At the appointed time I called them to order. It was still strange, being one of the least senior officers, and being in command. I was becoming used to it, and there had never been a moment when I was reminded of my lack of seniority, unless it was in the form of a joke, and not during an ‘official’ meeting.
Elian went over the mission, step by step. We had decided that after we launched the missiles out of the FFC, we would retain the last load on the Hawks and try to move in closer before launching them. The FFC would return home via a different roundabout course, and would meet up with the fleet at a preplanned location. If the fleet couldn’t make the rendezvous it would leave a beacon that would activate on command, giving an alternate location.
While we were in the meeting, my pad chirped. I looked at it and raised my hand for silence. I said, “We’ve got a go-ahead. We’ll be escorting an FFC, whose crew is practicing the load out of the Mark 65 as we speak. Commodore Harrelson reminded me that we’re getting nearly the entire complement of the Mark, and I assured him that we wouldn’t ‘waste them’ on vacuum. Now, although Elian has put together a not altogether horrible mission, I want to open the discussion up to you. I’ve been reminded by the oh-so-patient Master Chief Kana, that ape sitting over there with his knuckles dragging on the deck, that enlisted don’t suffer from being, um, 'overly educated', although he phrased it differently.”
Loud laughter greeted my remark and the chief grinned in acknowledgment of his notoriety. I said, “First, let’s discuss the ingress. Our initial goal is to depart from the Essex without being spotted by the bugs, which result would result in our losing Geedunk privileges for a month.” More laughter and several hands.
I nodded to a PowPro7 and he asked, “Sir, since we have demonstrated that the Hawk is very difficult to track, couldn’t we save some time by heading more or less straight toward the bugs?” I looked directly at him and asked, “To answer that question, Elian looked at all the possible ways to leave the Essex, analyzing risk versus gain. Between the twelve Hawks and the Essex, which is the more important to earth fleet? He decided that the continued existence of the Essex was sufficiently important that lengthening the course the Hawks would take in order to lower the risk of detection was the better course of action, even if it meant the bug mother ships might be ready before we arrived within range. That is what Elian decided. I want to know if anyone has a better option.”
No hands were raised.
I looked around the room for a moment and grunted. “OK, now, we’ve managed to separate ourselves from the Essex and we’re closing on the bug flotilla. Elian has decided that at approximately one hundred million kilometers from the bug fleet, we would shut off our drives and begin shooting off the Marks. We estimate that we would be within fifty million kilometers by the time we finished. At that time, his plan calls for the FFC to egress the area while the Hawks separated into two groups and approached as closely as possible before dropping their Mark 65’s. At that time the Hawks would egress as stealthily as possible, with the goal of not becoming former Hawks. Understand, the bugs are patrolling aggressively and it will take a lot of time to get near enough to drop off the Mark 65’s, and at least as much time to extricate ourselves. At no time during the mission will we be able to relax, as we did last time around. So, does anyone have an idea that will make our mission more successful?”
The same PowPro 7 raised his hand and asked, “Sir, how stealthy is that FFC we’re getting?” I smiled and looked over at Master Chief Kana. He stood and said, “I suggest that we plan for a noisy fart of a companion.” More laughter erupted from the crews.
A pilot, one of the most senior officers in our midst stood and asked, “Sir, what if after we shot off the Marks, we were to head to a point one hundred eighty degrees opposite the angle of attack and see if we could exploit any weaknesses caused by their defensive efforts?” I nodded to the chief again and he stood once again. “As it is, we are operating the Mark 65 right at the limit of its ability. In fact, I know of no operation in which the missile was programmed to coast for so long between launch and final penetration. That said, is there any reason why we can’t do that? We would be showing up hours after the missiles attacked, and from another heading.”
I looked at Elian and he stood. “Let’s look at it: what could be gained by delaying the Hawks launch?” Numerous hands jumped up and within ten minutes it was clear that nearly all the personnel supported a simultaneous attack.
We walked the crews through the entire mission and ended up with no changes. However, my intent had not been to change the mission, but to ensure that everyone not only knew the mission, but knew the why for each decision. In case our Hawk was damaged or destroyed, I wanted whoever took over to follow through.
After everyone left for an enforced sleep period, the chief looked over at me and said, “Sir, that was the most interesting briefing I’ve ever attended, and I’ve been in a few. I was a little concerned that your approach might be misunderstood by some of the more senior officers. Instead, you ended up not only explaining the ‘what’ of the mission, you gave them the underlying ‘why’ of it. Well done sir.”
I almost blushed, but managed to nod my appreciation. He grinned sardonically at me and I grinned like a little school kid.
All the Hawks had been prepped and gone over with a fine-tooth comb. The crews were ordered to sleep for a full eight hours prior to the final briefing, which would hopefully last just long enough for me to tell them that there had been no changes.
I woke up a little early and took a shower. I was dressed and eating an early breakfast when Elian joined me. This time around we were eating in the officer’s mess, although I seriously preferred the more relaxed atmosphere of the enlisted version.
