Hawk Genesis: War (Flight of the Hawk)

by Robert Little

  One of the CAG’s asked, “So, what do we do?” John shook his head, “Last time around, we hit them so hard that they folded. If we can achieve a smashing, crushing victory over their system defenses, perhaps they’ll cave in. Frankly, that’s all I’ve got. Fortunately, the admiral doesn’t expect us to conquer the planet, just the system, and that I think we can do. So, let’s get to work.”

  Over the course of the next six hours John and his flight leaders developed a small modification of their now standard plan. They would attempt to ghost in with most of their fighters in one compact mass in front of the cruisers, with their carriers close behind, followed by a security element. John felt that if they used the same tactics enough times, the rebels would come up with an answer. Not today.

  They broke for an evening meal and resumed their work, finishing up at midnight.

  Over the course of the next five days they practiced launching fighters, maneuvering them into tight formations, and generally ensuring that all the pilots were trained back up to a high state of readiness.

  On the last three days before they entered the system, they shut down flight operations and technicians went over each fighter, ensuring that every system and missile was one hundred percent. At John’s urgent request, Admiral Grigorivich twisted enough arms to provide external reactor fuel tanks for all his fighters, enough for multiple missions. The admiral had also been funneling virtually every single new heavy fighter into John’s task force. He now had four hundred heavy fighters, plus five hundred sixty light fighters. Instead of returning the light fighters as more heavy fighters arrived, John had been given permission to add a freighter into which they had stuffed two hundred operational replacement fighters. He also had a small cadre of trainers, and they were busily engaged in working with a number of recent graduates of flight school. Given that the freighter only had one operational flight deck, they were able to work with no more than twelve at a time, but John wanted to maintain a constant operational tempo, and the freighter meant that he would be able to replace his losses within just a few hours. It was cold, but better than defeat. It had the added benefit of safely training raw pilots and navigators in a war zone.

  Chapter 28

  His task force jumped into normal space well outside the Oceania system, accelerated for two days and shut down their drives three days outside of the system’s gas giants. They came in from the northern hemisphere. John wanted to try getting inside the orbit of Oceania and arcing around to come in with the sun at their back. It was an old tactic that had been used for centuries, but since it had been frequently successful, John thought it worth a try. He assumed that they would be detected and attacked, but the closer to the planet he could get before being seen, the harder it would be for the defensive systems. What he emphatically did not want was the type of engagement he’d suffered through at Elyse, where forces on both sides entered piece meal, turning the battle into a horrid set engagement that cost thousands of lives.

  They were detected in the outer system.

  Within one hour John could see four separate large forces, each consisting of over one hundred fighters, several destroyers and some small auxiliaries that at first blush appeared to be missile boats. As they continued inward, it became evident that these small utility vessels were tenders for the fighters.

  James came up to plotting to join John and his small staff. James said, “It’s pretty obvious that they’ve adapted to what we did at Orleans. Their disposition means they have the means of at least slowing down a small-scale attack, and also means that they can quickly support the first force to come into contact. We’re looking at about four hundred fighters, and we assume the system has far more, so as we begin to penetrate deeper into their system we should see other preparations for a series of running battles.”

  John nodded thoughtfully, thinking that his younger brother was rapidly growing into his new assignment. John said, “They can’t just assume that ours is the only force. In fact, they pretty much have to assume there will be others, or that this is just a feint. They’ve been petty cagey, and I think they’ll want to hide their main forces, just as we’ve tried to hide ours.” He thought for another moment and then asked his small group, “I want some analyses on potential dispositions of a large force or forces. They can’t just stick fighters out in space for weeks at a time, so look for small auxiliaries, or destroyers, freighters, anything to suggest that they’re resupplying a significant force of fighters.”

  One of his aides pointed to a pair of traces on the plot, “Sir, since we’ve been in system I’ve seen a number of small drives moving back and forth between this point in space, and…that point in space. I think it could represent a freighter, lying doggo, and resupplying someone or multiple someones. John nodded, “Assume it is: look for other, similar signs – if they have one, they’ll have more. Assuming you can find others, we need to know how long it would take for them to form one large force. They have to worry about being defeated in detail, so if they’ve separated their forces, they will have to be able to join them back up.”

  John went into his cabin, taking James with him. They sat at a small table and waited while a mess attendant brought them a meal. James said, “This isn’t turning out like we wanted. I think they’re far better prepared than intelligence expected.”

  John said, “It was inevitable. And anything done to beef up system defenses has to hurt their mobile forces, so on balance, it’s a good sign. I just wish we weren’t the ones to prove it. You know, there is another possible explanation: they didn’t beef up system defenses; we’re facing their fleet.”

