Ep.#5 - "Rise of the Corinari" (40 page)

“Talon Two, follow me to port. Three and four land to starboard,” Major Prechitt instructed. One by one, the other three pilots acknowledged their instructions. “Remember, gentlemen, pass over the top of the main drive, then drop at a forty-degree angle of descent. You’ll touch down just past the forward edge of the outer marker and have plenty of time to roll up smoothly and stop just before you reach the door. Don’t forget, the deck has ten percent gravity at the outer marker, so it will pull you down the last half meter.”

Major Prechitt thrusted downward, bringing his fighter just ten meters above the Aurora’s main drive section. He waited patiently as it passed under him, glancing out to his right to see his wingman, slightly behind, following him in. As his ship passed the forward edge of the drive section, he fired a more intense burst of downward thrust, causing his ship to descend more rapidly. The single thrust had been just the right amount, and his angle of descent showed to be exactly forty degrees, just as he had hoped.

He watched as his range indicator counted down the diminishing distance between the bottom of his landing gear and the surface of the Aurora’s flight apron. As the indicator changed to five meters, he applied upward thrust to further slow his descent. His closure rate dropped rapidly, reaching one hundred centimeters per second just as his altitude above the deck reached one meter. After another few seconds of coasting, the artificial gravity of the flight apron grabbed hold and pulled his spacecraft down the last half meter, his fighter bouncing slightly as his gear touched the deck, and he continued to roll forward along the Aurora’s flight apron.

“One down,” he announced as he applied braking thrust to stop his forward momentum and roll to a stop.

“Two down.”

“Three down.”

“Four down.”

“First group is down,” Jessica reported.

Nathan watched the view of the landing deck being displayed on the forward screen. “Nice landings,” he commented. “The time they spent in those sims down on Corinair shows.” He remembered his first landing on the flight deck of the Reliant where he had done his flight-deck training. He had done quite well on his first landing, but the approach to the Reliant was nearly a straight line, and he hadn’t come in nearly as fast. The Aurora’s flight deck was purposefully tucked in between her forward section and her main drive in order to protect it from a direct hit. Unfortunately, the placement required radical approaches from either above or beside the main drive section. She was not an easy ship to land on.

Nathan felt a sense of completeness filling him as the fighters continued to land in groups of four, each group five minutes apart so as to give their deck crews a chance to get accustomed to working the Aurora’s hangar deck. By the time all fighters had been recovered, the Aurora had twenty-four combat spacecraft on board, twelve in each fighter alley. It was only half her designed load, but it was a good start.

Marcus watched from the forward edge of the hangar deck as the Corinari deck crews directed the four fighters out of the port and starboard transfer airlocks, sending each pair outward toward their respective fighter alleys as soon as they passed through the airlock doors. There were at least a dozen men, all moving about in different brightly colored shirts, each shirt identifying their function on the deck.
It’s like watching one of those fancy dances
, Marcus thought,
but for men
.

“Nice work,” Commander Taylor congratulated the major as he entered the flight command center. “Not a single bad landing in the entire group.”

“Thank you, Commander,” he answered as he pulled his flight suit down off his shoulders and refastened it so that the upper half would hang loosely from his waist.

“What’s next?”

“First, a quick debrief of the flight in. After the deck crews refuel and clear the group for flight, we’re going to launch all birds and do it again.”

“Are you planning on launching them through the tubes?” Cameron asked.

“Is there any other way?” the major responded with a smile.

Chapter Ten

“Jump complete,” Abby reported.

“We’re back at our previous location, Captain,” Loki reported. “One hundred thousand kilometers from the kill zone.”

“Very well,” Nathan answered. “Time to simulated impact of shot three?”

“One minute, sir,” Ensign Yosef reported. “All perimeter sensors are online and transmitting.”

“Hopefully this one is a little more accurate than the last two shots,” Nathan stated.

“It is only a matter of finding a speed at which the drone can still make last moment adjustments to its course in order to hit the target zone,” Mister Willard insisted.

