The Complete Thunder Series (Thunder In The Heavens)

by Dietmar Wehr

  She could tell that Gort was now serious. “Yeah, I got it, but that means that both carriers will have to stay within communication range if you want to have the benefit of my advice.”

  Harrow nodded. “I wasn’t planning to have it any other way. Both ships will stay within 1000 klicks of each other. That close enough for ya?”

  Eagleton raised his eyebrows. “Ah, yeah, that’s plenty close enough. You do realize that at 0.65C, one ship can cover the distance in a tiny fraction of a second, right?”

  Harrow smiled and waved his worry away. “If Ranger stays behind and off to one side of Kursk, the risk of a collision is small. I don’t want any com lag due to distance. Not if my plan is going to work. Wanna hear it?”

  “Damn right I want to hear it,” said Eagleton with restrained enthusiasm. Harrow explained her plan and Eagleton shook his head in admiration.

  “Son of a bitch, Cate, why hasn’t anyone else thought of that idea?”

  “No one else has thought of it because it’s unlikely to work on a fast-moving target. The enemy shipyards are in orbit but still moving at a tiny fraction of light speed.”

  Eagleton pondered that for a few seconds before responding. “That makes sense, but what about target accuracy? Jumping over hundreds of light seconds to the exact spot is going to be tricky.”

  Harrow nodded. “That’s where the RD1s come into the picture. By sending all of them in on different angles, their mass detection data will collectively narrow down the precise target locations, and then we’ll fire the kill shots.”

  “And if they still miss, then what?”

  Harrow shrugged. “Then we return to base with exactly the kind of targeting data that we were sent there to get. But if I can pull this idea off….” She let the sentence dangle.

  Eagleton nodded. “Then you’ll have redeemed yourself over the first Zulu3 mission. LeClair might not be happy to have the attack mission disappear out from under him, but I’ll bet you Mirakova will love it. And setting that precedent can open up a whole range of options for other missions against orbiting infrastructure. It’s a brilliant idea, Cate. It really is.” The rest of the lunch was spent discussing the progress on the stinger project.

  Eleven days later, Eagleton found himself standing beside the Command Station on Ranger’s Flag Bridge as TF3.2 dropped out of hyper-space into the Zulu3 star system. As the main display began to show the overall tactical situation, Eagleton nodded with satisfaction. Ranger had emerged at the outer edge of the system, and Kursk was undoubtedly somewhere nearby. Low-powered radar would soon locate her without the risk of tipping off the enemy. As soon as Kursk had been found and contact re-established, both ships moved into the tight formation that Harrow had decreed. Phase One was now complete. Phase Two involved picking a point that was 377 light seconds from Zulu3-C and jumping to it. Harrow had picked that unusual number in order to make it harder for the enemy to guess where TF3.2 might be if they had enough time to search for it. Astrogators from both ships worked together to come up with their recommended jump point, and Harrow approved it. When Eagleton saw where it was, he nodded. The orbiting shipyards would be circling Zulu3-C more or less over its equator. The recommended jump point was above the system’s ecliptic, which meant that they would be looking ‘down’ at the planet and therefore the shipyards would not be able to hide ‘behind’ the planet. Harrow and Eagleton held a brief video conference before the jump took place.

  The micro-jump itself was routine. Both ships had emerged further away from each other than Harrow wanted, and the first few minutes were spent getting back into formation. By then, all of the RD1s had been programmed.

  Harrow’s face appeared on one of Eagleton’s Command Station screens. “Is Ranger ready, Gort?”

  Eagleton took one more quick look at all the status displays and nodded. “We’re ready whenever you give the word, Task Force Leader.”

  “The word is given,” said Harrow.

  Eagleton turned to look at the screen showing Ranger’s Tactical Officer. “Deploy the drones, Lieutenant.” He then switched his main display from a tactical view of the system as a whole to a view of the immediate area around TF3.2. It took 89 seconds for all 36 RD1s to emerge from the bow opening of each carrier and line up for their individual approach vectors. Not only would the planet be approached from above but also from 45 degree and 90 degree angles. The angled approaches would take longer due to the wide detour that the drones would have to take, but all 36 drones would eventually come within the minimum detection range of 10 light seconds at virtually the same time. As soon as any artificial object was detected, the drones would transmit that data back to TF3.2 via FTL waves, and Kursk’s computers would then combine the approximate location data from all 36 drones to calculate the exact location and vector of each large object. And since each drone was small enough to remain undetected even by the improved Tyrell detection system, they would not tip off the Tyrell to the presence of their enemy. At least that was the theory and plan.

  Harrow looked down at her number one screen and the virtual button labelled EXECUTE. All 36 drones were tied in with the tactical computer on board Kursk and its link to her Command Station. She reached out and touched the virtual execute button. Her T.O. and Ranger’s T.O. announced the drone launch at almost the same time. Eagleton saw her turn her gaze back to him. “Now we get to wait,” he said with mock enthusiasm. Harrow nodded. The detours to bring some drones in from the planet’s side would be the equivalent of a 610 light-second range, and at 65% of light speed, the drones would need 924 seconds or just over 15 minutes to get within mass detection range.

