The Thunder of War (Thunder in the Heavens)

by Dietmar Wehr

  “Launch VC002 with orders for the following targets to be scanned at extreme range by two-ship divisions which are to micro-jump to twenty million klicks of target and then use inertia drive to approach within extreme detection range.” She checked the sidebar for target designations. “Alpha3,4,5 and 7, plus Beta8 and 9. Detection results are to be reported via L-wave transmissions to TF4.” By this time, the first squadron had swept local space and found no Tyrell ships. Harrow ordered it to stay on picket duty until ordered otherwise. Ordering the six pairs of corvettes from the second squadron to micro-jump closer was a calculated risk. There was always some chance, no matter how small, that the corvettes would micro-jump to within detectable range of enemy super-ships. Standard corvette doctrine was to jump away again as quickly as possible if that happened. She had to wait a few minutes until all six pairs of corvettes had lined themselves up for their individual micro-jumps. Once they had jumped, they could get to within their extreme detection range in less than a minute. Large stations would be massive enough to show up at that range. If the detection system showed nothing, then Harrow had the option to order divisions to move in closer in order to detect smaller structures.

  Recon reports started coming in after a few minutes. No large stations orbited Alpha4,5 or 7, or the two asteroid locations at Bet8 and 9, but there were a dozen large structures orbiting Alpha3 which had to be the home world. Harrow was surprised that there were so many large structures in orbit. At extreme detection range, each of those objects, whatever they were, had to be close to the size of a super-ship, and the possibility that some of them might just be super-ships wasn’t far from her mind either. She was also aware of the fact that the number of large targets equaled the number of corvettes in squadron two. That might be a coincidence, but it also might not be. She ordered all six corvette pairs to get closer to see what else they might be able to detect, but not closer than two light-seconds. The orders were sent in micro-bursts of longitudinal waves that the Odina tech base had made possible. If those L-wave beams happened to intersect a Tyrell ship or station, the message was of such short duration that the Tyrell might not even notice it at all, and if they did notice, it would be too late for them to try to pinpoint the direction the beam came from.

  It took another 13 minutes before the second round of recon reports started to trickle in. The other three planets each had one relatively small station in orbit and not much else. Alpha3 had another 8 smaller objects that seemed to be orbiting that planet in addition to the 12 large ones. In terms of a target rich environment, Harrow had hit the jackpot with Alpha3. All six pairs, including the corvettes that were now within attack range of Alpha3, were ordered to return to TF4. That planet would be the first target, but she wanted all 12 corvettes to attack together and at the same time. Five and a half minutes later, all 12 corvettes had returned and were in the process of forming the standard squadron formation a few hundred kilometers from TF4.

  Harrow was just about to order VC002 to jump back to the two light-second range and then have each corvette target one of the large structures when something stopped her. The number of large targets being the same as the number of corvettes in the squadron continued to bug her. What if some of those large structures were super-ships? What if ALL of them were super-ships. A super-ship in orbit was a relatively easy target to track. The corvettes wouldn’t need a lot of time to pinpoint the target’s exact location with targeting lasers and then to line up the anti-tachyon projectors, but if the super-ships were on alert and noticed the low-powered targeting lasers, they might just be able to react fast enough to be a problem. If they boosted out of orbit at maximum acceleration, they could get within detection range within seconds and could start firing their kinetic cannon at the corvettes.

  Having two corvettes fire at each of the 12 targets would improve the odds tremendously, but that would mean taking VC001 away from picket duties and potentially leaving TF4 vulnerable to a surprise Tyrell attack. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that the designers of this scenario had deliberately structured it this way to give the TF Leader precisely this dilemma. Using only one squadron to attack Alpha three orbitals was the safe option, but maybe safe wasn’t what Mirakova was looking for. On the other hand, maybe it was what she was looking for. There was no way to know for sure, so Harrow didn’t try to outguess the Senior Fleet Admiral. Instead, she asked herself which option would give the best result for the Alliance, and her answer to that was to use both squadrons for the attack and inflict the maximum amount of damage in the least possible time. TF4’s two carriers would be vulnerable for only a few minutes, and in any case, she intended to move the carriers to the far side of the star system once the two squadrons were on their way. They would rendezvous with the carriers at a pre-determined rally point. That SHOULD mitigate the risk of a surprise attack, although if the scenario designers wanted a surprise attack, she doubted it would matter what action she took.