  James asked, “What now?” John said, “They have no idea of our size or makeup, they just know something is here. If we can get close enough to that first force I want to take it out quickly. I’m not separating our forces, not with the way they’ve prepared, but we need to know more about their dispositions before we commit. I don’t much like how intelligently they’ve arrayed their forces, or how quickly they found us, and I can’t assume they’re not well prepared.”

  They ate their food and went back up to plotting. Not much had happened in the interim. They had moved deeper into the system, and were now crossing from the outer system into the inner. The four fighter contingents they’d identified hadn’t moved or tried to hide themselves. James said, “If they want us to know about those four forces, I have to wonder what they don’t want us to know?”

  One of John’s aides, a very young lieutenant, only recently out of the academy, but in John’s staff long enough to know opinions were actively sought, said, “As a guess, they want us to focus on those four forces and maneuver us into an ambush.” James nodded, “Lieutenant Hoffner, the question isn’t that they want to ambush us – it’s how and where they want to ambush us.” The young man, nearly as tall as James, with dark stubble for hair, said, “Sir, those four fighter elements are outside the orbit of the planet; if they prepared for the possibility that we would try to sneak inside their defenses – which in fact we did – then they would have had to put a large force roughly about here,” He pointed to a location on the plot roughly five million kilometers distant from the planet, and inside its orbit, and continued, “If they did, we would have run right over them, and that would also mean, or at least increase the probability that they don’t have a huge number of missing forces elsewhere.”

  John looked at the plot and nodded, “You might be correct. Now that we’ve been spotted, well outside of the orbit of Oceania, it would mean that the hypothetical large force is badly out of place to defend against our incursion, if we were a large force. Now, how would we respond to their system defenses, if we were a small raid?”

  James grinned, “We’d avoid those four fighter forces.” John looked at his young aide, who so far hadn’t embarrassed himself, “Lieutenant Hoffner?” He looked at John and said, “Sir, if that were the case, if we tried to avoid a direct confrontation, that would tell them we only have one or two carriers. In that
scenario we’d break off the attack while it was still possible.” John asked, “And, if we continue on our present course, what would that tell them?” The lieutenant paused for a very brief moment before slowly answering, “Sir, it would mean we’re here in force.” John nodded, ‘And…?” He turned to James, who said, “Captain, by now they’ll know about Orleans, that without any federal losses we destroyed their mobile defenses and that we then allowed them to retain their orbitals. They might know about the treaty. I recommend that we don’t deviate from our present course. We’ve got more fighter missiles than any federal force in history, save for our main fleet. Since we entered their system and began getting decent readings on their disposition and numbers, I’ve been running the three scenarios we’ve worked up. In all three, we dominate their defenses. I’ve also played with the numbers and types of craft we’ve seen or suspect they may have; in any possible sequence of events we come out on top. I believe, sir, that if we go for the jugular, they’ll crumble.”

  John smiled faintly, “This system is better prepared than Orleans, but I agree. We continue with our present formation. I want our light fighters to begin spreading out, using reaction thrusters. They know we’re here, and by now they must know that we have fighters equipped with more than four missiles, but I don’t believe they could possibly know about the numbers we have, so let’s keep them in the dark as much as possible.”

  They continued in-system on the original heading that would take them past the planet. At a distance of ten million kilometers outside the orbit, John ordered a maneuver that for the first time gave the defenses a clear picture of the size and makeup of his combatants. His force began to curve under heavy acceleration in toward the planet.

  James had launched and with his squadron was now on station at the rear of the formation. It was the one quadrant where John’s forces would be most vulnerable to an ambush, and James was his most experienced CAG.

  Once settled in on the new heading, John ordered his forces to begin decelerating. By now, it was apparent that the defenses would have a blocking force of at least three hundred fighters. They appeared to be more disciplined than any home system defenses John had yet faced, but the numbers were all on his side.

  John made his first open channel broadcast, making the same offer he’d given Orleans, knowing that Oceania would respond with missiles, knowing that men and women were going to die.

  At a distance in excess of one million kilometers John ordered the cruisers to fire the limited number of gravity missiles they’d been equipped with. However, the few they had would begin whittling down the opposition’s missiles at least ten to fifteen minutes ahead of time.

  One hundred missiles erupted from two cruisers, and twenty minutes later, all twelve began firing standard heavy missiles, matched by a combined launch from three hundred fighters of another six hundred heavies.

  As the fighters streamed back to their carriers to reload, John watched the plots. He’d come to like the tactic of randomly firing missiles into empty quadrants. It had once revealed a large force of enemy fighters on a ballistic approach, and had prevented an ambush. His present position and heading had been known to the enemy for a long time. As a result, every few minutes one of James fighters fired a light missile off to the side of their course. John hoped it was a waste of time, and in fact, was reasonably certain that they would have seen an opposing force during the time it was under drive. However, ‘reasonably certain’ was not the same thing as absolutely certain.