  “See, now if I was on Kursk, we could play cards while we waited,” said Eagleton. Harrow said nothing but smiled as she shook her head in exasperation. Eagleton smiled too, but he was nervous, and his practiced nonchalant attitude was his way of dealing with the anxiety. Harrow on the other hand didn’t look nervous at all. He envied her ability to stay calm under moments of stress.

  Tyrell Shipyard #3 in orbit around home world:

  As his construction shuttle slowly flew past the shipyard’s outer structure, Torq nodded with satisfaction at the progress made thus far on the first carrier. It wasn’t as large as he would have liked, but it would do the job of proving the concept. Larger versions were already being designed, and the largest of those was a giant that made even the standard ship-of-battle look puny. Whether that design would ever get built was another question, but other larger designs definitely would. If he had his way, this first ship would be used to train the crews and the small craft pilots without ever getting into combat itself. But High Command wanted proof that the whole carrier idea had merit, and therefore this ship would have to go in harm’s way, and he would be her first Ship Master. That decision had already been made, and he chuckled at how easy it was to get that assignment. No one else wanted it because no one else really believed in the carrier concept or knew how to operate it. And while he didn’t have any field experience to fall back on, he had studied the unknown enemy’s tactics and engaged in many hours of simulations. His further thoughts were interrupted by a sudden alarm.

  “Planet Defense has declared an attack in progress, Ship Master! Small craft approaching at a high fraction of light! What are your orders?” asked the shuttle’s pilot.

  Torq was at a momentary loss for what to do here. On the one hand, he wanted to stay within visual range of the shipyard, but that risked being caught in the path of one of the enemy’s particle beams. But if he ordered the shuttle back to the station, the station might be targeted, and he’d be in just as much if not worse danger. He made a decision.

  “Back us off from the shipyard, but keep it in sight!” he said quickly. Even as the shuttle began moving in reverse, he started to wonder why the attacking craft hadn’t started firing yet.

  Harrow heard the double ping that indicated incoming FTL targeting data. As she looked up, the holo-display zoomed in on Zulu3-C, and red icons began appearing in
orbit. The sidebar told the story: six large structures, more massive than typical super-ships, plus four more objects with the right mass to be super-ships. The ships were orbiting at a higher altitude than the more massive objects, which had to be shipyards. Location based on one or two mass detection bearings, was usually displayed as an approximate position that could be anywhere within a sphere. She nodded with approval as the radius of the six detection spheres shrank down to something measured in meters instead of kilometers. Now that she had that more precise targeting data, it was time to execute the strike.

  “Deploy the RD2s,” she commanded in a calm voice. It took only seconds for the six drones to exit the carriers and stop at their launch points.

  “Targeting data has been downloaded,” said Harrow’s Tactical Officer. “All drones are ready to launch, TFL.”

  “Initiate launch,” said Harrow.

  The display pinged again three seconds later, and she heard her T.O.’s voice. “All six are on course and have jumped.”

  Torq had just listened to the report from Planet Defense. Micro-wave beams from three defending craft had picked up objects travelling at high velocity towards the planet. Because the micro-wave range was relatively short and the objects’ speed was high, there was no time for the craft to try to fire on them. The fact that none of the incoming objects had been detected by the mass detection system told him that they were much smaller than the type of small craft the enemy usually used. And the fact that almost 60 cyclets had now gone by since the first alert told him that these were not attack craft but were probably sensing drones. That meant that the actual attack was still to come. He was just about to say so to the shuttle pilot when a bright flash of light appeared on the shipyard complex in front of his shuttle. Seeing that large chunks of the shipyard superstructure had been blown off and that some of them were flying in the shuttle’s direction, he had just enough time to warn the pilot to back away faster.

  “We got six hits!” shouted the T.O. The Flag Bridge erupted in cheers while Harrow merely nodded and smiled. The RD1s had been programmed to slow down after coming into detection range. By the time the jump-capable RD2s had micro-jumped to very close range and made final course corrections, their 36 brethren were close enough to get optical confirmation of the hits and then send the pre-arranged code by FTL transmissions. Now that their job was done, they would re-accelerate to 65% of light and plunge into the sun to avoid capture. It was unfortunate that those 36 RD1s didn’t have the same precise targeting data that would have allowed them to ram the shipyards too, but at least she proved that the concept worked. The Tyrell carrier had almost certainly not been destroyed, but it was equally certain that it had been damaged. She would recommend that a repeat strike mission with a lot more RD2s be approved to finish the mission of destroying that carrier outright. She waited until the cheering had died down before speaking.

  “Task Force 3.2 will now withdraw and head home.”