  It took the corvettes of VC001 about eight minutes to regroup near VC002. When both squadrons were ready and had been given the necessary orders, including the rally point location, Harrow ordered the attack to commence. Both carriers micro-jumped to the rally point. Each corvette would attack its designated target at the 1.55 light-seconds range, then make an immediate micro-jump in whatever direction it happened to be facing to throw off any trackers. Then, after that decoy jump, it would swing around to aim at the rally point and micro-jump there. Total elapsed time was estimated to be 89 seconds plus or minus 8 seconds.

  The attack turned out to be an unqualified success. Only one corvette did not make it back to the rally point. Two of the large structures were confirmed as super-ships when they did boost out of orbit. The other ten bogeys were still unidentified, but all 12 targets were hit by at least one anti-tachyon beam. Harrow now had another decision to make. The element of surprise was gone, but there were still other targets worth hitting, such as the 12 asteroid sources of EM transmissions, which could be mining colonies. She decided to make one more attack, with all 23 corvettes, on the possible mining colonies. Both carriers would jump again to a new rally point.

  While she waited for the after-action reports from the second strike, she practiced some breathing techniques to calm her mind and counteract the adrenaline that was messing with her sense of timing. The strike reports all turned out to be positive. Whatever those asteroid installations were, they were now damaged to one degree or another. As soon as both squadrons were back at the new rally point, Harrow ordered them to dock with the carriers, and at that point the virtual image shut down to be replaced by the message ‘Scenario is over’.

  As she took off the helmet, she heard a voice over the loudspeaker that sounded a lot like Admiral Mirakova. “You’re the last to finish, Commander. The second scenario will start in five minutes, so just relax until then.” Harrow checked her personal chronometer and saw that the entire scenario had taken less than twenty-five minutes. For the other three to have finished before her seemed to suggest that they had either not attacked the orbiting objects around the home world or had skipped attacking the asteroids. Her gut told her that she had accomplished more, but even if true, that might not count for much depending upon what Mirakova was looking for in a corvette carrier Division Leader. Harrow also wondered how realistic the first scenario really was. Would the Tyrell be so careless as to broadcast the location of all critical infrastructure installations by using omnidirectional transmissions?

  She was still debating that question when a different voice told her to put the helmet back on. She did so and saw that the second scenario was about to begin. The text briefing informed her that her corvette carrier division was tasked with searching for enemy forces of unknown strength in a star system that was devoid of any inhabited planet, orbiting station or other stationary object that could either be defended or attacked. This was 100% search and destroy, kill or be killed. A timer was counting down to the start with 1 minute, 34 seconds le
ft. She had to decide quickly what tactical approach to use and give the necessary orders. The previous plan of having one squadron form a picket line around the two carriers while the other squadron searched for the enemy came to mind immediately, and Harrow was about to translate that into specific orders when she hesitated. Even if each corvette in the second squadron made a series of micro-jumps to maximize the volume of space it could scan, it would still take days to search a significant portion of a standard star system. The scenario planners would not let that happen, so either they intended for her to find the enemy quickly or they intended for the enemy to find her quickly. The picket line would detect Tyrell super-ships long before they could get close enough to detect the carriers. That possibility wouldn’t be much of a challenge. She had a hunch that this scenario was intended to surprise the contestants so that Mirakova could see how each candidate dealt with that. A surprise suggested that something would get through the picket line undetected, and that implied something small, perhaps the Tyrell equivalent of a corvette.

