by Jeff Sims
Solear had faced real combat four times – the first in the Opron system when the Hiriculans wanted to test Neto pilots; the second in the Hepitila system when he was surprised by two enemy destroyers while investigating a mystery object.
The third time was in the Trilon system when he was ambushed by a destroyer and two cruisers. That particular battle was costly. The enemy had literally blown a hole in the side of his cruiser. He had overcome the trap by firing his ion cannon at a defenseless ship at point blank range. That was the first time that he had given a direct order to kill another being.
The final battle, well during the final battle he had gone on the offensive. He had rescued an Alliance fleet that was being held prisoner on the Spindle Station in the Influenla system. He had been the vastly outgunned in three of the four battles, but had won primarily due to innovative tactics and superior fighter pilots. And humans, he reminded himself.
The battles had taught him that there is a razor thin line between victory and defeat, and in many cases between life and death. He now understood and perhaps on some level shared the human credo that winning was worth fighting for.
The last two battles had changed him. He now placed defeating the enemy above any regard for his, his crew’s, or even his enemy’s personal safety. Admiral Dolen had told him that he had become hardened to the atrocities of war and was no longer fit for duty in the Alliance Navy. Even the Alliance Senators had noticed the change in him. This was why he was being forced to retire once this honorary battle was completed.
“Admiral Solear, you never really told us what the Humans would do. Honestly, what do you think the Humans would do?”
Admiral Solear considered the question for several long minutes and eventually asked himself the question – what would Jim Donovan do?
He thought about many of the different things that the humans had done: they lacked writing instruments so they used their own blood, they used gravity missiles to round a tight curve, they used their enemy’s missiles to destroy a cruiser in the pilot simulation, they used their own transponders to guide the Sunflower’s missiles past the enemy ships’ electronic defenses, and they had found a way to shoot enemy missiles out of the sky.
He responded, “The Humans would find a unique way to use existing equipment in a different fashion to change the dynamic of engagement in their favor.”
“What,” several asked.
Solear clarified, “They would read the rules concerning the engagement and find a loophole to exploit that while perfectly legal, would probably be frowned upon. It would force the being writing the rules of engagement to write a clarification for that particular loophole.”
The captain responded, “That isn’t very nice. Wouldn’t the victory be tainted?”
Solear responded, “No. You have to understand that to the Humans, the end result justifies the means.”
Another asked, “What can we do that is both legal and frowned upon?”
One first officer responded, “We could modify the electronic signatures of our transports and make them appear to be cruisers. Then we could execute option 2. The 3ers would count 42 ships and not be prepared for the flanking maneuver.
Another said, “I doubt the electronics will fool them long enough to complete the maneuver.”
“They may,” the thought creator protested.
A different captain said, “We could build 42 stand-alone shield generators and attach them to transports. Then we could arrange our ships in a formation to hide them. When the 3ers attack we could active the extra shields and double our effective shield strength and coverage.”
Solear thought about all of the battles the humans had fought. During the most recent battle, which he missed to attend the Solarian Celebration, the humans were so confident that they could shoot the enemy’s offensive missiles that they hadn’t bothered to fire any defensive missiles.
He mentally repeated that – the humans had found a way to stop enemy missiles without using defensive missiles. The answer to the problem suddenly popped in his head.
Solear said, “I know what we can do.” He explained his plan.
One of the captains that had remained silent throughout stood up and said, “We have lost 9 straight times. We have tried to out-execute them and lost. We have tried to out-strategize and lost. I really want to win at least once this decade. I say we aggressively pursue this loophole!”
Solear was surprised when everyone in the room stood up and cheered. Okay then, he thought, let’s almost cheat this year.
………..…………
The planet Advranki-2 was a nice planet. Sea moss grew very well there and the average Advranki citizen was reasonably happy with his/her lot in life. Advranki-2 was a popular vacation destination for beings from Advranki-1 and 3. No one really knew why as there was nothing unique or particularly impressive to do or see there.
(Most attribute the tourism success to a really catchy theme song in their commercials and a very sophisticated marketing campaign.)
However, the planet itself was currently at an inconvenient point in its rotation around the sun for said vacationers. Currently, the planet was located 1 light hour from the Advranki 2 – 3 hyperspace lane. Therefore, it would take a cruise liner traveling at a stately speed of .1 light ten hours to go from the hyperspace lane to the planet.
Admiral Solear’s strategy was based on this long distance. Solear wanted to engage the 3ers fleet as far from the planet as possible, but far enough inside the gravity well that no one could jump to hyperspace.
Since there were only two ways for Advranki-3 to win the simulated battle – force the Advranki-2 to surrender or place two ships in orbit around Advranki-2, he hoped that his defensive strategy would force the opposing fleet into making a tactical error.
Therefore, he placed the Advranki-2 fleet exactly 40 light minutes from its home planet. Further, they were 10 light minutes from the edge of Advranki-2’s gravity and were 10 more to the Advranki 2 – Advranki 3 hyperspace lane.
In summary, the fleet was parked roughly 2/3 of the way between the planet and the hyperspace lane. This particular position in space made a very clear and bold statement; neither fleet would be able to jump to hyperspace when they engaged.
