John’s fleet was now two hundred thousand kilometers off First Fleets’ port quarter, and closing rapidly. The Indian carriers in both fleets were moving back as their Ferrets settled into position. This time around John positioned James off to his left flank. They’d seen nothing, but the admiral’s straightforward attack left a window for the rebels to sneak fighters in on his port. John didn’t think it likely, as he hadn’t seen the slightest trace of gravity drives in that quadrant. Not likely was not the same thing as impossible.
The moment federal forces entered rebel range, the rebel fleet began launching huge numbers of heavy missiles. John said to Captain Ahmidiyeh, “They’ve more missiles than anticipated. They’ve really emptied all their other systems for this one battle.”
As federal missiles swept into range, rebel counter missiles reached out to kill them. John commed the admiral, “Sir, they’re using far more missiles for defense than they have in the past. I believe they are doing the same thing we did – they’re worried we may be using nuclear weapons.” The admiral grunted, whether in pain or simple concentration John didn’t know, and cut the link.
He commed James and asked him to edge further out, and watched as tiny fireflies began lighting up the plot – rebel missiles were beginning to get targeted by the Ferrets, which had long ago ceased to be a mystery to the enemy.
Both sides knew the stakes, and both were determined to achieve their goal, no matter what. The rebels had to maul the federal fleet so badly that it would retreat out of the system. For the federals, they had to kill enough enemy ships to force the enemy to surrender. If that happened, the shooting war would effectively be over.
John expected a feint, a new tactic, misdirection, something, but today the rebels actually had more fighters and missile ships than the two combined federal fleets, and seemed content to fight a war of attrition. John and his CAGs had discussed the ways in which the rebels might use their nuclear warheads. They concluded that the first wave of missiles would attempt to overwhelm the Ferrets, forcing them to empty their ‘quivers’, at which time the rebels would send in all of their nuclear weapons.
Rebel missiles began to detonate. There were now several thousand heavy missiles within less than one hundred thousand kilometers of the Ferrets, the federal front line.
The admiral was using his fighters as the second line of defense. He had over four thousand heavy fighters and almost six thousand light fighters, giving him an astonishing eighty-eight thousand light missiles. In addition, John had one thousand heavy and almost three hundred light fighters, giving him over seventeen thousand additional missiles.
The admiral had to be careful how he used the Ferrets; he could neither afford to waste their limited darts nor husband them and allow too many missiles to get through. As a result, his fighters sat twenty thousand kilometers behind the Ferrets, their carriers a further twenty thousand kilometers back, along with the missile ships and cruisers.
More explosions lit up space, and a seeming wall of flame marched towards the federal line. Hundreds of Ferrets and their remotes disappeared in explosions. Nearly one thousand heavy missiles got through the Ferrets, and were immediately targeted by thousands of light missiles. As the survivors closed to energy range, thousands of federal lasers lit up.
Seven carriers and two missile ships were lost, along with over five thousand lives. John didn’t lose a single ship, but the battle was just beginning. Nearly eleven thousand rebel fighters were accelerating towards the federal lines.
Federal missile ships and cruisers continued to launch large numbers of heavy missiles, all of them targeting the distant rebel capital ships, and giving the approaching fighters a choice. It appeared that very few federal missiles had reached a rebel ship.
John looked carefully at the plot. He could see a second line of fighters, roughly one thousand kilometers behind the first. He commed the admiral, who had seen the same thing. At that distance, that second line of fighters was almost completely obscured by the huge number of fighters leading them.
John wondered what the distant rebel admiral was thinking. His tactics were certain to cost him thousands of fighters, and lives. Even if he was successful in forcing the federal fleet to leave the system, he would have very little left with which to fight the next battle. The only possible reason John could come up with was a negotiated settlement. By this stage in the war, John was absolutely certain the government would never go for that. Earlier in the war yes. Now? No.
The rebel fighters used their energy weapons to target the heavy missiles. Since there were so many fighters, they were largely successful. Very few federal missiles were getting through.
Admiral Grigorivich commed John and said, “The adage that ‘quantity has a quality all its own’ is proving to be true. They don’t seem to be targeting your force, so I want you to begin moving toward. Good hunting captain.”
John relayed his orders to Captain Ahmidiyeh, and five minutes later his force began moving ahead of the main federal lines. The rebel fighters were now three hundred thousand kilometers away, and still had virtually all their missiles.
John’s fleet was now only forty thousand kilometers off the port bow of First Fleet, and beginning to pull ahead of it.
John commed James, “Shut down your drives, and use your thrusters. I want you to move behind our carriers. I’m going to have them begin decelerating. What I want is for your fighters to be in front of them in time to provide missile defense.”
James acknowledged the order, and moments later his fighters dropped off the plot. John hoped that the huge number of fighters and capital ships would obscure their disappearance.
