The Complete Thunder Series (Thunder In The Heavens)

by Dietmar Wehr

  Eagleton muted his headset mic as he stepped over to Cate’s station. “Getting multiple confirmations of hits on enemy super-ships from my squadrons, Admiral. I’m also told that they’re being scanned by radar now. That means the enemy knows they’re being attacked by small craft that won’t show up on their mass detectors. All squadrons are returning. No losses so far.”

  “That’s good news, Cag,” said Harrow as she kept her focus on the tactical display. The returning stinger squadrons were still able to detect the Tyrell super-ships using their mass detection systems, and those 60, no…55 super-ships were moving on a vector that would bring them to a rendezvous with the two somewhat smaller ships that her RD2 drones had detected a few minutes earlier. “I’ll bet you anything you want that those two stationary ships are Tyrell carriers, and their super-ships are heading back to them. That’s perfect. As soon as your squadrons are recovered, re-armed and re-launched, we’ll go after their fleet again, and this time maybe we’ll catch their carriers too.” When he didn’t respond right away, she looked at him. “What’s bothering you?” she asked.

  Eagleton bent down lower so that only Cate would hear him. “I’m concerned about Third Fleet being detected and attacked by whatever those Tyrell carriers are carrying. I’m also disappointed that we only managed to cripple five of their super-ships with our first strike. The rest have to be damaged, sure, but I was hoping for more cripples by this point. What I’d like to do is hold half my stingers back as a fleet defense force. That means the second strike will only be half as strong.”

  Harrow’s first impulse was to order a full second strike with all 240 stingers, but she resisted that impulse. Launching all their stingers on the first strike and leaving the carriers undefended was a calculated risk that could be justified by having the element of surprise, but that advantage was gone now. The Tyrell knew there were other hostile forces in this star system, and it would be prudent to assume they’d be searching for those forces. Still, it was hard to let go of the urge to hit the Tyrell again with the heaviest possible punch, especially given that she now knew where the enemy carriers were. If the Tyrell really did have two operational carriers, they needed to be destroyed regardless of what other losses Cag’s squadrons could inflict on those super-ships. Once the threat of enemy carrier attack craft was gone or at least mitigated, those remaining super-ships could be attacked again and again if necessary.

  “We have to kill those two carriers, Cag,” said Harrow in a low voice. “Will your stinger pilots be able to differentiate them from the rest of the enemy fleet on the second attack?”

  Eagleton frowned. “I don’t know. I can give my squadron leaders conditional orders to concentrate fire on the two carriers if they can identify which two they are. Otherwise, they’ll spread their fire evenly among the others like they did the first time.”

  “That means two hits each if we only send half the squadrons.” She paused for a few seconds before continuing. “Half isn’t enough. I want a hundred and eighty for the second attack. That’ll allocate three KEs to each target. The rest can defend Third Fleet.”

  Eagleton wanted to argue for more defending stingers. He had a bad feeling that 60 stingers wouldn’t be enough. “Sixty it is,” he said reluctantly. After making sure that Cate had nothing more to say to him, he stepped away and activated his mic. “Flight Ops, this is the Cag. This is how we’ll handle the recovery.”

  Strike Force Leader / Returning Stinger Strike Force:

  Commander Murrell jumped in surprise when his stinger’s mass detection system picked up six bogeys heading for Third Fleet on a converging vector. They were less than five light seconds away from him and his squadron, and almost twenty light seconds from Third Fleet. At their velocity, they would reach attack range any second. There was no time to warn the carriers or order other stingers to respond. He activated his stinger’s particle beam turret weapon and designated the bogeys as targets. As soon as the weapon was charged, it fired. The bogeys were flying in close enough formation that the dispersed beam caught all six of them at the same time. Less than a second later, all six had disintegrated from structural failure. Murrell activated his com system and began speaking.

  Third Fleet Flagship (Kursk):

  Eagleton whipped his head around as he heard the Com Tech snap her fingers at him. He quickly activated his headset and caught the last few words of the incoming message.

  “—all six bogeys destroyed by beam weapon. There might be more coming your way, Third Fleet. Do you want us to set up a picket defense? Over.”

  Eagleton thought fast. If enemy attack craft had gotten that close, then they would be only seconds away from effective firing range. And if there were more coming at them, there was no time to confer with Cate. He had to act right now.

  “Cag to Strike Leader. Affirmative on the picket defense. Form a skirmish line with half your stingers and work your way towards the enemy carriers at moderate velocity. Over.”

  Before he could turn around to tell Cate what had just happened, she turned to him and snapped, “Did you just transmit an FTL message to the squadrons?” Eagleton understood her apparent anger. The stingers could transmit FTL messages to the fleet because those transmissions were headed away from the planet and from the enemy fleet, but any FTL signal from Kursk to the strike force would also reach the planet and potentially be detected by enemy ships, thereby tipping them off as to Third Fleet’s probable location.

  “No choice, Admiral. The enemy already knows where we are. My Strike Leader intercepted six bogeys heading in our direction. There wasn’t time to use SOL systems. If there are more bogeys on their way, they might get with firing range within seconds. We should go to Battle Stations, Admiral.” He saw her expression change as she understood the implications of what had just happened.

