Hawk Genesis: War (Flight of the Hawk)

by Robert Little

  While the federals continued to move inward, the rebels moved forces into a blocking position. They aggressively sent probes through the federal position, giving them a good estimate of the number and type of ships coming at them, but they had not yet discovered John’s force.

  Admiral Grigorivich wanted to avoid an immensely costly pitched battle, and so, it was assumed, did the rebels. The difference revolved around the rebel desire to retain possession of their home world. As a result the admiral finished his message by saying, his voice flat, “We are taking this system, no matter the cost.”

  Over two thousand rebel fighters, with decent missile boat support, moved into position directly in front of the federal fleet. This number was far higher than anticipated, and worrisome, since those were not the only ones visible. Two additional large fighter elements were maneuvering on both flanks of the main rebel force, presumably looking for more federals.

  Admiral Grigorivich was not particularly brilliant, but neither was he stupid, and he had slightly over four thousand fighters on station, with another one thousand in reserve. He also had thirty missile ships, giving him a heavy, sustained ability to launch missiles. The rebels had an unknown number of missile launchers, and were attempting to keep that capacity secret. They gave ground and remained out of the greatly enhanced gravity drive missile range as the federal force moved toward Fujian.

  Approximately fifteen million kilometers out of the planet, the rebels stopped retreating and began a relatively heavy missile bombardment. Along with their dedicated missile boats they used a portion of their fighters to launch heavy missiles, and sent the empty ones back to somewhere or something to reload. Admiral Grigorivich returned fire, and began maneuvering his ships into a tighter formation. Once he was satisfied, they began accelerating.

  Fighter missiles began appearing from both forces, targeting the heavy drive missiles. The admiral couldn’t be certain what warhead the incoming missiles held, and had to assume that one or more could hold nuclear weapons. The rebels were using missile spreads similar to those developed by John, in which a group of lead missiles obscured follow-ons. The admiral’s carriers were fragile in the extreme, and didn’t have the ability to absorb many, or possible not one missile hits.

  The rebels maintained a roughly nine hundred thousand kilometer gap between the two forces. The missile exchange was weighted in the federal’s favor, but the admiral was in a hurry and he continued to press forward rather than try to whittle down the rebel defenses. Missiles began to detonate.

  For the next six hours the two sides traded missiles, something the federals were happy to continue doing. The admiral used his fighters to fend off the incoming missiles, and kept a continuous stream moving back and forth between their lumbering carriers and their front line, thirty thousand kilometers ahead of the ships.

  By now, the rebels were trying to flank the federals, using two large fighter formations. As soon as he saw what the rebels were doing, Admiral Grigorivich sent another message to John, who was still undetected, but relatively nearby.

  John’s force brought up its drives and began moving to link up with the First Fleet.

  For ten hours the two federal forces moved diagonally toward each other and the planet. Not wanting to get pinched between the two federal forces, one of the flanking rebel formations moved back and linked up with the main body. The rebels were close to parity in fighter numbers but were at a severe disadvantage in throw weight.

  When First Fleet crossed under three million kilometers, the main rebel force, now numbering well in excess of three thousand, stopped retreating, and the gap between the two forces began dropping again. So far, not one single missile had penetrated either defense, a very big change from previous battles, and due largely to the fact that neither side had been able to swamp the other.

  John had hoped to prevent the rebels from attacking the main force before he could move into support range, but the rebels could count as well as he could.

  The admiral went to a maximum launch of heavy missiles from the missile ships, launched his fighter reserve and sent it out to face the remaining flanking force, now also closing the range. He had a decided advantage in missiles, but he still worried - the rebels were behaving very aggressively.

  John took a calculated chance and sent forward two hundred light fighters, loaded with the advanced missiles. Their four hundred warheads would arrive late to the game, but they might help. Would help.

  The rebel fighters began accelerating towards the main federal body, a magnificent vision of deadliness. John knew that unless they had held back something in reserve, those rebels were going to get badly hammered.

  They didn’t hesitate, didn’t stop, just kept coming. They used their energy weapons exclusively to take out the federal missiles, saving their own for the still distant federal ships, most of which were fragile, converted freighters.

  Without the help from their own light missiles, rebel fighters began to silently disappear in brief flashes of light, but they never faltered.

  At a distance of one hundred thousand kilometers, John’s screens fuzzed up as thousands of missiles leaped off fighter rails. Twenty thousand federal missiles burned toward an intersection with over ten thousand rebel versions, followed by several thousand more missiles from missile boats.

  An orgy of destruction blossomed in the depths of space, probably visible by the naked eye from the planet. Over a thousand missiles escaped the first wave of federal missiles, hundreds the second. Thousands of energy weapons speared most of the survivors, less than forty struck home. Three of those were nuclear tipped, disintegrating three carriers, and over thirteen hundred lives. Two additional carriers were damaged but remained operational.