In addition, complicated maneuvers such as flanking or splitting the fleet would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to perform due to the distance from the hyperspace lane. Solear could easily count the ships present and instantly know if the opposing admiral was trying to flank, surround, or even avoid his fleet.
Solear organized the fleet in a known, but rarely used defensive formation. He chose this particular formation because he wanted his opponent to immediately recognize it, understand its strengths and weaknesses, and already know how to counter it. Solear’s plan depended upon the opposition moving where he wanted them to move.
The 42 ships were divided into two groups of 21 ships. The first group of 21 ships was located to the right of the hyperspace lane. The ships were placed end to end to form a large circle. This group flew in a clockwise direction. Each time they passed the point the center set point they would fly in a slightly different axis. Over time, their flight path created a sphere.
The second group was located to the left of the hyperspace lane. It flew in a counter clockwise direction and covered a similar spherical volume of space. Both sub-fleets were moving at a steady rate of 0.04 light. The positives of this formation were its ability to speed up, slow down, or change direction in a moment’s notice. The one clear negative was that the fleet was too thinly spread out.
Captain Arean was acting as Solear’s chief of staff for the combat exercise. His cruiser, Dandelion, was temporarily being commanded by its first officer. Arean asked, “Do you think they will sail directly into our trap?”
Solear responded, “Yes. The enemy … I mean our opponents will see our formation and believe that is our strategic plan for this contest. They should then be able to quickly devise an attack plan
to counter it.”
Arean responded, “Yes, they should be able to recognize that this formation can easily move side-to-side, but has a potentially fatal flaw. It is severely limited in its ability to compress into an effective fighting force if the other side decides to speed up and fly through the gap in middle of one of the spherical circles.”
Solear finished, “Yes. Hopefully, they will see the two beautiful holes and try to fly through one or possibly both of them.”
Arean felt the need to mention, “If they succeed, they will have a clear path to Advranki-2 and win the combat exercise.”
Solear left Arean’s comment unanswered.
A few minutes later the communications officer announced, “The Advranki-3 fleet has arrived. They sent one cruiser as a scout. It appeared for a moment and disappeared again.”
Solear said, “Open a channel to all personnel on all ships.”
She waved that it was ready and Solear said, “Everyone, a scout ship just appeared at the edge of our system. I suspect that the main Advranki-3 fleet will arrive shortly. Remember to stick to our plan. With luck, we will celebrate a victory this year.”
He waved for her to close the channel and said to Arean, “Now we wait.”
They didn’t have to wait long. Twenty minutes after the cruiser disappeared, the opposing fleet started to appear. They used the majority of the hyperspace lane and sent ships through 4 wide and 4 deep, spaced exactly 70 seconds apart.
The 3ers fleet began sailing toward the 2ers fleet at a speed of .12 light. At that pace, the two fleets would intercept one another in just under 3 hours.
Of course, one has to subtract the speed of light from that number. Because they were sitting 20 light minutes from the hyperspace lane, it therefore took 20 minutes for the light of the first ship to reach them. It took another 10 minutes for the rest of the fleet to arrive.
Therefore, the communications officer announced, “The enemy fleet has arrived. They are forming up and proceeding directly toward us at .12 light. I estimate that they should be here in 2 ½ hours.”
The Advranki-3 (3ers) fleet was organized in a standard omega pattern. The omega formation consisted of a battleship in the middle, a destroyer above and below it, two cruisers to the right – one just above the battleship and one just below, and two cruisers to the left at the same angle as those on the right. Basically, the six screening ships made a circle around the battleship. Each of the six sub-fleets was in this formation and lined up in a single file line. Visually, the effect was stunning.
Solear resisted the temptation to call the captains and ask if everything was ready. He already knew that they were ready. He knew that the 2,000 defensive missiles were in place. Still though, it was extremely difficult to wait 150 long minutes without double and triple checking everything.
About 10 minutes later Solear finally gave in and said, “Verify that all fighters have been launched, are in position, and are powered down.”
Arean and the communications officer ran the query. A couple of minutes later Arean responded, “Yes. The fighters are in position 3 light minutes from our location and are on emergency power.”
The fighters would be very difficult to detect since they hadn’t moved in several hours. The only way to find them was for the opponent’s active sensors to send out a signal and have it bounce off one of the fighters. Certainly possible, but somewhat implausible.
The minutes passed one minute at a time and each one lasted exactly 60 seconds. Solear watched each one slowly tick by. He was convinced that some of the minutes, especially minute 83, lasted twice as long as it should have. At any rate, with about 20 minutes to go the communications delay had fallen to less than three minutes.
Solear recorded the following message: “Opposing fleet, you are invading sovereign territory. Please reverse course and return to Advranki-3 or prepare to be fired upon” and had the communications officer send it.
The opposing fleet was not going to stop. The communication was just a formality demanded by the Alliance Navy.
Six minutes later they received the response, “Thank you for your considerate warning. I formally acknowledge your request. However, at this time I have to politely refuse to follow it. I understand that we will soon be fired upon and therefore request that you surrender or we will be forced to fire upon you.”
