Admiral Grigorivich told him, “Approved. Just don’t get suckered into a trap. I’ll begin moving my forces within thirty minutes.” After the call, John realized that he’d just discussed tactics with the fleet admiral, who had listened and approved his recommendations without hesitation.
John began the movement of his forces that would swap the middle element with the lead, while simultaneously spreading his outer defenses. He now had a large carrier force further inside any rebel-held planetary defenses than he’d ever previously been, making him cautious.
It took an hour to swap fighters, and the movement hopefully confused the rebels, who were doing nothing that looked like an attack. John decided that he would slow his approach, launch missiles at the fighters, and begin moving sideways, giving him the option of striking at the still distant orbital infrastructure of the planet, or heading back out.
On cue, eight hundred light missiles streaked inward toward the milling fighters. John’s forces began moving counter clock-wise with the planet’s rotation, while watching for anything even remotely resembling an organized attack.
He watched in amazement as the fighters closest to his position actually turned and retreated. Their formations were haphazard and disorganized. He reported this fact to the admiral, ordered his middle group to launch their missiles at the relatively few missile ships and boats, and began a hurried reloading of the first two hundred fighters. He was beginning to think that this was an opportunity instead of a trap, possibly a first in his experience.
As the federal missiles tore down on the large number of fighters, their retreat turned into an all-out desperate rush to get out of the way. The missile ships began launching, then the missile boats, but with the exception of John’s lead forces the rest were still out of range, and there weren’t enough defensive missiles to even blunt his attack.
Within a number of minutes the light missiles began curving into their final attack runs. Sporadic laser fire destroyed many of them, but most broke through, blossoming into ugly blossoms of fire and death.
Over two hundred fighters were blotted out of existence. John watched in amazement as the rebel forces fell apart into confusion and disarray. He updated Admiral Grigorivich and began changing his plans.
As the heavy missiles made their final runs his fighters began streaming back out of their carriers. Once again, the new ships were making a huge difference in his abilities. Because he’d kept them within his formations, it was proving to be much faster and far easier to reload his fighters.
The heavy missiles didn’t do as well as his first launch, but they still managed to destroy most of the few missile ships and boats, leaving less than ten.
Within an hour he’d have all six hundred plus fighters configured with light missiles and in position. He wanted to continue to attack despite the fact that the rebels in his immediate vicinity still outnumbered his forces. They were now so badly out of order he felt he could do some additional damage without losing many of his own people.
After edging sideways for an hour he began moving forwards again. He now had four hundred fighters out front, two hundred to the sides and rear of the carriers. Eighty of the latter were his heavy fighters.
As his forces began arcing back toward the beautiful blue planet, some of the rebel fighters began to move to envelope his forces. John smiled in anticipation – if they thought they could penetrate those defenses they were going to be in for a very rude surprise. All of his heavy fighters were to the rear, and virtually all of his most highly experienced crews were manning them.
By the time his forces had made their turn, John could once again see another rebel effort to mount a defense. He’d seen no colliers, so the hundreds of remaining rebels would have to mount a defense with whatever missiles they had left.
John upped his acceleration to five G’s, hoping he could prevent the defenses from getting their act together. Unfortunately, their backs were now up against the wall and they seemed to realize that they couldn’t allow him in any closer without endangering their orbital facilities. John didn’t actually care about those – he wanted to eliminate any and all mobile forces. The sooner they were eliminated, the sooner he could start his marriage. He could hardly call it a continuation.
Their acceleration seemed to have unsettled the defenses. It didn’t hurt that the admiral was at that very moment beginning his own attack on the other side of the planet, initially targeting the large number of carriers, lying at the center of what must have been the bulk of the rebel mobile fleet, or at least that portion they’d cornered in this system. Once again, the admiral’s promised attack had been delayed over an hour. Fortunately, it hadn’t actually hurt him, but one day…
John’s front line swept inside one hundred thousand kilometers distance to the rebel forces. A few of the fighters and the missile boats began launching missiles, but it was ragged and very light.
By now there were nearly fifty fighters gathering to the rear of his forces. John asked James, who was in charge of defending the carriers to send half of the heavy fighters back and into range and launch four of their missiles – one hundred sixty – at one hundred thousand kilometers. That should be enough to discourage them, and it might just sucker the survivors into an attack, one they would regret once they learned that those particular fighters were armed with sixteen missiles.
Meanwhile the system defenses were beginning to show some order. John’s fighters were now within range, and he ordered all four hundred to launch two missiles each, all of them targeting fighters, which were the greatest threat to his forces. Two minutes later, he ordered the launch of one more, and another four hundred missiles streaked away. He ordered fifty fighters to launch their final missile at the few remaining missile ships and sent them back to reload. He was going to continue to fire missiles as long as the enemy gave him targets.