  Chapter Two

  Torq waited in the outer part of the Grand Master’s office for the opportunity to give a personal report on the latest enemy attack. High Command was once again highly agitated by the notion that the enemy had attacked the home system. Torq was far less concerned. Once the enemy knew where the Tyrell called home, it was obvious that they would attack again, and the only question was when. Now they had, and he was puzzled not by the fact of the attack, but by several peculiarities of the way it had played out. All six shipyard complexes had been hit, but only by one missile each. And while there was damage, none of them had critically affected the ships under construction, and the shipyards themselves would be back in operation relatively quickly. So in terms of what this attack had actually accomplished, he would characterize it as a tactical victory for the enemy, but not a strategic victory. Why had they only fired six missiles? That was the question that he had difficulty answering and one he was sure that the SMC would ask him. The only answer that made any sense at all was that the enemy was field testing a new weapon with limited quantities. But if that was the case, why field test those first few missiles on this star system when there were plenty of shipyard complexes closer to the enemy to test them on? Was it possible that the enemy knew the first Tyrell carrier was under construction here? FTL communication using longitudinal waves was supposed to be impossible to intercept unless the enemy ship just happened to be directly in the transmission path, which was so unlikely as to be considered zero probability. And yet he couldn’t get rid of the nagging suspicion that an attack on the only star system that was building a carrier was not a coincidence. If the enemy was somehow intercepting FTL communications, then his people had to find out for sure, and he had an idea that just might do the trick.

  EAF HQ/Earth:

  Harrow noticed that Mirakova’s expression was poker-faced neutral as she stepped into the CEO’s office and stopped in front of Mirakova’s desk.

  “Have a seat, Cate,” said Mirakova in a voice that was also hard to read. “I’ve read your report of course, and congratulations are in order on your imaginative use of RD2s. There’s no doubt that all six large objects, which the analysts here agree were almost certainly shipyards, were hit. It’s just too bad that we don’t have the ability to confirm for ourselves how much damage was caused, but we’ve intercepted enemy FTL transmissions that say that the carrier was damaged so severely that what’s left can’t be repaired. Rather than start construction of a new one at Zulu3, the enemy has apparently decided to shift production of not one but five carriers to another star system so that their home world is at less risk of collateral damage from another attack. Our civilian masters are extremely happy with the results. They now want a much larger drone strike on the five shipyards building the new carriers. If you’re wondering why I don’t seem to be enthusiastic about that mission, it’s because I’m puzzled by a couple of things concerning the intercepted message. These Zulu3 shipyards and the ships they were working on massed more in total than a standard Tyrell super-ship, and yet one 987 tonne drone was enough to wreck a carrier beyond the ability to repair? That seems a trifle odd to me. The other thing that puzzles me is that the message explaining the shift of carrier construction made no mention at all of the damage to the five ships in the other five shipyards. Were they damaged beyond repair too? If shifting production of the carrier lowers the risk to their home world, wouldn’t shifting production of super-ships somewhere else lower the risk even more? But there’s not a word about that in any message. I find that very strange.” Mirakova paused and took a deep breath. “In any case, Third Fleet will conduct the attack on the new carrier construction in about two months time. That will give LeClair time to train his corvette squadrons, accumulate sufficient drones of both types, and it also gives the Tyrell enough time to begin construction. There’s no sense attacking empty shipyards. Now that you’ve shown us how those drones can be used, there’s no need for you to accompany LeClair on this mission.” She paused again when she saw the reaction on Harrow’s face.

  “If Admiral LeClair is taking all of Third Fleet, then he’ll need at least one other flag officer as Deputy Fleet Commander or Task Force Leader,” said Harrow.

  Mirakova smiled and nodded. “Yes, IF he was taking all of Third Fleet, you’d be correct, but he won’t be. Ranger and Kursk will not be participating in the next raid. LeClair will have one heavy and three light carriers. That should be plenty for a raid using drones. Task Force 3.2 will stay here under your command, partly as a strategic reserve, but also for training purposes. The first stinger prototype is about ready to begin testing, and if the tests go well, production of operational stingers could begin before LeClair takes Third Fleet on that mission. While he’s gone, you will bring the first squadron of stingers up to operational readiness. One of your carriers will carry the stingers, the other will be configured to carry corvettes. Because stingers are so much smaller than corvettes, a light carrier will be able to carry three squadrons of stingers. When you have those three squadro
ns ready, you’ll take TF3.2 back to Zulu3 to make sure, among other things, that they’re not still building anything there and also to see how our stingers hold up against their defense craft. We have to find out what those craft are capable of.”

  “They already have more defense craft in that system than I’ll have stingers. Shouldn’t we wait until we can deploy enough to have numerical superiority?” asked Harrow.

  Mirakova shook her head. “That would take too long. They might be able to add defense craft faster than we can build stingers. No, the sooner we find out what those enemy craft can do, the sooner we can make the necessary adjustments to our equipment and tactics. Let’s face it, Cate. We’re not always going to have numerical superiority, so we had better get used to fighting against superior forces. That’s why I’m sending you to command that mission. If anyone can figure out how to overcome superior odds, it’s you, and you’re smart enough to realize when you can’t overcome them and retreat. I’m not sure LeClair has that judgement or self-discipline. Any questions?”

  Harrow thought for a moment and then said, “Am I correct in thinking that when I take TF3.2 back to Zulu3, I’ll have one carrier full of stingers and the other full of drones?”

  “That sounds right, so let’s assume that’ll be the case,” replied Mirakova.