  Meanwhile, rebels were also dying. John’s missiles streaked into range and began targeting individual fighters.

  Energy weapons speared missiles after missile. John muttered, “These guys are very good.” Sixty-one of the heavy missiles made it through the dense defensive fire, killing the targeted fighters and their crews.

  The remaining fighters forged ahead. The opposing sides came within energy weapon range, and thousands of capacitors lit up the depths of space. Fighters exploded or began tumbling.

  Six hundred of John’s fighters were just minutes away from entering missile range. The admiral told John, “They’re trying to take out our carriers. No matter what, fire as soon as you’re in range. We might lose a few fighters to friendly fire, but that’s preferable to losing even one capital ship.”

  His missile ships changed over to light missiles and resumed launching. The carriers were decelerating hard, in an effort to maintain as big a gap as possible between them and the still approaching rebels, who had been whittled down below one thousand fighters. It was already one of the costliest battles in the war, and it was far from over. The attrition rate had greatly favored the federal forces, yet the remaining rebels now posed a serious threat.

  Admiral Grigorivich had not believed that the rebels would make what amounted to a suicide attack on such a huge scale, but despite the seeming irrationality, that was what was unfolding.

  John’s fighters launched half of their missiles at extreme long range. James, who was the senior CAG of the attack, radioed the admiral, “Sir, we’ve launched forty-eight hundred light missiles, but the rebels will reach energy weapons range before they can arrive. I recommend that your people ensure their IFF’s are working and turned on.”

  By now, over three thousand rebel fighters had been damaged or destroyed, along with over four hundred fifty federal counterparts, plus three carriers and their entire crews. That number was certain to climb much higher. Federal fighters now held a decided numerical advantage, but in less than ten minutes virtually every federal capital ship was going to come within range of rebel fighters, who were in a desperate, swirling tangle of federal fighters, and within a few moments, thousands of federal missiles.

  John had never seen anything like the chaotic bat
tle that was enfolding. Every few moments, a rebel fighter would break free of its pursuers long enough to laze a ship. The cruisers’ defensive lasers were targeting fighters, light missiles were curving wildly, and a huge mass of additional missiles were moments away.

  A carrier lost its drive, then a second was hit by multiple missiles and broke in two. The mass of fighters quickly swept through the formation of ships, leaving in its wake four more damaged or destroyed carriers. John’s missiles began hitting rebel fighters as federals fought to gain enough separation to avoid getting killed by friendly fire. Not all were successful: a number of missiles lost lock and found a federal fighter. If the fighter was close enough, the missile didn’t have enough time to sync with the IFF.

  Little more than two hundred rebel fighters curved away from the remains of nine destroyed or damage capital ships and hundreds of rebel and federal fighters. It was not the deadliest battle of the war, but more people were killed in less time than in any battle since the first year of the conflict.

  Admiral Grigorivich ordered John to pursue and either kill or capture the remnants of the rebel fighters before they could drop into the atmosphere.

  John’s carriers were still heading planetward, putting him in the best position for the task. He ordered four hundred of his available fighters to pursue. The rebel fighters were heading at right angles to their destination, curving back toward safety, giving John a chance to catch them.

  He called James to order him to ensure that all their fighters were accounted for, and any survivors were picked up before heading back to their carriers. James didn’t answer. John contacted James second-in-command, who reluctantly confirmed that she had lost contact with James’ fighter, but had no further information.

  His heart thudded painfully, and his first thought was that the odds finally caught up to them, to his brother. He realized in that moment that he had not only feared it, he’d expected it.

  On John’s screen, the battle appeared to have crammed thousands of fighters and dozens of ships into a tiny space. James’ fighter’s IFF transponder was still operating, indicating that the fighter had been hit but not totally destroyed. Unfortunately, the remains of hundreds of fighters and six huge carriers littered millions of square kilometers of space. Over one hundred emergency beacons were warbling, dozens of shuttles were running them down, but even if all those crews were presently alive, some of them were going to run out of oxygen before help could arrive. One of the carriers that had been hit suddenly began ejecting a handful of escape pods. Retrofitted carriers held anywhere from five hundred up to as many as seven hundred personnel – but didn’t have the ability to evacuate more than a fraction of them. The warships now coming out of the yards did, but a big percentage of those were in John’s detached command. The biggest issue with converted freighters is that their hulls were tissue thin: missiles had been known to pass clear through a ship without detonating. Besides the drive room, these ships normally held two power rooms. A hit anywhere near either one would cause the fusion bottles to let go, evaporating that portion of the ship, followed almost immediately by the loss of containment on the other bottle.

  The power room exploded destroying some of the capsules before they could eject from the doomed ship.