  As the first flight of missiles accelerated towards the enemy fighters, John watched as numerous elements of enemy fighters, missile boats and what might have been some missile ships accelerated towards the planet in an effort to intersect him before he could get within range of their orbitals. For the most part, they were not going to make it in time, but if they continued, he would face a series of enemy combatants, making his life much easier than if they’d gathered into one large force.

  He hoped that he could convince them to surrender - he had to try to kill them if they didn’t.

  As he stood, listening to his aide, the thought struck him forcefully that his attitudes had changed dramatically over the course of the last year. Since Elyse, the battles he’d fought in had turned increasingly one-sided. People were still dying, but most of them were now rebels. He put the thought aside for another day. Today, now, he had to kill or be killed.

  As the first flight of gravity missiles accelerated past the limits the enemy had grown accustomed to, John watched for a reaction from the enemy fighters. Belatedly, they began lasing the missiles, but their response was somewhat uncoordinated. Only seventeen fighters were destroyed, but John knew that from now on, the rebels would have to assume that all federal missiles could reach that far.

  On the heels of the first flight came the six hundred heavy missiles from his fighters, and over a thousand additional missiles from the cruisers.

  A reasonably well-coordinated rebel counter launch streaked out from the fighters, but everyone knew that they didn’t have enough, even if each rebel missile found a target.

  As the missiles on both sides found targets and arced in for kills, the rebel fighter’s energy weapons killed dozens more, but this time, more than one hundred fighters were destroyed, leaving roughly one hundred seventy. As they approached the range of the smaller missiles, John ordered two missiles each to be launched on his command from the four hundred heavy fighters that were preceding his large combatants.

  They were still decelerating when they closed to within one hundred thousand kilometers. A handful of rebel missiles appeared at almost the same moment as nearly one thousand federal missiles streaked away, targeting the small number of fighters.

  None survived.

  John’s light fighters were already streaming back out to take up station when he made his second general call for surrender. The largest rebel force that could be considered a threat was composed of a mixed assortment of fighters and missile boats. John ordered a course change that would take the federal ships past the orbit of the planet, intersecting the approaching enemy ships and allowing him to target the shipyards as he passed. There was now no realistic chance that the rebels could do much of anything to prevent the total destruction of their fairly extensive orbital facilities, and the way they’d dispersed their large number of combatants meant that he would be able to destroy those in detail.

  As his ships closed on the planet, he received the message he had hoped for. Even as he listened to President Hanrattys dispirited capitulation, he could see evidence of it on his plotting board. In a wave, spreading out from the planet, combatants began to change their course and reduce their acceleration. So, no hidden rebel fleet. This time.

  Within twenty-four hours, John arranged for a near-duplicate of the treaty he’d worked out with Orleans: the planets’ huge investment in its future – the orbital facilities that allowed it to grow and prosper – would not be destroyed, and there would be no occupation forces camping out in its small cities. John’s forces were to take control of all combatants, but leave the freighters and other economically vital ships under the control of their private owners or government.

  Chapter 29

  It was nearly a month before John’s force was finally relieved, and they promptly boosted out for the trip back to Elyse, where they would resupply, refit and prepare for the next stage. Once again, John was saved from letter writing.

  They were almost astonished to discover that they were expected. On the other hand, it only took a very quick ten days to replenish their stores, repair a few problems and get their next assignment. James commented, “It seems that an easy victory that doesn’t involve lots of battle damage and over-stressed drive systems means we get to spend less time in port. If I’d known that, I might have done things differently.” John snorted.

  Three days later John’s taskforce jumped into the middle of nowhere. This particular portion of nowhere was occupied by the largest armada of combat ve
ssels John had ever seen. Unlike previous occasions, this time around, a large minority of them were actually combat vessels rather than decrepit freighters. The federal navy was coming of age.

  John shuttled over to Admiral Grigorivich’s battleship, the first of its kind, and according to the admiral, the last. He said that its engines were anemic, its armor suspect, it cost an amount equal to four new-build carriers and was barely more powerful than one of the cruisers John was using. The admiral added, with one of his trademark laughs, “On the other hand, it will be an irresistible target, so perhaps it will serve a purpose. Now, how much time will your task force require to prepare for the attack on New Scotland?”

  John thought furiously, and then said, “Sir, I’ve not seen a breakdown of the system defenses, but from the time I receive whatever intelligence has, say, one week.”

  They talked about John’s assignment for several minutes, then the admiral surprised John by asking, “Captain, what can you tell me about ground assault?”