by Rob Buckman
Brock, Pete, Jeff, and the rest of his senior staff worked on their respective projects, while their subordinates organized upgrading the base defenses, training schedules, and weapons production, all with an eye on the clock.
Within a month, Scott saw the first three prototype units of the new space tank, as he came to think of them, delivered and begin their shakedown. Kat piloted the first unit, and reported back that even for their size, they handled well in combat training situations. While not as nimble as her fighter, pound for pound they packed a far greater punch and payload in missiles. This added up to a powerful weapon system, and definitely a lot more survivable than the more fragile fighters. Point defense, and even the main guns had to recalibrate their sims, since the flying tanks fought their way through everything thrown at them. In the end, it took several blasts from the main particle beam cannon to take one of them out. The mass-drive units didn’t fare much better, since only a direct hit would take them out. A glancing blow just kicked them away and shook them up a little. The shakedown only brought a few glitches to light, all solvable within a few hours or days at the most. She did give the design staff a verbal report, and a few suggestions for improvements. These they incorporated into the first production models, while Kat used the three prototypes to begin training pilots and selected crew to handle them. Production of the new class of ships, the gunships as they came to be called, swung into full production under the relentless demands from Scott.
In many ways, this was one of the easiest ships to produce, due to its simplified design. With its limited combat mission, in-system only, it didn’t need a warp generator or a huge environmental system. It was just like a large flying tank, and expected to perform like one in battle, then return to a base for repair and refit. An air-recycling system for each of the crew compartments worked very well, as it did for the regular fighter units, with much of the same equipment as used in the fighter craft. That saved on research and design time for the enviro system, not to mention manufacturing. Now they were ready as they could be, and every additional unit that came on line was an added bonus, especially the gunships. It was inevitable that the crew would get the nickname “gunslinger,” with the usual accompanying elitist attitude. That wasn’t bad, since they had one hell of an assignment, but Scott kept an eye on it, just in case it got out of hand. Curiously, the unit seemed to draw many of the new people, which surprised him.
Andy Ross grumbled a lot about losing his best pilots to the new unit, but as Kat observed, it was more sour grapes that he couldn’t transfer himself. Kat pointed out, not unkindly, that the moment he trained his number two to take over his slot, she’d find a wing for him to take over once she had sufficient gunships.
Another suggestion the weapons people worked on was a space mine: wrapping a five-megaton nuke with an antigravity shell. Each had a six-point station, keeping drives to hold them in position once placed. They could be triggered remotely, or they would seek and detonate against any ship not carrying the identified-correct IFF, identify friend or foe. This caused some alarm with the ship’s captain; he envisioned damaged ships, whose IFF had malfunctioned, being hunted down by their own mines. A definite possibility. To Scott, this was a trade-off. Since the mines were only going to be used to saturate both warp points, he had no plans as yet to penetrate beyond; he felt it wasn’t worth the risk. All ships were warned of an exclusion zone around the warp points, and if they stayed outside that, the mines wouldn’t activate.
Within the month, five thousand mines were in place, but even with that many, spread out over the volume of space where the aliens were known to have exited, they were spread very thin. Two mine-laying ships worked around the clock, adding more mines as they came off the assembly line, thickening up known areas of intrusion. As an added element, Scott had Alpha base techno staff come up with their own battle scenarios. By using the last two battles as a base for alien ships, shields, and weaponry, they programmed the simulator to throw variations at Scott and his people. Much to his surprise, he lost the first three battles. He hadn’t limited them to the current alien weapon, but suggested they increased them proportionally as to type and power, and this they’d done. It was rather humiliating to be beaten so easily and so often, but it did kick his staff out of their comfortable niche and make them think.
“All right, people. Don’t look so glum. This is only a simulation, and by the time the lizards get here we’ll have worked out new tactics to use against them.” Scott opened the floor to discussion, since this was an informal session, not a formal briefing.
“What about a box barrage system, such as the German and British triple-A used against bombers during WWII?” Sergeant Mack suggested.
“Good point. Do we have the sufficient missile capacity to sustain it yet?” Scott asked, looking around the table to his tactical officer.
“Yes, sir, we now have the missile ships in numbers,” Pete said.
“My last count was one hundred and twenty, is that correct?”
“Yes, skipper. Now it’s just a question of how soon they can get those underground missile depots ready, and how many missiles they can produce and deliver.”
“Good point, Pete,” Kathy Reinhart put in. “But, by stationing them around us, we can protect and control them better. Farther out, and the time lag in delayed transmission could hurt us.”
“Why so, Kathy?”
The comm officer, Kathy Reinhart, smiled, thinking it a bit dumb of the admiral not to remember that radio signals only travel at the speed of light. “Physics, Admiral.” The comm officer, Kathy chuckled softly.
Scott looked at her and grinned back. “But, if I remember, we have a way around that, don’t we?”
“What?”
