field sensors should give you the same instantaneous info a quantum link would. With luck the Yorktown's shields will beat bogie one's to recovery, and the EMP will roll over us...
If, for some reason, that does not happen, and we are out of it... Captain Ruck of the Avenger will have tactical command.
I want everyone else to begin strafing with rail guns, and the coherents set on maximum at 23:40 aught aught. People, keep to your assigned sectors. Once the EMPs do their work I'll need all ships to form up on the Avenger... From that point we'll use the rail guns to push the bogie on to a non-collision course."
Cat looked up at her First Officer. "Look over your orders... If there are any questions get them to Commander Kirkland, ASAP... We have two minutes before this final push begins. Kimbridge out."
***
The deck rolled, and the First of the First slipped out of his command couch. Klaxons resumed their intolerable wail. What now, he thought. Could not these humans allow a warrior to die in peace?
The AI was blathering something that sounded vaguely important. He fought to concentrate on the report. Something about multiple attack vectors and shields depleting. That last got his attention. He crawled towards the door to the bridge. Three of his legs were refusing to work and the others hurt like a breech birth. Just as he was working his way thru the door the ship rolled again and he struck his head against the bulkhead. Fresh blood soaked his fur but the blow cleared his head... At least for a few minutes.
"Computer..." He croaked, “Automated fire unlock... Command code 6-1-7-rapture-0-1-0, execute."
"Command Accepted. Specify target."
"Target any non-D'lralu ship within range... Fire maximum power until all ships are destroyed. Confirm instructions."
"Confirming instructions. Automatic AI directed fire enabled. Target any and all non-D'lralu vessels within weapon fire range."
The First of the First smiled at the ships attacking him. They were in for an unpleasant surprise.
"Implement instructions now"
***
"Whooo..." Cat huffed as most of the bridge crew was thrown to the deck. The Yorktown shuddered under a continuous barrage of incredibly intense energy beam weapons. The CIC was showing most of the Alpha Battle group taking fire simultaneously from the two remaining ships.
Ken pulled himself up and triggered the emergency stabilizers on the navigation console. "Those beams are putting out ten or eleven giga joules each, and they're firing dozens at a time!"
Cat pulled herself back into her command chair. The Bridge continued to roil and panels were beginning to overload. "Ziggy... Fleet wide now!"
"This is Captain Kimbridge... We're taking a pounding... We've already lost the ships with the weakest shielding... Everyone Push the schedule ahead sixty seconds... Repeat we are jumping on the Concertina sixty seconds earlier."
"Helm I want you to plot a jump right on top of that ship... I don't want so much as a single hair between us and them... At the same time I want you to push every last ounce of power into the hyper field generators... We need to give the boys with the EMPs as big a hole as possible."
"Locked in, Captain!" Lieutenant Torres said, as he scrambled to enter the commands on a console that was constantly shifting under him. "Ma'am, some of the emitters are beginning to overload"
"Start rolling and spinning the ship... Let's spread out where we are taking the hits."
"Cal," Cat said... "Watch the clock closely... Jump us the millisecond we need to go."
"Jumping in 48 seconds"
It was the longest three-quarters of a minute in Cat's life,
but they needed to give the battle group time to do their magic. Time did not come without a cost though. The exhaust fans on the bridge were at maximum trying to clear the smoky haze. Every blast from the D'lralu capital ship knocked more systems offline. The nanite infused systems of the Yorktown were bringing the various systems back up quickly, but they were not keeping up with the rate of damage the ship was taking.
There was a moment of cheering when the second Bogie was reported destroyed. The shields were not even raised, as the other battle group holed the ship with their first volley of rail-guns and plasma beams. Apparently the captain and crew of that ship were no longer able to command its defenses, and the Beta Battle Group was able to nudge it into an orbit that would eventually take it into the sun.