“Well, I hope you’re right,” Nathan said. “Time to simulated impact?”

“Thirty seconds, sir,” Ensign Yosef reported.

“Begin moving the target zone.”

“Aye, sir. Moving target zone,” Ensign Yosef answered.

Nathan watched the forward view screen as the tactical display showed eight markers representing the beacons out in space that, when working together, created a false image of a spacecraft on the sensors of the comm-drone. The drone’s navigation software was originally designed to avoid objects in space, especially other spacecraft, despite the fact that the likelihood of such an impact was extremely remote. However, since the drones regularly flew into the heavily populated Takaran home system, such safeguards had been necessary to appease the concerns of the population.

For Vladimir and Mister Willard, it had simply been a matter of reprogramming the navigational software to tell the drone to steer
toward
an obstacle instead of away from it. So far, the drone seemed to be failing to make the last minute adjustments and had missed the target by a small amount on both test shots. They were hoping the third shot would be successful, as they only had one test drone left. Otherwise, they would have to go out and collect all four drones on the far side of the system and reload them onto the platform before they could try again. That would take time which they did not have, as the Ta’Akar frigate Loranoi was expected to arrive sometime over the next few days.

“Ten seconds,” Ensign Yosef announced.

Nathan continued watching as the beacon icons on the tactical display began sliding to the right, indicating their movement through space.

“Five……four……three……two……one……simulated impact,” the ensign reported.

Nathan watched the red dot appear on the tactical display on the forward view screen, slightly behind the target area. “Damn,” he curseded. “Any ideas?”

“I believe the problem may be that the simulated image is not strong enough for the drone’s sensors to register until it is already too close to the target to maneuver.”

“How can you be sure?” Nathan asked.

“I cannot,” Mister Willard admitted. “But notice that the impact point was forward of the target area’s original position. This would suggest that the drone was trying to maneuver. Since the rate at which it can turn does not change as long as the speed is constant, this would also suggest that the drone is not making the decision to turn until it is already too late.”

“Well, if it’s seeing the fake sensor image, why is it turning too late?” Nathan asked.

“I believe that the image is too weak when the drone is still at a distance that allows it enough time to turn.”

“So we need to give it something real to aim at?”

“Or something with a stronger signal,” Mister Willard suggested.

“We’ll give it one last shot,” Nathan said, “then we’ll go pick the drones up and reload the launch platform before we call it a day. We can ask the Corinairans about boosting the signal strength on the decoy projectors.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Helm,” Nathan began, “set course back to the launch platform. Abby, prepare to jump the ship.”

“Contact!” Ensign Yosef reported.

“Belay that,” Nathan said.

“Single contact, one thousand kilometers to port, sir.”

“How the hell did it get so close?”

“It just appeared out of nowhere, Captain. Trying to ID…”

“Captain,” Naralena interrupted, “I am getting a hail from Tug, sir.”

“Confirmed, Captain. The contact is Tug’s jump interceptor.”

“Aurora, Tug. Do you copy?”

“Tug, Aurora. Go ahead,” Naralena replied.

“Aurora, Early warning shuttle reports contact with the Loranoi. She is twelve hours away at current speed.”

“Tug, Aurora. We copy message.”

“Ask him if anyone has spotted the Wallach.” Nathan ordered.

“Tug, Aurora. Has the Wallach been spotted as well?”

“Negative, no recent contact with the Wallach, although we expect her ETA to be the same. Major Prechitt requests you rendezvous with fighter group in orbit over Corinair so they can refuel and arm.”

“Tug, Aurora copies,” Naralena answered.

“
Tug out.
”

“Contact is turning back toward the center of the Darvano system, Captain,” Ensign Yosef reported.

“As are we,” Nathan stated.

“Contact has jumped.”

“Helm, new course. Head for Corinair.”

“Aye, Captain. Turning toward Corinair,” Josh reported.

“Abby, jump us to orbit over Corinair as soon as you’re ready.”

“Yes, sir,” Abby answered.