  John’s heart felt like it was going to implode from the pain, doubt, uncertainty and dread, but there was a battle to wage.

  His computers informed him that his fighters would be able to cut the corner on the fleeing remnants of the huge rebel fighter force that began the battle. He immediately radioed in the clear and called for the surrender of the system. Based on the incredibly savage tactics utilized to date, he assumed he wouldn’t be getting a positive response any time soon.

  He normally operated his fighters in very tight formations, having found that it increased the efficiency of their defensive fire. Unfortunately, the introduction of nuclear weapons meant that he would have to adapt. He ordered his fighters to maintain a twenty-kilometer separation, the minimum he felt would allow for the survival of his crews while still offering the ability to form a defensive net. Unfortunately, electronic warfare during a battle greatly reduced the effective range of his ‘new’ fighters communications systems. For the first time, he wished that he’d been assigned a few Indian carriers.

  His fighters were able to network, but the harsh environs of space, especially under battle conditions, meant that they had to stay relatively close during a battle. Nuclear weapons were a game changer.

  John decided to see about outfitting a fighter with jamming pods. He didn’t actually have an engineering department, but he had some highly experienced non-coms who should be able to figure out how to mount the heavy devices.

  The admirals force – he’d detached more than half of his main fleet to pursue the dwindling rebel main fleet – was now decelerating to take up a position well out from the planet.

  Meanwhile, four hundred of John’s heavy fighters were accelerating toward a point in space where they would be able to launch against the fleeing rebel fighters, while he agonized over the thousands of lives already lost, possibly including his younger brother.

  John heard nothing from either the fighters or anyone on or near the planet. He ordered his fighters to launch four missiles each as soon as the rebel fighters came within range. If they changed course to remain out of range, his fighters were to pursue. He detailed twenty fighters with the separate task of targeting the orbital facilities.

  He broadcast a second time, warning all personnel stationed in orbit that they had two hours to evacuate. The admiral was so angry he was quiet.

  The rebel fighters changed course, turning the pursuit into a stern chase. John said, “Pursue until they surrender or are destroyed.”

  He continued watching his plot. With each passing moment the odds diminished that his brother would be found alive.

  The twenty fighters curved around the planet, and sent scores of light missiles scorching in. He’d given the rebels exactly two hours before his fighters initiated their attacks.

  Two hours and ten minutes after his warning, huge chunks of debris began falling towards the atmosphere. The normal procedure was to simply destroy their ability to function, leaving them in orbit. This time, John made it absolutely clear that their space-based infrastructure was not only destroyed, it was eliminated.

  He checked in with his fighters. They had closed to within two hundred thousand kilometers, and continued to narrow the gap. The rebels presumably had less fuel than his own fighters, so unless a miracle turned up, the rebels were either going to die or be captured.

  The Adams received a message from the Monroe: Jame’s fighter had been located, and was now being towed to safety. He was alive, but both he and his pilot were banged up.

  John positioned his carriers one million kilometers above the north pole of Fujian. He had lost forty-seven heavy fighters in the battle, and his service personnel were hard at work bringing replacements up from their holds while other crews loaded fresh missiles on his returning fighters. He had been ordered to attempt an attack on the planet itself.

  Admiral Grigorivich called John, “Captain, they borrowed fighters from a number of neighboring systems, so we can’t assume they don’t have another surprise waiting for you. Take precautions. As soon as we recover our dead, we’re heading out. Don’t know where yet. I’ll keep you in the loop. Expect that after you reduce Fujian’s defenses, I’ll have orders for you to link back up for what I hope will be the final push to this dreadful war.”

  John said, “Sir, we’re running low on consumables, including munitions.” The admiral said, “Colliers are on the way. Congratulations on the safe return of your brother and his pilot. I understand they’ll be out of commission for a bit, but I’ve been informed they’ll make full recoveries. They’ll be transferred to the Adams before we boost out.”

  They spoke a bit more, then the admiral abruptly closed the call. He was still furious. As the war wound down to a close,
the remaining rebel systems were becoming increasingly irrational, and he had over two thousand dead.

  John’s people were hard at work finishing off the remaining system satellites, and seeding it with their own.

  He sent two flights of heavy fighters down over the middle of Fujian’s largest ocean. They eliminated their orbital velocity, allowing them to drop straight down. They used chemical thrusters to keep their speed below four hundred knots and activated their drives at less than a kilometer and spread out. Minutes later, more fighters dove down.

  It took less than twenty-four hours to force the system to surrender. This time, there would be large numbers of occupying soldiers.

  Six days later, a small convoy of troopships entered the system. As usual, the ships were for the most part retrofitted freighters, presumably meaning the men and women aboard them would be seriously happy to set foot on land. As a bonus, the people of Fujian would be seriously unhappy.