  Harrow smiled at the idea of enemy corvettes suddenly micro-jumping into close range and raking her two carriers with weapon fire. That was just the kind of devious scenario that Mirakova was capable of coming up with. So, if a surprise attack was inevitable, then the logical thing to do from the stand point of the Division Leader was to split up the division so that each carrier was operating alone. That way, perhaps only one carrier would be attacked by surprise, and the other carrier could order its squadron to return to its carrier…or not! Her eyes opened wide as a result of the silent aha moment she had just experienced. Was that the answer? Use one carrier as bait to lure the enemy into close range and then send the other squadron to attack as well? That would leave the second carrier undefended. But it could micro-jump away at the first sign of trouble…as could the first carrier for that matter. Jumping away the instant the enemy showed up might save the carriers, but it wouldn’t accomplish the mission of finding and destroying the enemy. Whatever she was going to do, she had to decide fast because she was running out of time.

  With only seconds left before the scenario began, she issued the orders and finished just in time. This was going to be a roll of the dice. Either she would win, or she would fail miserably. The scenario began with a faint ping. Both carriers dropped out of hyper-space, and the carrier designated as the Task Force Flagship, with her aboard presumably, peeled off and quickly made a short micro-jump that took it beyond the standard Tyrell detection range. Both carriers stayed in contact via FTL communication. As soon as her flagship emerged from the micro-jump, her carrier accelerated to maximum speed in a shallow zigzag course, and its squadron launched to take up a close escort formation. The other carrier was doing the same with its squadron. With both squadrons deployed, there was nothing left to do but wait.

  Mirakova watched the tactical display showing Harrow’s carriers and shook her head, although there was a smile on her face. Commander Harrow had somehow intuited the nature of this scenario and was standing pat. The other contestants had all done the expected thing by deploying their squadrons forward to seek out the enemy. In less than 21 seconds, the enemy, in the form of hostile corvettes, would drop out of hyper-space and attack each contestants’ carriers. In Harrow’s case, the simulation computer would pick one of the two carriers at random and attack it. Mirakova was curious to see what Harrow’s squadrons would do when enemy corvettes arrived. She was about to find out…now.

  Harrow’s screen filled with 12 red dots that immediately fell behind the fast moving carrier. Apparently the tactical computer algorithm in charge of the enemy corvettes hadn’t anticipated the carrier’s speed by jumping in front of it. Those enemy corvettes now had to swing around and catch up to the fleeing carrier. That they could do with another micro-jump, but the carrier had half a dozen seconds while the enemy lined up for the jump. The squadron escorting the carrier was now dropping behind. When the enemy corvettes micro-jumped to attack range with matched speeds, they would find themselves within attack range of the defending squadron. Mirakova moaned as she realized the mistake Harrow had made when the enemy corvettes micro-jumped behind the defending squadron. The Mark 2 corvettes couldn’t fire backwards, but the enemy corvettes, which had the same performance characteristics as the Mark 2, could fire forwards. She was just about to say that Harrow’s squadron was toast when the squadron and the carrier initiated a radical course change that looked like something pilots used to do back in the days of fighter planes dogfighting with each other.

  “Why doesn’t she just jump away?” asked the Commander in charge of the simulators who was standing next to Mirakova.