By 0400 all four of us were in the Hawk, running last minute diagnostics. We had a second generation set of antennas that were supposed to be more resistant to laser fire as well as being more sensitive. From the outside they appeared to be different colored patches on the black skin. There was far more of them now, ensuring that we would still have enough to survive after losing a few to laser strikes.
We were given permission to move the start time up due to a report of a bug patrol coming dangerously near the Essex.
We were ejected from the Essex one at a time and slowly pulled away from the ship which was actually moving in the same general direction in an attempt to stay clear of possible detection.
We ran at six gravities for two hours before beginning to arc around to galactic west. I asked Carolyn to track the Essex and her escorts to determine how far away we could see our home at the leisurely G’s she was pulling. It was much easier to track the Essex than I would have liked. Fleet engineers at Lubya said that it would be almost easier to design and build a new ship than retrofit an older one like the Essex. It seemed that the bugs had made most of our fleet obsolete. I hoped that they wouldn’t also make it dead as well.
It took almost fifty hours for us to reach the preselected spot in space where we were to begin launching the Mark 65’s. We were going to launch our missiles at a target that was too distant to see - we were using targeting information that was growing stale. The Mark 65 would be able to make a course correction once it came near enough to the mother ship, if it came near enough to it. Our Hawks would also be able to make corrections, and we would be able to catch up to the missiles as they coasted along.
On command, the first batch of twenty four dropped free of the Hawks and slowly moved away. Even as the missiles were being launched the FFC was off loading individual missiles. The first Hawk moved up to within ten meters of the cargo hatch. The FFC crew moved the monsters out of the hatch and carefully aligned it with the winglet mounts. The process went much faster this time around, thanks to a lot of thought and the development of some new tools. As soon as the first Hawk was loaded up it moved out of the way and the second one moved in. We had all twelve Hawks rearmed within four hours.
The second load was launch
ed and once again we waited in line for our third load. The Essex was working on containers that we could remotely load up with the targeting information; but for the time being we could only transfer the data and fire them via our wing mounts. Until then, we had to do it the old fashioned way.
After we rearmed the fourth time, the FFC flashed its running lights twice at us and turned for the long run back toward the Essex. I’d be willing to bet its crew was exhausted.
The Hawks flew in one compact group toward the bug flotilla, following generally the path taken by the missiles. As soon as we caught up to the last batch we veered off to galactic west again and began to separate from the inbound missiles. As the third load of missiles caught up to the second, they would both fire their engines for a preselected period of time. When the two groups caught up to the first, it would fire its engines for long enough to match velocities. We had had to do this manually, as the missiles weren’t that smart.
As we slowly veered away from our missiles, Carolyn ran scans on them. Even coasting they generated a small amount of noise. A bug destroyer would be able to see them if it passed within a thousand kilometers or less.
The missiles fusion drives ran on internal reaction mass and our launch from such an extreme distance meant they would have almost no drive time left for the final sprint. Once launched, the missile’s power system couldn’t be shut down. We were taking a calculated risk, but that is what war is. One of the things war is.
By ten million kilometers we had obtained an accurate fix on the bug mother ship. I nodded to Carolyn and she sent a burst transmission to the missiles, which would have them align on the mother ship and scatter so that if a ship saw them it would only have a few targets to shoot at.
We picked up a sniff of a destroyer, this time quite a long distance from the mother ship. My first thought was that we had sent the missiles in at a bad trajectory and they would exhaust their limited drive time trying to correct. However, as we continued our approach we picked up three more. They had moved them way, way out. I asked Carolyn to run a scan, using another new piece of software that utilized all twelve Hawks antennas. I wanted to know the precise location of the enemy ships and fighters.
She received a burst transmission back from the missiles, telling us that they had received and implemented her order to scatter. We still hadn’t located the other bug mother ships, but they had to be somewhere in the vicinity. Even if they weren’t underway, they still had to run their systems in order to generate power and gravity, and we would find them with one system or another, eventually. I worried that we hadn't seen them yet.
Finally, at fifteen million kilometers, Carolyn’s scans picked up a second bug mother ship, which proved to be on the same general heading as the one we’d targeted, although more distant, and completely out of range. Once again, the bugs had adapted to our tactics. We were having trouble finding the bug mother ships, and in fact had only located two of the four that were supposed to be within a few million kilometers of each other. At the moment, I didn’t have time to ponder the why, I had to decide what to do.
I said, “If we sent a course change to half of the inbound missiles, we could conceivably attack both mother ships, but I’m reluctant to do that, as we’re operating them so close to their limits as it is. Comments?
Carolyn said, “Sir, the sooner we communicate a course change, the longer the 65’s will have on their drives for the final run in.” I looked at Elian and he said, “Also, the sooner we transmit, the lower the chance we will get spotted.”