“Lieutenant, what’s wrong in using a small ring gate, one in our comm shack and the another in the missile ships? No lag then.”
“Durr …” she muttered, “why didn’t I think of that?”
“Don’t sweat it, Kathy, it just came to me.” His words took some of the sting out of her self-incrimination, but it did show that people have a blind spot where developing tech was concerned.
“How soon can we expect these new gunships, skipper, and how many?” Akari Hirota asked.
“I’m told by the powers that be, we should have the first two hundred within two months, at the most. After testing, they’ll be shipping them up to us as fast as possible.”
“Two months! Have we got that long, skipper?” Akari asked.
“I bloody well hope so, but it’s not the units that are the holdup, it’s crews.” Scott saw the puzzled look on more than one face. “What?”
“Aren’t we going to use our tank crews for that job, skipper?” Akari asked. Scott looked blank for a moment, then smiled and nodded.
“I should’ve seen that.” He chuckled. “We have over a thousand tanks now, with fully trained crews. I’m sure some of them might like to volunteer.”
“Don’t think you’re going to be to popular down on the marine deck, skipper. The commander is going to hate losing any of his men,” Akari observed with a grin.
“Tough, I’ll just tell him to suck it up like a good marine. Rank doth have its privileges.” He chuckled louder this time. “By the way, Pete, how are we coming on setting up the remote launch sites?” He saw the glum looks and knew the answer before anyone spoke. “That bad, huh?”
“Not good,” Pete answered. “We have ten set up so far, and missile production is at full capacity, but I wish we had more sites.”
“We’ll just have to put them in places where the local population and government officials don’t know about them.” Scott sighed. Even if they did build them on the QT, the locals were bound to find out, what with all the traffic flying in and out. Even if it was just to install the ring gates. Once they were in place, excavation and disposal of the mined rock would exit via the ring gates with none of the locals being wiser.
“You mean find a good place and put them in anyway, sk
ipper?”
“That’s what I’m saying, Pete. We can’t afford to waste time. I have to have those sites ready by the time the lizards come calling again.”
“I still think it’s a crazy idea, Scott.”
“The Ellises said it can be done.”
Pete chuckled and pulled his nose for a moment. “When those two walked into my hangar, I thought they were a couple of teenagers, holding hands and laughing. Hell … Mrs. Ellis was almost skipping along beside him, she was so happy.” Scott nodded, remembering his meeting with them after Doc Chase removed them from the regeneration chambers.
At first, they couldn’t believe what had happened to them, and stood looking at themselves in the mirror in open-mouthed wonder. Maddy Ellis had run over and kissed him, tears running down her face. He’d shown them around the camp, and the town, all the time seeing the look of wonder and joy on their faces. He’d also kept his promise, and they did run down the beach together without fear or worry. His last gift was a small house on a low cliff overlooking the beach, and instructions that they weren’t to do anything other than relax and enjoy themselves. A security detachment discretely watched over them, as it did other guests and force members on R&R.
Much to his surprise, they’d only stayed there for two weeks before returning and asking what they could do to help. As Maddy pointed out, playtime was nice, but they needed to get back to work to make it all worthwhile. Scott understood, and sent them over to see Karl and his R&D team. Maddy was the first to point out that they weren’t using the rings to their fullest capacity, after seeing the number of rings in the production facility. It hadn’t occurred to anyone that with the right programming, one ring could address any other ring, or that multiple rings could access one particular ring.
With that stunning revelation, the weapons research teams began working out different possibilities, and quickly developed plans to use it. That triggered a rush program to build and launch the ring ships, as they became known. Thankfully, Scott was sitting when they proposed the idea to him; otherwise he would have dropped in shock. It was so audacious, the possibilities were almost overwhelming. Between that and the gunships, he now had a chance, no matter what the lizards threw at him, and it didn’t take long to find sufficient tank crews crazy enough to try out for the new gunship. They proved surprisingly good once the drivers got used to working in three dimensions instead of two. It did help shorten the deployment time for the gunships by a month, and by adding these two new elements to the war games they started winning the battles. Without a similar unit, the techno nerds couldn’t come up with a decent defense against them.
That was all the better for Scott, yet he wondered how long it would be before the lizards came up with a similar idea, or some defensive measure they hadn’t thought of yet. The Pluto shield test proved invaluable as time and again, each side tested a new gun or a better shield. All this was going on in the background, and now handled by his command staff as well as his war council back on Earth. That left Scott time to think of long-range plans, and much of it was guesswork. A lot depended on how well they did in the next battle with the lizards, and what they threw at them. His thought about a different class of ship to take the fight to the aliens was taking shape in his mind, one based on the carrier principle. What kind of combat contingency they would carry would depend largely on how well the gunships did in a major engagement. He sketched a rough outline of how a battle group would be made up on a sheet of paper, thinking in terms of a cluster, with a carrier at the center. This would be complemented with a simplified version of a battle cruiser: something fast and heavily armed to protect them.