  Mirakova didn’t answer. The battle was developing too fast, and she didn’t want to lose her focus. While all corvettes and the carrier were now travelling at point six light, it was clear that the carrier couldn’t turn as quickly as the more agile corvettes could. Mirakova now expected the enemy corvettes to fire their anti-tachyon beams slightly ahead of their targets so that the target would intercept the beam by the time it got there, but that didn’t happen, and she couldn’t understand why. Seconds later the other squadron emerged from micro-jump, and Mirakova pumped her fist in the air to give expression to her epiphany at understanding what Harrow had managed to do. The radical course change had shifted the direction of the running battle away from the other carrier. That meant that the other squadron could micro-jump behind the enemy corvettes while travelling at the same speed and in the same direction. The tactical computer now realized that the hunters had suddenly become the hunted and ordered the enemy corvettes to veer off, line up for a micro-jump to the rally point, and jump away. Five managed to do that. The other seven were either destroyed or crippled by fire from the second squadron. Mirakova waited just long enough to confirm that both squadrons were returning to their escort formations before declaring the scenario over. She checked the other contestants and laughed. Their battles were already over because every carrier except one had been destroyed, and the only survivor, while badly damaged, had managed to jump away. She quickly left the simulator control room and saw that all of the flag officer contestants were commiserating with each other in the corridor. Harrow was also just now entering the corridor.

  Harkaman saw her and said, “Had trouble figuring out how to use the helmet, Commander?” The other flag officers laughed. Mirakova looked at Harrow’s expression closely. Instead of the annoyance or fear she expected to see, she saw that Harrow was taking it quite well with a small smile.

  “I managed, Admiral.”

  Judging from her expression, that clearly wasn’t the answer Harkaman was expecting, “So how long did it take you to get your carriers shot out from under you?” she asked.

  Before Harrow could answer, Mirakova jumped in. “I’ll respond to that, Commander. The results of both scenarios will be carefully evaluated by myself and certain other officers. Commander Harrow may elect to discuss how she did, but she doesn’t have to if she prefers not to, even if questioned by a higher ranked officer. Is that clear to everyone?” The surprised look on the faces of the flag officers almost made Mirakova laugh. What was it about having one or two stars on their collar that seemed to make officers arrogant? When everyone had acknowledged Mirakova’s query, Harrow found that everyone, including Mirakova, was looking at her, clearly wondering if she was going to answer the question or decline to. She really did want to tell that arrogant Harkaman what she had managed to accomplish. She suspected that Harkaman at least hadn’t done as well as she had, but if she didn’t take advantage of the privilege that Mirakova had just given her, the senior admiral might feel that her gift had been rejected or dismissed out of hand. She decided she would wait to rub Harkaman’s nose in her actual results for another time.

  “I will respectfully decline to answer that question, Admiral,” said Harrow.

  Harkaman snickered. “I’d decline too if I’d done as badly as I think you have, Commander.” Before Harrow could respond to th
at, Harkaman turned to Mirakova and said, “When will we hear the results of the sims, Admiral?”

  By this time, both Mirakova and Harrow had walked over to join the group of officers. “The actual scores will not be released in order to spare possible embarrassment to officers who did not score well. When our civilian masters have approved my recommendation for who will lead the mission, then, and only then, will I announce who the Task Force Leader will be. The staff who have been involved in operating the simulations today have been ordered not to divulge the results with anyone, so don’t ask them. If you do hear rumors about the results, regardless of what they are, I would ask that you not pass those rumors on to anyone else. We’re all on the same team, and I do not want these simulations to generate inter-personal conflicts. So with that, let’s break up this huddle. I’m sure all of you have something you should be doing now.”

  As Mirakova watched the group walk away with Harrow bringing up the rear, she mentally shook her head. The purpose of the simulations was to weed out the less competent tacticians, and while Harrow had clearly distinguished herself from the rest, it was the way she did it that was now threatening to give Mirakova a headache. Outguessing a surprise in the simulator was one thing, but she still didn’t know how Harrow would react in a real situation where anything might, or might not, happen. Sitting back with each squadron as a close escort and waiting for an attack was not going to accomplish the Seek and Destroy mission that the second scenario was meant to simulate, and it didn’t show Mirakova how Harrow would react to a real surprise. On the other hand, the others hadn’t exactly covered themselves with glory either, so right now she didn’t know who to pick to lead the raid mission. Her headache moved from threat to actuality, and as she walked back to her office, she sighed with the realization that it was going to be a long day.