The fifty fighters to his rear were showing some good cohesion and would probably destroy most of the missiles before they could get into range. Most, but not all.
Over the next thirty minutes the rear guard action heated up as their missiles managed to destroy eight of the fifty-two rebel fighters. John told James, “Watch them like a hawk, and if they move forward, let them get to within, say, seventy thousand, have the forty heavy fighters flush their racks and RTB. Then move the other forty forward.”
At the same time the first large flight of eight hundred missiles was beginning to make course changes as it closed on the rebels. They winnowed the total down a little, but were proving to be largely ineffectual at destroying missiles. John thought that the fifty to the rear must be regulars and the groups to his front either raw recruits or simply system defense forces. Either way, a lot of them were going to be dead in just a few more minutes.
Over the next hour John’s forces continued to move forward. There was a large area of space that was now filled with the debris of more than one hundred fifty additional destroyed fighters, so his forces edged sideways to pass the pitifully few survivors who, unless they were picked up within the next few hours, would join the others in death.
John began to see an exodus of fighters, moving back to the other side of the planet. He called Admiral Grigorivich, “Sir, we’re seeing a large movement of fighters back toward you. I believe they are going to try to rejoin their carriers and exit the system.”
The admiral said, “Noted. Concentrate on the mobile forces. How many missile ships do you have facing you?” John said, “Less than a dozen sir, and they’re now starting to move. We’ve destroyed most of them, and we’re continuing to target their fighters and any support ships we can reach.”
Over the next hour John’s forces moved well inside the partially completed system defenses. He followed the fleeing rebel fighters and missile ships, keeping far enough away to avoid a sudden attack, and launched repeated flights of missiles. Neither the missile ships nor the handful of missile boats were fast enough to remain out of the reach of his fighters, and none of them s
urvived the attempt. By the time the rebels reached their main force they had lost close to three hundred fighters to John’s forces. John began slowing as they neared the main rebel forces, which were aligned almost one hundred eighty degrees away from him and facing the plodding advance of the main federal forces. Missiles were streaking in both directions, rebel fighters were crowding the space around the carriers, which in turn were accelerating out and away.
As usual, the Federals had once again failed to put blocking forces in place.
Admiral Grigorivich commed John, “Captain Chamberlin, are you close enough to delay the rebels?” John groaned, “Sir, I’m approximately nine hundred thousand kilometers from the main rebel force. How much time do you require sir?”
The admiral quietly said, “As much as you can give me captain. We’re at least an hour behind their main force, and I’m having the usual problems getting my people to hustle.”
John looked at his plot, immediately ordered a course change at maximum acceleration, and did some mental arithmetic, “Sir, we’re moving now to put ourselves in a position to try to slow them down. The best we can do is to force them to run over us or run between our two forces.” The admiral said, “I’m sorry to have to ask this of you, but we must destroy or capture as much of their shipping as possible.” John replied, “Yes sir. We’ll do what we can.”
John’s forces were under heavy acceleration, his carriers still inside his fighters. Up to this point he had not lost one single crew, but that happy circumstance was almost certainly about to change.
He radioed his CAG’s, gave them orders to dock half their fighters, reload with heavy missiles and launch. James was still on the far side of the formation, and had all his fighters fully loaded with light missiles. John told him to be extremely vigilant.
Within an hour all his fighters were back out in space, no longer under acceleration and drifting at an angle in toward the accelerating rebel fleet. The rebels knew he was there, but with every passing second, their targeting information became worse. He helped that by using his reaction thrusters. He kept his carriers immediately behind the fighters. Since he didn’t have any missile ships, he wanted to be able to rapidly reload. He was taking a huge chance – if the rebels launched an attack he would be hard pressed to protect the eight ships. He had another twenty to twenty five minutes before his heavy missiles would be in range, and he took the time to speak to his crews. He said, “Admiral Grigorivich is driving in from behind – he has tasked our fighters with delaying the rebel fleet until he can come into range and take them under attack. We will target their carriers only, using heavy missiles only. As soon as we empty our racks, we will dock and reload. In order to maximize our single punch, we will launch together. It will not be enough to destroy or possibly even damage their ships, but they will be forced to take us into account, defend against our missiles, and, we hope, avoid us. If they choose to attack, we’ll be able to avoid everything save for their fighters. I do not think they’ll do that, but we must prepare for stupidity should it happen to show up – again.”
Nobody laughed – they knew the position they were in.
Five minutes after coming within range John ordered the first launch. Moments later the two hundred fighters were accelerating back to their carriers. James reported in every few minutes, and John still worried. He hated being so vulnerable.
