Probe Predators (22 page)

“And they have a device that can use the full heat from a fusion reactor to cut it?”

“They do; they also gave me the diagrams on it as well.”

Drey shook his head and Dee said, “This throws off your future plans, doesn’t it?”

Drey lifted his eyebrows and tilted his head left, “I was looking forward to teaching them a lesson about attacking the Union after all of this was over.”

Moe said, “How does this change that?”

Drey shook his head, “If someone hands you a stick to hit them, it takes all the fun out of it.” Dee started laughing and Drey looked at her, “What?”

“You didn’t say that when I handed you the paddle.”

“Yeah, but that was different.”

“How?”

“You deserved it.”

“I guess I did. I shouldn’t have threatened to call Barbara to straighten you out.”

“Don’t ever joke about that.”

Dee laughed harder and Moe said, “I think it’s time for me to go.”

• • •

Grander looked at his panel and saw the feed coming in from the Union Probe. The two hundred Thresher Warships were still holding station with their force fields down. He looked at the two main battleships holding station next to his and took in a deep breath. The Pental Ship Commander appeared on his panel’s display, “The decoy has started their countdown.”

Grander nodded, “We will wait until our targets fully activate their force fields.”

“I wish there was another way to do this.”

“The purpose of this attack is to determine if our new Penetrator will make it through their force fields. It doesn’t make sense to attack unless their force fields are at full power.” Grander’s three eyes narrowed, “Have you set the proper timing?”

“I’ve set a three second delay between the two launches. The Nueon Commander is going to launch two simultaneously. Your ship is the only one firing just one penetrator. I wouldn’t suggest hanging around long after the launch.”

“I’ll have to slow down to designate the target. I should be outside the range of their blasters and the penetrator will hit rather quickly. However, until we come up with a safer method, we’ll have to keep a laser trained on them until the penetrators hit.”

The Pental looked down and said, “The Green Battleship has jumped in and all of the Thresher Warships are powering up their defenses. There…he jumped out.”

Grander watched his panel and waited for the three target ships to be at full power to their force fields. “Launch in ten seconds.”

“Good luck, my friend.”

“The same to you.”

• • •

Each of the three Council’s Main Battleships had selected a Thresher Warship. They lined them up in their attack computers and listened to the countdown. They were a hundred and eighty thousand miles from their targets and once they went FTL, they would arrive ten thousand miles out and fire their new penetrators in less than half a second. The penetrators would lock on the laser designating the Thresher Warship and accelerate to just under the speed of light and hit the target in less than a thousandth of a second. The three attackers would slow their approach and turn thirty miles away from their target and move away from the Thresher’s while keeping the laser designator locked on their target’s hull. They would know in a few moments if their new penetrator would perform adequately.

• • •

Grander saw the countdown hit zero on his display and he pressed the drive button. The giant Sovereign Warship accelerated at an inconceivable speed and Grander felt the bump of a penetrator leaving the front missile tube. The large Green Battleship slowed and turned away from the Threshers; Grander saw a giant explosion. When the blast cleared, the Thresher Warship still had its force field intact but was severely listing to the right. He looked at his wall monitor quickly as his ship jumped away and saw the Pental fire the two penetrators with a three second gap between them. The Orange Ship had two blasts on its hull in short order, but the force field held. It was, however, flickering brightly. It was also not moving and many of the hull lights were out.

He looked quickly at the third monitor and saw the remains of a Thresher Warship floating in space. A giant hole had been blown through the hull, and, as he watched, the remains of the giant ship blew up in a massive explosion. It appeared two quick hits were needed to kill the enemy ships. He looked at his secondary panel and saw the Pental’s ship had been hit by a beam fired from a Thresher Warship that jumped in on the attackers.

That three second delay between penetrators cost him his life. He managed to get the second penetrator launched just before the Thresher fired on him. Grander shook his head and clearly saw the most important lesson learned during this attack; fire and get the hell out. He admired the Pental Commander for volunteering for the delayed launch. His courage at refusing to jump before his second launch was admirable. Now the Council knew that the new penetrators had to be launched in a shorter time than three seconds to kill a Thresher Warship. His bravery would save many of his fellow warriors’ lives.

• • •

The Command Claw pounded his panel. Another ship destroyed and two damaged to such an extent that they had to be sent back for repair. This was getting dangerous and he sent the recordings of what happened to the Major Claw. He hoped he would survive another week. The Major Claw was not going to be happy.

• • •

Katy watched the recording of the young pilot that had gone in solo against the two Orange ships and destroyed them. She knew in her bones that he didn’t want to live….but he also didn’t want to die. She had lost more than a thousand pilots that had thrown their lives away in stupid, suicidal, kamikaze attacks. They wasted their lives by being dumb. She saw the door to her office open and Group Leader Rolf Ericson stuck his head in, “They’re all here, Sir.”

Katy stood up and went into her Fleets main hangar and saw all of her pilots standing at attention in front of a chair. “At ease…take a seat.” She stared at them and they knew she was upset about something. “I’m going to play the recordings of our fellow Zombies and their attacks on the Thresher Ships. You will hold your comments until all the recordings are completed. At the end of our recordings, I am going to play a recording of the pilot that killed two of the Orange Ships. At that time you will tell me what you’ve learned.”

The recordings started and initially the pilots cheered the bravery of their fellow Zombies that charged in on the five giant Thresher Warships attempting to crash into their hulls. After four hundred of them had died, the cheers stopped. The recording of the last Zombie death left them silent. Katy nodded to Rolf and he showed the recording of Mac’s two runs against the Orange Ships resulting in their destruction. The Zombie Pilots were speechless at what he had done.