They waited again. The enemy fleet continued on a path that took it to the exact center of the two formations. The A3 fleet didn’t have to decide which hole to go through until the 3 minute mark. Exactly 11 minutes later it increased speed to .16 light and veered right.
Solear noted that only 20 of his ships were in a position to engage in the initial pass. He ordered the all ships on the periphery to immediately turn, increase speed, and head back toward the planet. He had them fire offensive missiles at a set point in front of the opposing fleet and leave 4 seconds of burn time on each one.
The A3 fleet passed through the hole in the A2 formation. Both sides fired their entire complement of missiles. The A3 fleet was still bunched together. As a result, each ship could only fire missiles from one side. This effectively halved the number of missiles that the opposing fleet could fire.
Solear’s fleet was not so constrained. The 20 aforementioned ships fired two volleys of 332 offensive missiles. The 664 missiles were targeted evenly among the 6 destroyers that made up the bottom row of the A3 fleet. This meant that each destroyer was targeted by an overwhelming 95 missiles apiece. Enough missiles contacted that the battle computer declared all 7 out of the contest.
The opposing fleet fired two volleys of 342 missiles. The first volley consisted of 342 offensive missiles and the second volley consisted of 342 defensive missiles. The offensive missiles were spread out evenly among the nearest 10 ships, with each ship getting targeted by 34 missiles.
Solear waited a long moment and finally said, “Execute now.”
One thousand defensive missiles that had been hidden in the space between the ships ignited. They easily confused and detonated all 342 of the opponent’s offensive missiles. Solear’s fleet wasn’t hit. He now had a 42 to 36 ship advantage.
The only problem was that the opposing fleet was now in front of his and had increased to battleships’ maximum speed of .16 light. As Arean had predicted, they would now have to chase the Advranki 3 fleet for the next 5 hours.
So far, the opponent’s cruisers and remaining destroyers were staying with the battleships. If they abandoned the big ships, the cruisers could accelerate to a top speed of .18 light. Solear’s main fleet would not be able to overtake them.
Four minutes later the two volleys from the other 22 ships in the A2 fleet struck the opposing fleet. The 684 missiles were concentrated on the 12 cruisers on the left side of the formation – 6 just above the battleships and 6 just below. The missiles were unopposed because they hit before the opposing fleet could fire more defensive missiles. Forty-eight missiles targeted and struck the 12 cruisers. The damage was extensive and all 14 were deemed to be out of the contest.
The opposing fleet was down to 24 ships, but they now had a clear path to the planet. The remaining 12 cruisers accelerated to maximum speed and began pulling away from the 6 battleships and 6 remaining destroyers.
The 22 outlying ships of the A2 fleet regrouped with the other 20 ships. They were now directly behind the opposing fleet and would not be able to catch the cruisers. However, they would be able to catch the battleships in another 116 minutes.
Directly behind. The A2 fleet was directly behind the A3 fleet.
Solear couldn’t believe it. The 12 enemy cruisers were not veering away or maneuvering independently. They were staying together as a tightly knit group. The cruisers may be able to outrun his fleet, but they couldn’t outrun light.
All 42 ships fired their ion cannons simultaneously. Solear used another trick the humans had taught him. He aimed eight of ion cannons directly at the opposing cruisers and aimed the other 34 in the likely directions that they
would try to dodge when they detected the initial blast.
The opposing fleet detected the mass fire and did indeed try to dodge. They could have dodged 8 ion cannon blasts or possibly even 16. They couldn’t avoid all 42 though. The ion cannon blasts tore through the cruiser formation. Every ship was hit and knocked out of the battle.
The opposing fleet was down to 6 battleships and 6 destroyers. Solear’s destroyers and cruisers would overtake them in another 110 minutes, but he didn’t want to wait that long. He ordered the fighters to ignite and make a pass at the destroyers.
A typical sub-fleet (battleship, 2 destroyers, and 4 cruisers) held 208 fighters. Therefore, with 6 sub-fleets Solear had a total of 1,248 fighters at his command. He had kept 768 of them in reserve and sent 480 to the unknown rendezvous point.
The fighters formed 12 waves of 40 fighters and attacked the six remaining destroyers. Each fighter fired three shield buster missiles and its lone ship buster missile. They split their fire evenly among the 6 destroyers; targeting each ship with an unprecedented 320 missiles.
Their fire wasn’t nearly as precise as the humans, but the effect was the same. All 6 destroyers were deemed to have exploded under the intense fire.
The combat exercise was essentially over at that point. The opposing fleet was down to 6 battleships. The 24 cruisers and 12 destroyers in the A2 fleet would easily catch the remaining enemy battleships long before they reached the planet. The opposing admiral realized this as well and formally surrendered a few minutes later.
Solear was, by Advranki-2 standards at least, a hero. He had destroyed the opposing fleet and won the battle without losing a single capital ship!
The A3 fleet admiral took the loss in stride, but did place a formal protest to Alliance Navy headquarters. He asked that the rules be clarified to include a statement that the defending fleet cannot pre-populate space with defensive missiles or pre-launch and stage fighters.