  “Dammit! They got the jump on us again! How did they find us so quickly?” asked Harrow.

  “My guess is they sent their attack craft out in a search pattern just like we did with our recon drones, only they can attack as soon as they find something, while we have to regroup first,” said Eagleton.

  Harrow saw him turn away probably because of another incoming message. She looked at the Com Tech and said, “Third Fleet will go to Battle Stations. I want all three carriers to present our narrowest profiles to any incoming enemy craft.” She saw her FTO nod with understanding. If the enemy got close enough to fire their weapons, which probably were anti-tachyon projectors too, then fewer anti-tachyon particles would hit the carrier hulls if they were edge on instead of presenting their tops or bottoms to the enemy. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing to keep herself calm. The battle was not going well, but she couldn’t afford to make impulsive decisions, and in any case, the Fleet Commander always had to project an image of calm competence instead of panicked impulsiveness. Somehow she had to find a way to regain the initiative.

  Tyrell carrier Natron:

  Torq looked up at the tactical display as it signaled a status change. One of the attack craft group icons had disappeared. The sidebar showed that communications with the group had suddenly been lost. Was it possible that those six craft had been intercepted and destroyed even before reaching firing range? How was that possible? He checked the progress of the other groups. Another one was still 66 light-cyclets away from the mysterious three ships. His attack craft had to get within 8 light-cyclets before their particle beams would have any effect. That meant he had to wait another 93 cyclets before the enemy ships would start being hit by anti-matter particles. The 55 still mobile Ships-of-Battle would rejoin his carriers by then. He focused on the rest of the attack craft groups that were strung out in a very haphazard-looking…thing. It was as ugly a formation as he had ever seen, but it couldn’t be helped considering how spread out they all had been when he ordered them to regroup and attack. Some of the groups were still further away from the enemy than his carriers were.

  The next closest group was 44 light-cyclets away from the
ir targets when their icon disappeared. By the time the third group disappeared, Torq realized that each of them was vanishing further away from the enemy, and therefore closer to his ships, than the group before. Something that was too small to detect by mass sensors was coming towards his ships, and it was destroying his attack groups as they got closer. He had to know what it was.

  “Order one craft in each group to actively scan ahead and report all contacts!” shouted Torq.

  “Do we transmit by FTL, Fleet of Fleets Master?” asked the Communications Master.

  “YES, YOU FOOL! THEY ALREADY KNOW WHERE WE ARE!” yelled Torq. With the groups closest to the enemy now hundreds of light-cyclets from his carriers, it would take far too long to transmit the order by speed of light methods. Even with FTL transmissions, it still took almost a dozen cyclets before the tactical display updated with incoming micro-wave scanning results. A hundred and twenty angry green icons appeared ahead of his groups, and the enemy was in a very precise circular formation that effectively formed a shield to defend their carriers. That shield was moving closer to his ships at ten percent of light speed. Probably to make sure no enemy craft slipped through any sensor gaps, he thought to himself. It was a smart thing to do. How do you get past a shield, he asked himself. You either go around it or through it. He would try both methods.

  “New orders. Attack groups—” he glanced at the display and rattled off half a dozen group designations, all at the front of the formation “—will fire at the center of the enemy formation as soon as they get within 15 light-cyclets and continue firing and advancing.” He identified a dozen more groups. “They will try to outflank the formation from all directions. All other groups are to hold their positions.”

  Third Fleet Flagship (Kursk):

  “Sonofabitch!” snarled Eagleton.

  Harrow responded immediately. “What? What just happened, Cag?”

  “They’re firing their anti-tachyons at long range with wide dispersion to penetrate the picket line. Our stingers aren’t built to withstand a shower of anti-matter particles, just like theirs aren’t, and it seems that they’re able to fire from longer range than we can. I want to bring that picket line back before it’s penetrated. If we let the enemy get too close to it, it’ll turn into a dog fight, and we’ll lose most of our stingers!” Harrow hesitated, but Eagleton was not in the mood to wait. “ADMIRAL?” he asked in a louder than normal voice.

  “Yes, sound the recall,” said Harrow.

  “God, I hope we’re not too late,” said Eagleton as he switched com channels. “Strike Leader, this is the Cag. Disengage and return to the fleet. Repeat, disengage and return asap. Over.” There was no reply. Eagleton and Harrow both looked at the sidebar status of Murrell’s stinger and saw the letters LOS meaning Loss of Telemetry Signal. That usually meant the stinger was either destroyed or crippled. “Cag to picket force! Disengage immediately and return to the fleet. Don’t bother to acknowledge this order, JUST DO IT!”

  He and Cate watched helplessly while the precise shield formation fell apart as each stinger maneuvered independently. By then, the first groups of enemy craft had gotten within firing range, and icons from both sides started disappearing with alarming speed. By the time the closest enemy groups had been destroyed, the remaining stingers were coming back at maximum velocity and were staying out of range of the Tyrell follow-on groups.

  “At least our people can keep their distance,” said Eagleton.