Finally, the rebels closed to one hundred thousand kilometers of the federal line. Approximately thirty thousand rebel missiles ignited and began accelerating towards the federal fighters, who answered with forty thousand. John didn’t remember seeing that many missiles in flight at the same time, not even at Elyse.
An enormous cataclysm of fire erupted between the two forces. Moments later, over seven thousand federal missiles appeared on the far side. Almost five thousand rebel missiles continued to close on the federal fighters, who launched another twenty thousand missiles.
The admiral commed John, “Captain, I want your people to concentrate on the second rank of fighters. If we’re correct, they’re now the primary threat.”
John passed on the orders to his CAG’s. Now that the rebel fighters were closer, it was becoming possible to target the approximately three hundred masked fighters. Unfortunately, the admiral may have waited too late to comm John.
Thousands of energy weapons fired, detonating light missiles, while both federal and rebel heavy missiles continued to appear between the two fleets.
Rebel and federal fighters began exploding by the hundreds. John stood, looking at the agonizing information on the plot, “CAG’s, launch six missiles, targeting the second rank of rebel fighters.”
Just under six thousand light missiles streaked away from Second Fleet, targeting just three hundred fighters, now only sixty thousand kilometers from the surviving federal fighters.
A huge number of federal missiles from First Fleet were closing in on the approaching rebels, while John’s missiles closed in from the starboard.
Lasers fired, missiles exploded, walking up to the remaining rebels. At virtually the last moment, the second rank of rebel fighters launched two heavy missiles each.
Federal missiles slashed into the doomed fighters. John made a general comm call to his CAGs, but it was too late to retarget their missiles.
Barely three thousand rebel fighters appeared out of the carnage. They began to turn away.
John ordered his CAGs to launch four more missiles at the incoming heavy missiles, leaving his fighters with only two.
First Fleet’s fighters launched another three thousand missiles. On his plot, John watched the six hundred heavy missiles accelerating toward the federal fleet, while thousands of light missiles raced to i
ntersect them.
Most of the rebel missiles shut down their drives. The remainder turned out to be jammers, the first rebel surprise of the engagement. Federal missiles began to lose their lock, or they retargeted on the jammers.
John’s missiles were further out, and coming in at a roughly forty-five-degree angle.
Neither his ships nor his fighters had been targeted. Whether that was a positive or not depended on which fleet the sailor was stationed.
Of the five hundred fifty warheads, only seventeen escaped destruction at the hands of the federal missiles. Nine more were destroyed by close-in energy weapons. Six carriers and one missile ship disappeared in enormous explosions.
For the moment, the plot was quiet. According to the Adams computers, thirteen carriers and three missile ships had been lost, along with over six hundred fighters. Somewhere between eight and nine thousand men and women had died in the space of one hour.
John ordered his fighters to launch their remaining two missiles at the fleeing rebel fighters, and then return to their carriers to reload.
Over the next three hours his fighters resumed their position in front of the carriers, which were once again accelerating toward the rebel fleet, whose missiles were now targeting his ships.
First Fleet was huge, and despite the relatively enormous number of casualties, the fleet was still intact and capable of fighting. Shuttles were still looking for survivors, but other than a number of fighter crews, there were very few left alive from the capital ships, none from the last wave of nuclear missiles.
John launched another group of jammers, which were helping to make targeting difficult for the rebel missiles. Since his fleet was accelerating, the Ferrets were unable to position their remotes, eliminating them from the equation. John’s fighters took up the slack.
Nearly all the fleeing rebel fighters made it to their carriers, and were now streaming back out to resume station in front of their fleet.
In a small engagement, missile and ship targeting systems had a much easier task of finding, locking on and killing targets. However, when there were tens of thousands of targets, missiles repeatedly lost lock, and fleet computers became overwhelmed. Despite the huge losses, three thousand rebel fighters survived an unprecedented seventy thousand plus federal missiles, and the rebel fleet was still intact.
The admiral ordered half of his fighters forward to support John, who had yet to lose a single fighter. His target was the remaining rebel fighters. Once they were gone, rebel carriers would be unable to defend themselves, and there weren’t nearly enough missile ships and boats to take up the slack.
John’s capital ships remained behind, and continued to move into the protection of First Fleet’s fighters.
James and his fighters remained behind as well. They had refueled and were back out on station guarding their carriers flank, their drives off.
The admiral commed John, “Captain, direct your fighters to take the rebels on their flank while my fighters continue forward.” John acknowledged the order and walked quickly off the bridge. He commed his pilot and asked her to meet him at her fighter. It was time to earn his modest salary, at least the small portion that didn’t get sent to his wife.
Fifteen minutes later John was once again grunting under an excess of acceleration that the fighter’s compensator couldn’t absorb.