After doodling for an hour, he consigned the sheaf of sketches to the flash incinerator, wanting to leave nothing around that any spy might like to get their hands on. All this would have to wait until later, after seeing what the lizards threw at them. If it was more of the same, and if his two new elements proved themselves, he’d think seriously about the fleet idea again, and eyeing the date, he knew they were overdue for a visit.
* * * * * *
Scott drove them day after day in simulated combat as more and more ships formed up in his battle group on station between Earth and the north solar warp point. He tried to make it as much fun as possible, offering a bottle of the best Highland Whisky to the day’s winner. The one thing he didn’t want to do was to drive them to exhaustion and burn out. Gradually, his fleet shook itself down into a fighting whole, even the new ships coming into service quickly settled into their assigned positions. Scott sat in his command seat and watched the unfolding simulated battle, looking grim. This time the simulated aliens had thrown two major task forces against him, and one at Earth simultaneously. This meant, as he feared, that he’d have to split his forces, since the old NZ wasn’t up to stopping a second fleet by itself. He detached a third of his available forces to intercept the second alien battle group, using the old NZ as one part of a pincer movement. It was all a question of delta vee. If his navigator’s calculations were correct it would work, if not, then the enemy could destroy each force piecemeal. Not a comforting thought, seeing as his battle plan was in jeopardy. He hadn’t yet committed the missile ships or the gunships, since at the moment they were in a long-range missile duel as the two fleets closed. As before, the enemy commander was short on tactics, simply aiming his force at his and coming on full strength, shields overlapping and firing as fast as he could.
The moment he’d reached extreme missile range he’d opened up, and the sheer number of targets coming at him caused a cold sweat to break out on Scott’s forehead, even if this was fake. He had cheated a little on this one, adding the element of the kids’ quick reflexes into the mix. He hated doing it, but he didn’t have another viable option. Once fully trained, they’d proved themselves more than capable of handling the sheer volume of incoming missiles and fighters. This time he also held back his fighters, overriding an ear-numbing protest from a certain group commander, namely his wife.
“Enemy ships now at the outer edge of our missile engagement envelope and launching fighters, skipper,” announced Jenny Balkan, the duty weapons officer.
“Thank you, guns, I see them—launch counter-missile strikes, but hold your fire on the capital units until you have a positive lock.”
“Aye-aye, sir. Hold until we have a positive lock.”
The antimissile board lit up as hundred of hunter killer projectiles left their racks. These were almost immediately followed by ECM and ECCM units. The ECM was designed to confuse the enemy’s missile-tracking system, the second, ECCM units, put out a hotter electronic signature than any of the main battle units for the enemy missiles to lock onto. That should cut down on the number of lizard missiles arriving at this end, and gave the point defense system a better chance of killing the rest. Both fleets pulled back on their speed, so their long-range offensive armaments had a better chance to do some damage. Scott prepared to go into reverse, to give his antimissile and countermeasure units a chance to work their magic. He also hoped the enemy would use up a major portion of its available expendable weapons. No matter how big his magazines were, he had a limited number of missiles he could fire at him. After that, he had to get into knife fighting range.
“Have a positive missile lock on the major enemy units, skipper,” Jenny Belkin announced, “and the enemy has launched his fighters.”
“Lady Gray, order all missile ships to commence firing.”
“Yes my captain. All units now firing, as you commanded.” Even before she’d finished speaking, Scott saw hundreds of green markers streaking across the battle board.
“Time to impact?” he said.
“Three minutes and thirty-five seconds, Admiral,” Jenny Balkan answered.
The volley of missiles didn’t stop; wave after wave of them streamed from the fifty slowly rotating missile ships. At their present rate of fire, they could sustain this for twenty-two minutes before depleting their magazines. At that point they’d fall b
ack astern of the main fleet for better protection, and be out of the way for the close-in fighting. Better than seventy-five percent of the units launched carried nukes; the rest, decoy ECM and ECCM missiles. Slowly, it seemed, the clock counted down the last few seconds.
“Impact, Admiral!” Jenny Belkin reported. The board showed multiple hits, but whether on the ships themselves or just their shields it was impossible to tell.
“Here they come, skipper,” Akari announced as the first wave of alien missiles reached them. It surprised Scott to learn that his missiles were faster than the aliens’ were. What good that would do in an actual battle, he didn’t know.
“For what we are about to receive …” Scott muttered. A few people heard him over the comm system; one or two newcomers looking over their shoulders at him, not understanding. The old timers just smiled and said “Amen” or “Semper Fi.”
Then his ship was under sustained attack. The space around the ship lit up with crisscrossing beams of plasma energy as the point defense system opened up. Now it was up to them to take the brunt of the punishment and protect his ship. The laser beam that reached out to slice into the enemy missiles and fighters was invisible to the naked eye in space, but it did show up on the screens of the point defense gunners.