I asked the chief, “Chief, if we let them continue on their present course, will they have any drive time left?” He frowned and said, “Let me check.” He spent a very tense two minutes on his systems and said, “Sir, it’s fifty-fifty whether they would be able to successfully attack the second mother ship, perhaps sixty-forty if we make no changes. If you’re asking, I recommend we don’t split up the attack.”
I looked at the overhead above my position and thought furiously, then nodded. I looked at Carolyn and asked her to send the missiles their final instructions. She had already set it up and simply said, “Gaylord, activate.” I looked at her in surprise and asked, “Gaylord?” She grinned and said, “its voice activated, and I decided it would be best to use a command term that we wouldn’t ordinarily use. It just wouldn’t do to ask the time of day and accidentally fire off a missile, would it?” I grinned and nodded my head.
I asked Elian to connect me up with the other crews and I told them our situation. We had gone to a lot of trouble to attack the bugs, using virtually every single Mark 65 in our inventory. We had not been able to locate two of the four mother ships, and it was possible that some of the missiles would go ballistic before reaching their target. I asked for input on what to do with the twenty-four final missiles, and Hawk07 said, “Sir, if we changed course right now we could possibly run interference for the missiles we’ve already launched.”
I asked Carolyn to run that possibility through her system and within ten seconds she reported, “Sir, we couldn’t make it in time, even if we didn’t get bounced by the bugs.”
I nodded and said, “We’ll continue in on our present course. We’ll launch the moment we get within five million klicks or get spotted.”
We continued on in silence. The Hawk crews had been getting four-hour rest periods, port and starboard, so their crews would be relatively alert for the strike. Everyone was now manning his or her station and probably just as nervous as we were. This mission was not going as well as we had hoped, but we still had one full load of 65’s and all of our smaller missiles, so we continued to bore in.
At nine million kilometers distance we began to see scores of fighters and multiple destroyers. They seemed to have changed their screening again and this time around had fighters and destroyers moving around in dense layers. We couldn’t see any pattern to it, but they seemed to control everything centrally, so we kept looking. We had spotted only the one other mother ship, and our intelligence said that four were congregated together. We could find no evidence of either the other mother ships or most of their escorts. Not good.
At seven million kilometers Carolyn said, “Sir, ‘I’ve got some very faint traces of possible fighters behind us and coming in toward us.” To forestall the obvious question she quickly added, “They don’t seem to be aware of us, their course isn’t right for that. As a guess, this might be one of the groups that have been out scouting for the Essex.”
I asked her, “Those groups have a destroyer – can you see one?” She said, “Not yet sir, probably because it is not accelerating, but some of the fighters are maneuvering. And, yes sir, I’ll keep looking.” I grinned at her and Elian said, “Carolyn, you should be more careful with Robert’s heart. He hasn’t even had a girl friend yet, much less grand children, and if you continue to alarm him, he may never get the chance.” Carolyn giggled, something she did very nicely and even the chief chuckled.
At six million kilcks she asked, “Sir, do you want to change course to avoid the incoming group, or?” I asked her, “How many fighters do you see?” She said, “I can see nineteen, but that probably means they have more. I can now see a large craft moving with them. It’s very hard to see at this distance, much more stealthy than the fighters, and I’m not sure yet whether it’s a destroyer or something larger. As a guess, the fighters have been maneuvering a lot and are relatively hot, while the larger vessel is just idling along.”
I snorted and said, “Well, if it’s a cruiser, we definitely want to avoid it. Give me a recommendation on a course change that will keep us far enough away so that we have a shot at getting away clean. Chief, I’d like you to keep scanning for anyone else while Carolyn concentrates on this bunch.”
Less than thirty seconds later she flashed the course change on my screen and I looked at it. I asked, “Elian, what if we split up in two groups and one changed course so that we could hit that bunch from two directions? Give me an estimate. What I’d like would
be to launch all but two of our 15’s at that bunch and then go home right smartly. Could we do it? I would want our two groups to be close enough to be able to support each other, but far enough to complicate their targeting.”
Carolyn continued to track the incoming group and announced, “Sir, it’s too large to be a destroyer, but it’s proving to be harder to track than any bug vessel I’ve seen so far. They seem to have learned how to lower their emissions very effectively, probably by accelerating for short periods followed by long periods without using their drive.”
I made up my mind. I called Hawk06 and said, “I’m taking five Hawks and changing course – I’ll let you know what it is in just a moment. I want to be able to launch the 65’s and let them coast for, say, fifteen minutes while we get in close to that group behind us and shoot off all but two of our 15’s at them.” He said, “Finally, we get a chance to shoot up some bad guys.”
Carolyn asked, “Sir, we’re entering the zone where the bugs will begin to have a chance to spot the 65’s.” I nodded my head and said, “Thanks, give 06 that course change, and execute it for our group of six. I don’t want anything more than three G’s.
She said, “Sir, at three G’s we’ll have to run for fifteen minutes to get into the position you want.” I looked at the plot on the board and grimaced. We were running out of time.
Hawk Seven (Flight of the Hawk) Page 24