by Chris Hechtl
“Order them to begin launching. They are to stay with the first plan. The enemy's battle line is our first objective. We need to do as much damage as we can while we can for it is the true danger.”
“Understood. It will be as you order, Herd Leader.”
The Alpha bull studied the ship's Alpha bull for a moment, sizing him up and his commitment to the fight. He saw stern resolution there. He nodded once and then turned away.
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Admiral Rutledge's staff noted the incoming enemy bombers. The admiral considered them but then decided they were going to stand on the defensive as they had in the previous battle. If he wasn't careful, they would cut up his missile swarms as they are in their initial boost phase. “I don't like the looks of those bombers. Bernie, how solid are our tracks?” he asked, turning from Commander Fowler to his staff tactical officer.
“Pretty solid for the moment. There is light jamming from the enemy, but they haven't turned up the juice on their sets yet. We're adding the information to the computers in the missiles to filter them out as we speak. We can launch now, but we're in extreme range.”
“Good. Pick the lead battleship and pound it,” the admiral ordered.
“Aye aye, sir.”
(@)()(@)
“The Terrans have fired their robotic craft,” the ship's Alpha bull reported. “The target is Gamma's great defender as expected.”
“Order the cruisers around him to speed up and get between the great defenders and the robotic craft. Order them to flush their own robotic craft now at the enemy's nearest four defenders and then stand on defense. I want the electronic counter measures and decoys deployed when the robotic craft are at the halfway point. That will prevent the enemy from updating their programming.”
“Yes, Herd Leader.”
The Alpha bull watched as the cruisers fired off their robotic craft in a single flushed action. The small cylindrical devices had been on cradles attached to the hull. Their mother ships completed sending their electronic instructions and then kicked them loose from the cradles in puffs of explosive bolts. The devices drifted clear of their mother ships and then kicked on their drives.
He knew that with the cradles cleared each cruiser would have less mass so they would be able to maneuver faster and better. Also, the cradles had been in the way of their sensors and firing arches, so they had to be cleared quickly.
With the small robotic craft clear, the ships would handle the telemetry feeds in conjunction with the great defenders while their tactical departments switched to the defensive roll. They would work in close coordination with the other ships in their herd as well as the bombers and fighters that were deployed in their area.
(@)()(@)
“Vampire! I say again, Vampire. Multiple boogies on the scope. Many missiles have been fired,” a CIC rating reported.
“They flushed the missiles to clear their firing arches. Smart. They've got a low base velocity however, acceleration isn't that great,” Commander Fowler said as he watched the numbers steady off. “It looks like four cruisers fired off—two hundred missiles,” he reported. He grimaced as he checked the plot. “They fired on four of our ships, two cruisers and two destroyers. It looks like they are going for the screen.”
The missile flush had surprised Admiral Rutledge in its intensity and timing. Nor had he hadn't anticipated such numbers, nor at such range. It went without saying that he hadn't anticipated the enemy going for his screen first as well. They had learned.
“They've learned to not go for the golden beebee,” a voice said over the link. “Missile defense plan Baker is in effect,” Rear Admiral Oh said over the tactical link as the targeted ships turned into snowballs of jamming and decoys. Their sister ships moved up to aide in their defense.
“Missiles have overtaken their bombers and are continuing on track. It looks like they aren't trying to coordinate the two too closely,” Commander Fowler stated.
“That's because the bombers are defensive. They'll likely cut engines any minute and coast between us and their own ships and cut down our own missiles in a moment,” Admiral Rutledge growled as he watched the escorts set up for the first defensive fire of the day.
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Admiral Oh was surprised by the fire discipline and that the enemy had learned to use their cruisers as screening elements so effectively. When their ECM and decoys spun up and came online, he swore and scanned the cascading tactical data. Just off his quick and dirty look he was pretty sure they were 10 to 15 percent more effective. They were tethered and powerful, probably drawing from the ship's power reserves or power plant. Undoubtedly, they'd go down when the ships took damage.
But, the good news was his tactical departments were locking onto the ECM and decoys and updating their exclusion filters for the next broadside.
(@)()(@)
“Can we get a little A.I. support in here?” Admiral Rutledge said peevishly, turning to the ship's A.I.
“What do you need, Admiral?” Ensign Barlow Bayern asked carefully.
“I don't know, how about a cyber-attack? Let's see if you can get in there and screw them up a bit. Can you do that?”
“The enemy has learned to guard against such attacks, but I can see what I can do. Cyber worms have been sent. Do you have a specific target in mind I should try to concentrate on, sir?” the A.I. asked.
“Start with the bombers and work your way back. Get in there; see if you can throw their targeting off. Maybe do what that A.I. did in Pyrax, shut their engines and life support off?”
“Gremlins it is. On it, sir,” the A.I. replied.
(@)()(@)
Contrary to the Terran's expectations, half of the Tauren bombers that had launched towards them were not slated to act in the defensive roll. That didn't become apparent until the two forces split, with one cutting their engines while the other continued on course for the Terran warships.