  “Can we recover our stingers while we maintain a safe distance at max speed, Cag?” asked Harrow.

  “It’s never been tried, but we have to do it.”

  “Then let’s do it and then jump away.”

  The operation was tricky. First, all the stingers not yet recovered had to be told what the carriers were going to do. Then as stingers gradually caught up to the fleeing carriers, which were travelling just a tad slower than maximum speed, they were taken on board. Once the first group of 120 stingers had been recovered, it was then the turn of the 69 stingers left from the picket line force. As they started to land, the pursuing Tyrell attack craft fired their weapons. The range was so high that 99.9 percent of the anti-tachyon particles missed, and the few that did hit did not cause any serious damage to either stingers or carriers. It was the final act of frustration for the Tyrell pilots who had come so close to dealing a crippling blow to their enemy. When all surviving stingers had been recovered, Harrow ordered Third Fleet to micro-jump away.

  Torq was furious when the enemy carriers jumped away, but his anger quickly disappeared and he took note of the fact that it had just been normal anger, not battle lust-induced rage. When he had calmed down, he ordered all remaining attack craft to return to the carriers. As soon as they were recovered, he would order the entire Fleet to micro-jump to a new location too. Staying in the same location would be giving the enemy a gift they didn’t deserve.

  Chapter Six:

  The Flag Bridge was very quiet when Harrow entered. Third Fleet was coasting at the very edge of this star system, with virtually zero chance of being detected, and all three crews and groups of pilots had spent the last 24 hours resting and regrouping mentally. Harrow hadn’t gotten much rest. The carefully planned ambush had failed to inflict significant ship losses, and not only had they not damaged or destroyed the Tyrell carrier they had been almost certain of, it now seemed there was a second carrier they hadn’t known about. Both sides were aware of the other’s existence but not location. She was as sure as she could be that the Tyrell fleet was no longer at that same position relative to the Metrone planet. The Tyrell Fleet Commander was clearly too good to make that mistake. A quick look at the main tactical display showed only astrogational objects that didn’t tell her anything she really wanted to know. After spending a few minutes reviewing her log entries, she heard the Flag Bridge doors slide open and glanced around to see Gort enter.

  As he came up to her station, he said, “I had a hunch I’d find you here. Have you left the Flag Bridge at all since we jumped away?”

  She chuckled. “I have, and I just got back here a few minutes ago. I’ve been wracking my brain about what we do next. Going home now isn’t an option. We have a mission to accomplish, and even though we’ve lost some pilots, some of your pilots, we still have most of our strike force intact, and all three carriers are undamaged. But we’ve also lost the element of surprise, and that just might be the biggest loss of all right now.”

  He nodded somberly. “I agree. We can’t call it yet. I’ve been talking with my pilots, and they’re chomping at the bit to take another crack at those Tyrell super-ships and their carriers now that we’ve confirmed their existence. I’ve been giving our tactical situation a lot of thought too. I have an idea on how we can find the Tyrell fleet.”

  “Well then, let’s hear it!” said Harrow.

  Eagleton grinned as he stepped over to the Astrogation Station. “I can convey the idea better visually than verbally.” Turning to the Astrogation Officer, he said, “I have to borrow your station for a few minutes, Lieutenant.” While Eagleton and the officer exchanged places, Harrow left her station to stand beside Gort who was now busy manipulating the console.

  “I’m calling up the setup I created when I was looking at this idea. Here’s the Metrone planet relative to its sun. Those three icons are Third Fleet’s carriers.” Harrow looked closely at the main display where Gort’s idea was being displayed now. She saw that her carriers were in a large triangle formation sitting relatively close to the sun but far enough apart that none of them were between the sun and the planet. “Those green dots are RD1s,” said Eagleton. Harrow saw three lines of green dots that started at each carrier and met exactly in the center of the space between them. “What this formation of carriers and drones is intended to do is look for reflected sunlight off the Tyrell super-ships. I figure with 55 of those big fuckers, plus the two slightly smaller carriers, if they’re anywhere in the general vicinity of the planet, even ten light-minutes away fr
om it, some of them are bound to be oriented in such a way that reflected sunlight will be seen by either the carriers or by at least one of the drones. If we can get visual contacts by different drones or ships, then we can triangulate the enemy fleet’s approximate position.” A red dot appeared on the far side of the planet and off to one side. Two lines formed from the red dot, with one line going to one of the drones and the other going to one of the carriers.

  Harrow was impressed. “That’s brilliant, Cag. They won’t see us, because we’re not silhouetted against the sun, and the drones are too small to see that far away. But even at that distance, those big ships will reflect a lot of light, and just normal station-keeping in a fleet that big means some ships will always be maneuvering. Once we know where they are, you and I will put our heads together again and come up with an attack plan. Lieutenant?” she said turning to the standing officer, “I want you to prepare a deployment plan that will make this plan a reality. I’ll review it before we implement it. Any questions?”

  “No questions, Admiral.”

  Eagleton got up and walked with Harrow back to her station. “I’ll tell my pilots what we’re going to do, but there’s no sense in putting them on alert now. We may not get any reflections for hours or maybe even days.”