Before the first flight of missiles reached the rebel fleet, a large flight of nearly one thousand missiles appeared, coming back. This was a lot, but as long as the rebels didn’t continue to mess with his group, they should be safe. He took yet another chance and ordered all but forty of the rear guard forward. He was going to need their missiles and lasers.
His second launch was in space before the rebel missiles came into his range. He launched twelve hundred light missiles, in two flights separated by one minute. The second flight should take out most of the leakers; their energy weapons the remainder.
The rebel fleet was now clearly accelerating outward, and the federal fleet was still too far out to do much of anything. John muttered under his breath and watched as the rebel flight of missiles collided with his first launch, and reappeared, now greatly diminished. His second flight took out more, but almost two hundred continued to track on his carriers.
The rebels hadn’t sent a second flight of missiles at his carriers so he ordered his heavy fighters to flush half of their missiles. At a distance of forty thousand kilometers his third defensive launch destroyed nearly all the remaining rebel missiles, and his fighters immediately targeted the remaining missiles with their lasers. None got closer than ten thousand kilometers.
John was able to get off a third flight of four hundred heavy missiles, although he thought they wouldn’t manage to do any more damage than the first two, which was none. If it had been four thousand, it might have been mildly effective.
John hadn’t been ordered to commit suicide, and he didn’t intend to. He kept out the few remaining fighters that still had missiles, and told his carriers that he needed a miracle. He badly wanted to hurt the enemy fleet. As his fighters docked, fleet technicians hurriedly loaded up two heavy missiles. It took thirty minutes, but that was indeed a miracle.
At extreme heavy missile range John’s fighters launched eight hundred missiles. It wouldn’t be enough, but it was eight hundred more missiles than the main federal fleet had launched. John knew that the much larger federal fleet could easily have maintained contact, could have damaged or destroyed a significant portion of the rebels. Could have.
He stewed as his last launch accelerated after the retreating forces. The rebel fighters were holding station at the rear of the fleet. They would try to fend off the advancing federal forces, providing the much slower colliers, carriers and missile ships enough separation to jump out.
Three missiles got through, disabling one carrier and destroying a missile ship. It was something, although not nearly enough.
Three hours later the rebels were gone, save for a small number of fighters that hadn’t been able to board a carrier.
Admiral Grigorivich commed John, “Thank you captain. Your actions today were brilliant. I will want you to shuttle over for a meeting, but I don’t yet know when. I’ve got some business to take care of first. I’ll comm you.”
Chapter 19
John was eventually summoned, and shuttled over to meet directly with the admiral and a large contingent of officers. A number of ship captains and two admirals were conspicuous for their absence. John didn’t ask where they were, although he secretly hoped they were in the brig. As he stood in front of the admiral, noting that man’s stormy expression, he decided that if those men and women were fortunate, they were in the brig, where they might be protected from his anger.
The admiral finished what had been a deeply angry recital of mistakes and lost opportunities, and worse. He stormed out of the meeting, waving at John to follow him. They went to his office and he ordered the Marine sentry to bar entrance to anyone short of an announcement that the world was coming to an end, and added that the world better provide documentation in triplicate.
Admiral Grigorivich shook John’s hand and invited him to sit, a somewhat unusual, almost precedent-setting move for this admiral. After settling very gingerly into what turned out to be an unsurprisingly uncomfortable chair John looked attentively at his superior. The admiral said, “Once again, captain, you did well, and once again we’ve allowed the rebel fleet to escape. Tell me, what would you require, in the form of ships and support, to become an independent command?”
John had already thought a great deal about that, and promptly said, “Sir, ten missile ships, four more new-build carriers, as many heavy fighters as you can scrape together, and four fast colliers.” The admiral calmly asked, “How long would it take you to get them into shape?” John said, “From the date when we received the combatants, two to four weeks. The differential…” The admiral put up his hand and said, “I want you to report to Elyse. The
y’ve got two new carriers finishing their trials, and I’ll find the other two you require. At the present, I don’t have any missile ships that could keep up with you.” John said, “The four cruisers we did work ups with sir?” Admiral Grigorivich asked, his temper flaring again, “They didn’t meet specifications.” John nodded, “No sir, they did not; however, they are fast enough, they’re armored and between them they can sustain a reasonably heavy missile bombardment.”
The admiral put his hand to his chin and asked, “How would you use this complement?” John said, “The rebels retain fourteen systems sir, that’s what I’d do.” The admiral nodded, “Captain Chamberlin, keep me informed.” He promptly stood, causing John to jump to his feet. The admiral grinned, reminding John of a hungry shark, “Don’t let me down captain.”
By the time he returned to the Adams, new orders had already been transmitted. Within three hours the ship was under way, accompanied by her sisters or brothers, depending.
Hawk Genesis: War (Flight of the Hawk) Page 20