It took nearly an hour to catch up with his heavy fighters. He spent the time examining sensor readings. He was close enough to get feeds directly from the Adams, another new feature of his fighter he found valuable, enabling him to get a handle on the rebel formation, and coordinating his assault with First Fleet. The rebels would be forced to divide their remaining fighters between the main threat to their front, and John.
His primary goal was still to kill fighters. He hoped that once the rebel fleet no longer had sufficient fighter strength to defend itself, it would surrender. If not…
Both fleets continued to launch heavy missiles, but the rebels’ rate of fire had diminished. The federal fleet included a number of colliers, and they were in the process of replenishing the cruisers even as they continued to launch. Even with the colliers, the admiral would have to force the pace of the battle or run out of heavy missiles.
He decided to try to further spread out the defenses on the rebel flank. The primary assault would come from First Fleet, so anything John could do to reduce the defenses across the enemy’s front would help. As he’d just seen, thousands of fighters and missiles overloaded targeting systems, seriously degrading their effectiveness.
His fighters began to curve back toward the rebel fleet, which was in the process of spreading out. John commed the admiral, “Sir, the rebels are increasing the distance between ships – either they know or suspect that we intend to respond…in kind.” The admiral said, “Nobody ever said they were stupid.”
The admiral added, “Captain, we’ve got enough heavy missiles for one big push. How long will it take you to reach missile range?” John was prepared for that question, “Two hours…and fourteen minutes.” The admiral said, “I’ll coordinate our launches so that we have as heavy a concentration of missiles as possible on target five minutes prior to that. I don’t want you to take excessive risks, but we need to finish this.” He signed off.
John sighed, ‘…don’t take excessive risks, but…’
The rebels decided to concentrate their limited missiles on the main threat, First Fleet’s four thousand fighters, virtually all of them heavy. As John’s one thousand fighters approached the starboard flank of the rebel fleet, it responded by an almost organic reorganization that placed more missile boats on the rim.
The rebels had never possessed the same resources as the federal worlds, and they had therefore concentrated on building large numbers of inexpensive fighters and missile boats. Even as his fighters approached, John could see dozens and dozens of missile boats swell the ranks of the rebel fleet. Once they emptied their racks, they ceased to have any offensive punch, usually not even an energy weapon. On the other hand, they were capable of lengthy operations of up to two or more weeks, far longer than a fighter.
Unfortunately, counting the huge missile ships that could hold thousands of heavy missiles in their holds, the missile boats and the several hundred fighters that were forming up on the rebel flank, John’s fighters were going to face a very, very heavy first wave of missiles. He talked it over with his CAG’s, and decided to dedicate twelve missiles to defense. He told them that if push came to shove, they were authorized to use all their missiles, but he urged them to husband them if at all possible. He stressed that he much preferred that they lived to fight another day than that they died killing an enemy.
For the most part, his people had been with him for over a year, and many campaigns. His victories had cost far fewer federal deaths than any other active commander in the field, and much of that had come about simply because he preferred to fight intelligently, meaning he trained very hard, and he insisted that his people learn to think on their feet, avoid traps and exploit weaknesses. His training sessions routinely included frequent references to historical battles that most of his people had never heard of before that moment, but after a few yawns, they began to see the patterns in his examples: victory snatched from defeat, and of course, defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. He forced his people to think about their enemy, get to know his wants and needs, the way he felt and thought, and the way he fought.
Over time, his people had learned how he thought, and learned to be prepared for Plan C when Plan B went up in flames. He accomplished this minor miracle by stressing what the results should be, while giving his people flexibility to modify the means, although of course, that didn’t mean they had carte blanche.
Now, today – an odd term in the outer reaches of a solar system where the sun was not much more than a bright star – he discussed what they were expected to accomplish, and listened as they offered suggestions, asked questions and got as comfortable as possible
with the life and death struggle that was rapidly approaching.
One of the suggestions was to hold off their launch until after the rebel fighters and missile boats emptied their racks – Plan A. If the rebels also waited, John authorized a launch of four missiles at eighty thousand kilometers, all targeted on fighters – Plan B.
Plan C? He’d have to wait to see what happened.
Rebel jammers began to fuzz up his sensors, but he had jammers as well.
As they swept under one hundred forty thousand kilometers, John’s fighters began decelerating. He wanted to see if he could sucker the rebels into firing their one huge wad while still out of range. He didn’t give it much of a chance, but a lot of small chances usually worked out to a big victory.
His fighters firewalled their drives, dropping their relative velocity down to zero at one hundred ten thousand kilometers distance from the front lines of rebel missile boats, which had moved in front of the fighters preparatory to launching their missiles.
Hawk Genesis: War (Flight of the Hawk) Page 36