“We need to make these strikes count. Do not go for the great defenders. We are to strike at their escorts first. Remember, each of them is most likely built to fight against us, so be careful,” the bomber herd leader intoned over their link.
“Herd Leader, we are getting data from the enemy ships,” his engineer warned.
“All ships do not accept any telemetry data! Voice links only. Whisker lasers between bombers. I'll keep the herd leader up-to-date!” the bomber herd leader barked.
(@)()(@)
Jan saw the bombers going in to strike the unsupported battle line and mentally kicked herself for allowing such a possibility in her planning. Shoulda-coulda-woulda played out in her mind. By not detaching one or more CEVs for their defense, they were in trouble. How much was unknown.
Obviously, the enemy had learned based on their tactics though. She turned to Willard. “Pick up speed. We need to get in there now,” she growled.
“Aye aye, ma’am.”
(@)()(@)
“Cyber-attack ineffective. They are not accepting any data transmissions. They have either air gapped their communications or have a firewall in place. I am attempting to alter my tactics now,” the ship's A.I. reported.
“Excuses. You are telling me you can't figure something out? You and the other A.I. can't, I don't know, scramble their missiles incidence or jam their telemetry feed or something?” the admiral growled.
“You specified the bombers. The missiles do not have communication arrays pointed in our direction, sir. We'd need to hit them with a laser or signal from a different angle. I am working with the other A.I. to attempt that attack now,” the ensign replied.
“Good. Keep on it,” the admiral said, turning away from the holographic avatar.
(@)()(@)
The Tauren missile swarm struck the Terran defenses like a pinpoint tsunami of destruction. A quarter of the missiles were lured away by the Terran decoys or lost lock due to the ECM and wandered afield before secondary programs reengaged. The missiles that had lost lock queried their neighbors as well as their mother ships for guidance. Some
managed to get a tentative lock; others failed utterly in the short time available.
The Terran counter missiles and laser defenses cut down a swath of the incoming missiles but not enough. There were just too many missiles in one area. They saturated that part of the screen's defenses. Each of the two destroyers were pulverized into dust and debris. The cruiser Maya went up in an explosion with them. Her sister ship Hague was crippled in the exchange and fell out of the formation as her drives and shields died. Her nearest consorts moved to render what aide and cover they could.
(@)()(@)
Admiral Rutledge watched the lights wink off on his plot and grimaced in distaste. He could feel the eyes on him from all around so he squared his shoulders. “Well! First blood to the enemy. But only heart's blood really counts here,” he said firmly. “What have we learned?”
“CIC and Tactical are processing now,” the ship's A.I. reported. “As are all A.I.”
“We've got the computer support. Use it to our fullest advantage,” the admiral ordered. “Make sure we pass on what we learned to everyone including TF2.1.”
“Aye aye, sir,” the A.I. replied. Commander Fowler looked up and nodded but then went back to his section.
The admiral did his best to settle himself for the reports on his own missiles.
(@)()(@)
“Switch to bomber defense,” Admiral Oh ordered. Somewhere in the back of his mind and in a small locked container in his heart, he stuffed the pain of losing three ships. He had to keep in focus; he damn well didn't want to lose any more.
“All point defense on auto,” a voice behind him said as the screen switched from missile defense to bomber defense.
“Cover that hole. The bombers may try to cut through it to get to the battle line and score some hits. Let's make sure that doesn't happen,” the rear admiral growled.
(@)()(@)
The bomber herd leader noted the damaged ship as well as the three destroyed ones with a gleam in his eye. He also noted the enemy was already trying to cover the hole. Most likely they would be switching their computers over to bomber defense. Well, they didn't know his standoff attack range.
He clicked his microphone, cleared his throat, and then softly began to issue orders to adjust their targets.
(@)()(@)
The 240 missiles in the Terran missile swarm were mostly oblivious to what had gone on behind them. Twenty-one of the missiles had come from the four ships that had been obliterated or crippled; they lost their telemetry feeds until they picked up a neighboring feed or switched to autonomous mode.
Their programming had anticipated the bombers so they split up into four groups to go around them at the bomber's theoretical extreme range. However, the eight bombers had been upgraded and had partially anticipated the maneuver. They had spread out and thus got in the first defensive strike.
Each bomber had twenty-four short-ranged counter missiles and four laser turrets. The lasers were slow to fire, but they covered all axis of the ship. They had strict orders to conserve their ammunition, allowing only four counter missiles per missile swarm. If a bomber couldn't get a lock with a counter missile, they had orders to switch to their point defense or standoff and feed information to the herd.
The bomber's counter missiles took out twenty-eight of the missiles, of which two were penetration aides. Their point defense lasers fared better, knocking down another forty-seven missiles before the missiles were out of range.
Of the 165 surviving missiles, 140 of them were warheads; the remaining 25 were penetration aides. The penetration aide missiles began to spin up their jamming and decoys just as the warships began to fire their own counter missiles.
Each Tauren cruiser had a set of cradles for fifty offensive missiles, and another set for four hundred counter missiles. Dreamer had attempted to get the missiles into a different format but had failed due to the rush to get as many deployed as possible.