“Comms, notify the XO and the COB of the situation, and let the air boss know he needs to prepare to recover his fighters.”

“Yes, sir.”

“All hands, prepare to jump,” Abby announced ship-wide.

“On course for Corinair, Captain,” Loki reported.

“Jump plotted, Captain,” Abby reported.

“Jump.”

* * *

“How much time do we have?” Major Prechitt asked as he entered the flight operations center. The air boss and his assistants were still managing the recovery of fighters and were too busy to talk.

“Just over eleven hours, sir,” one of the flight controllers stated. He pointed at one of the mission clocks on the wall. “I set the red clock to the Loranoi’s ETA.”

“Good thinking,” the major stated as he finished dropping his flight suit to his waist and donned his comm-set. “Comms, CAG,” he called over his comm-set.

“
CAG, go for Comms
,” Naralena’s voice answered.

“How long will we be in orbit over Corinair?”

“
Wait one
.”

A moment later Cameron’s voice came on the comm-set. “
CAG, XO
.”

“Commander, how long are we going to be in orbit over Corinair?”

“
As long as possible, Major
,” Cameron answered. “
What do you need?
”

“The weapons yard at our airbase was supposed to be modifying some of our ordnance for use in space, specifically intercept missiles and ship-killers, sort of like the cruise missiles they rigged to work in your torpedo tubes but without the nukes. I do not know how many they managed to finish yet, but I would like to get whatever they have up here while we have a chance. I would also like to top off our fuel reserves while we are at it. We have been burning it up the last few days with all the round-the-clock training, and I do not wish to run low during combat.”

“
Put your calls in ASAP, Major,
” Cameron told him. “
We’re waiting for deliveries ourselves, primarily the point-defense frag rounds they’ve been making. We’ll try not to pull out until we’ve received everything they can send us. Also, the captain wants a briefing in one hour.
”

“Copy that. CAG out.” Major Prechitt killed the conversation with Commander Taylor and initiated a new call. “Comms, CAG.”

“
CAG, go for Comms
,” Naralena answered.

“Patch me through to Corinari Command.”

“
Right away, Major.
”

* * *

“Attention on deck!” the guard at the entrance barked as Nathan entered the command briefing room.

Before anyone had a chance to stand and come to attention, Nathan cut them short. “As you were.” Nathan immediately crossed the short distance from the entrance to his seat at the head of the table, talking as he went. “Engineering?”

“All reactors are online and can come to one hundred percent in ten seconds. Main propulsion and maneuvering are ready,” Vladimir reported.

“What about electronic countermeasures?” Nathan asked.

“Mister Willard has installed all the systems, but they have only been partially tested,” Vladimir admitted.

“Let’s test what we can while we have time,” Nathan said. “The rest will just have to wait.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Weapons?”

“All sixteen quad rail gun turrets are online, sir,” Jessica reported. “The four double quads are operating as well, but we don’t have any ammo for them yet.”

“Why not?”

“It requires retooling their production line, sir,” Jessica explained. “They already did it once to start making frag rounds for the quads to use for point-defense. They were going to retool to produce the larger rounds needed by the double quads after they finished up the frag rounds.”

“Damn, we could really use the punch from the double quads right now,” Nathan stated. “Don’t those people have more than one factory down there?”

“In defense of my people, sir, we
are
still rebuilding after the Yamaro’s bombardment,” Major Prechitt pointed out. “It has only been a couple of months.”

“Of course,” Nathan said, “my apologies.”

“We’ve still got the twenty-four nuclear torpedoes,” Jessica reminded him. “That ought to pack a punch.”

“What about missiles?”

“Total of sixty-four, sir. Long-range stuff mostly. But it wasn’t easy getting the Yamaro’s missile turret to work with our loading system. Don’t expect to be able to reload at the normal rate.”

“How long?”

“Figure at least a minute for each reload,” Jessica warned. “If we go too fast they tend to jam. Then we have to send someone into the turret collar in a pressure suit. Not exactly a fun job, especially during combat.”