The bombers had provided detailed data on the missile swarm via a series of whisker lasers. There was very little time to update the threat profiles and counter missiles before the warships began to spit fire at the incoming robotic killers.
The four cruisers that had fired their missiles were the only ships allowed to fire their counter missiles. Each cruiser was allowed to fire only an eighth of their missiles for the swarm. Two hundred counter missiles were kicked clear of their cradles and leapt into the dark void.
As the counter missiles got within striking distance, the computers in the penetration aides noted them and did their best to counter them. Only sixty-seven of the counter missiles scored a hit.
The remaining missiles ran into the defensive laser fire of first the four cruisers and then the other cruisers nearby. The point defense laser turrets had replaced half of the rail gun turrets on each cruiser. They could fire at twice the rate of rail guns and were far more effective but had their limits.
Another sixty-nine missiles fell prey to their super-heated beams before the remaining twenty-nine got through.
Twelve of the missiles had lost lock in the confusion and had reengaged with automatics. They were targeted on two of the cruisers, nine on one cruiser, and three on the other. Seven of the missiles went for their intended target; the remaining ten spread out having also lost lock in the confusion. They were deaf, dumb, and blinded by the Tauren decoys and ECM.
The new shaped warheads went off and tore through the Tauren cruiser shields like they were tissue paper. The cruiser that took nine hits shuddered under the pounding. Debris within her guts tore apart her drive and reactor. One moment she was a defender, the next she was a drifting hulk.
Her sister ship managed to survive the pounding but only barely. The Gamma bull's great defender took the seven hits like a prize fighter. Her shields went down, some of her armor buckled and failed, systems were overloaded, but she sailed on.
The remaining ten missiles scored hits on four other cruisers and the Echo bull's great defender. Most of the damage was contained to their shields. Within a minute of taking the pounding, the surviving ships were back restoring their shields and picking through the wreckage.
(@)()(@)
Jan noted that both sides were using force-emitter-shaped charges. She wondered what the Tauren bombers were carrying. In … five minutes and thirty seconds or so, they were going to find out.
(@)()(@)
Admiral Rutledge had no time to celebrate the kill as the enemy bombers settled into their final courses for their strike. Four of the bombers fired up ECM packages to block the Terran telemetry feeds and sensors just as his command began to fire on them. They lost control of the missiles and counter missiles.
All eight of the bombers also maneuvered to evade the incoming missiles. “Abort missile fire,” Admiral Rutledge ordered when he realized it wasn't doing any good. “We're going to need them for the next part of the engagement.”
“Yes, sir,” Commander Fowler replied with a nod.
“It looks like Admiral Oh's people are on their own,” Admiral Rutledge growled.
“Yes, sir. And they are taking it on the chin. Again,” Commander Fowler replied as they watched the bombers line up on just three targets, two destroyers and a cruiser. The commander flinched when he saw seven of the eight bombers flush eight missiles a piece at their targets, then kick on their RCS to get clear of the incoming strobes of invisible return fire. One bomber took a glancing hit, rolled, then took another and was destroyed. The remaining bombers got clear.
(@)()(@)
Once the missiles were away, the bomber herd leader barked an order to get clear. It was unnecessary; his pilots were trained in the maneuver and did so on their own initiative. He bit his lip when he noted one took fire and was destroyed.
The bomber herd leader has a different sort of load out. Instead of torpedoes his bird had a more sophisticated sensor and communications package as well as ECM pods—Tauren version of AWACs. Just before and during the firing, his crew were busy picking up enemy transm
issions, recording sensor profiles, frequencies, timing, all of it, including the cyberworms from the ship's A.I. They sent the entire lot back in a compressed data stream to the fleet in a laser transmission as the bombers got clear.
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“Son of a bitch!” Roger Daringer snarled as Percival and Gawain reeled away from the fleet, battered into hulks. His fists clenched in impotent rage at the sight of the carnage. He could imagine … no, he didn't want to imagine what was going on in those colanders. It was best to focus on the living he reminded himself. Especially if he wanted to stay living.
“One of the perks of being in a tin can I guess,” the skipper stated, shooting him a look.
“I guess so, ma'am,” Roger replied with a shake of his head. “We've got slightly better odds of survival than a fighter or bomber, but only slightly.”
“That's why they pay us the big bucks,” the skipper replied. She turned back to observe the SAR shuttles being deployed to the wreckage.
They'd have to haul ass to get in and out before the fleet left them behind, Roger thought.
He nodded once to himself as he tallied up the breakage. One of the cruisers had also taken damage, but she was far larger and built to absorb such punishment. Eventually he knew Galahad's number would come up.
“We're getting some data on the bombers and the ordinance they used. The standoff attack range isn't as good as our own. Call it a half a million kilometers,” the TO reported. “We're sharing the data we've got and updating our profiles and exclusion files now.”
“Good. While you are at it, we need to find a way to better localize and pick off these bombers,” Roger said as he came over to the TO's station. He leaned against the station as he frowned. “I think we need to look into how they are set up for ECM and check out how effective the point defense was against them. They might have gotten a sniff of our radar frequencies and done something about it …” he said as he began to work the problem.