Katy stood up and glared at her pilots. After five minutes she screamed, “WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED!?!” No one said anything. Katy turned to Rolf and glared at him with an expression of rage, “You told me my pilots were prepared to attack those ships.” Katy kept her eyes on Rolf and pointed at the display with her right index finger. “They weren’t prepared to do anything but die. I expected better of you Group Leader.” She whipped around and glared at Gil Sanchez, “Your pilots are no better.” She turned back to the seated pilots and glared at them, “What….have….you….learned?”

A pilot stood up in the tenth row and said, “Wanting to die and being willing to die are not the same thing.”

Katy’s eyes turned to the pilot, “Go on.”

“That pilot was willing to die to kill those ships but he didn’t want to. He planned an attack that offered him a chance to survive; it wasn’t much of a chance, but it worked.”

Katy glared at the pilot and said, “You will take Group Leader Ericson’s place. He will move to your squadron and replace you in your wing.” Katy whipped around and glared at Rolf.

“Sir, I’m sorry I let you and my fellow Zombies down.” Rolf turned and went to the speaker’s chair.

Katy looked to her right and nodded. A large tarp that was covering a section of the hangar’s wall fell to the floor. The pilots saw a huge stone monument more than twenty feet tall standing against the wall and at the top was written, ‘These Warriors knew how to die’.

Katy turned back to the gathering and said, “None of the pilot’s names that were killed in our attack will go on that wall. The first name to go on it isn’t even one of our own.” Katy nodded and a small banner was removed under the large heading. Everyone saw, Mick Anderson Chancellor, chiseled in the monument. Katy turned to her pilots and said, “He has set your standard for inclusion in our Honor Role. You will have to kill two Thresher Warships to have your name honored by my Warriors. If any of you do better than Mister Chancellor, his name will be removed from my wall and your name will replace his. I’m ashamed that one of my own isn’t the first one on our Holy List.” Katy turned and stormed out of the hangar.

The pilots stared at the monument and saw an outsider on it. Their respect for what he did was monumental. However, they all decided at that moment that his name had to go. A pilot stood up and yelled, “I will not allow that name to remain on my wall.” He turned to the gathering, “I will kill three of those ships before I die.”

The huge gathering roared their approval and the new Group Leader yelled, “He went in FTL. We have to learn how to use that method to attack them. Are you Zombies ready to go to work?”

“YES SIR!!!”

“Wing Leaders, examine what he did and start training on variations of his method. The first one of us to take out three Thresher Warships will be given a title of First Zombie by their name on that wall. Personally, I intend to see that my name is the one that’s placed there.”

The gathering roared their disapproval; all of them insisted they would be the one to remove the outsider from their wall.

Katy sat in her office and heard her pilots screaming at each other. She smiled; now they were going in willing to die but not wanting to. That is what would make them into what they should be. She hated that she had to remove Rolf, but he was too far gone toward death. She saw in his eyes that he knew it as well. The ruthless killing of the Thresher prisoners was the final piece of evidence she needed to know that he had to be replaced. She prayed he would find peace in his death.

J
ames Logan replayed the scans made by the Union’s advanced probes. The one he was focusing on was the positron emission scan. He was now a Group Leader of the Zombies and he was driven to have the name on their wall removed. Gil came in and saw him staring at the wall monitor, “What are you doing?”

“Gil, it won’t take the Threshers long to figure out that we’ll be going after the thruster band in our attacks.” Jim looked at Gil, “What do you think they will do about that?”

Gill stared at the Thresher Ship on the display, walked over, and stared at it. After a moment, he pointed at a row of blasters circling the huge ship, “They will prioritize this row of blasters to support the ones defending the thrusters. I suspect they will program them to always be aimed between the two on each side of the thruster.”

Jim looked at Gil, “How bad do you want to die, Gil?”

Gil looked at Jim and sighed, “I’m not sure. I think I would welcome death but I’m not rushing out to embrace it.”

“I will die after my Pilots are gone. Until that happens, they will keep me alive.”

Gill tilted his head and nodded, “I feel the same way, Jim.”

“You’re right about those blasters; it’s what I’d do if I were in their place. However, I don’t think they were able to see what happened.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Chancellor was smart in choosing to attack the thrusters away from the other supporting ships. His route in was a tight parabola and at no point would his ship have been visible to the three survivors. Even the Union Scanners that did record it took a week to finally slow it down enough to see how it was done. I suspect they are in the dark. All they’ll know is that something started a chain reaction of explosions in their band of thrusters.”

Gil looked back up at the monitor and put his right hand on his chin, “Then that makes me more certain they’ll devote more blasters to the defense of the thrusters.”

“We’ll know as soon as we see one of their ships in our next contact with them.”

Gil nodded, “None of the blasters in that inner band will be pointed anywhere else.”

Jim smiled, “Exactly.”

“What are you planning; I can see you’re thinking about something.”

Jim touched his panel and the giant ship on the monitor began rotating, “This scan was done to determine if there were any places on that ship’s hull with a large positron emission.”

Gill watched the ship rotate and saw six places evenly spaced on the upper hull that all glowed pink. “They must have all of their reactors located under the upper hull.”

“I want you to notice that they are located between that inner band and the next band further up the hull.” Gil nodded. “Now if that inner band is slaved to the band of blasters defending the thrusters…”

Gil smiled, “They will only have one band to defend the reactors.”

Jim nodded and stopped the ship rotating on the monitor and pressed a button. He put his finger on his display and made a line twenty miles out from the thrusters. A corresponding line appeared on the monitor. “If we have a line of ships moving in toward the thrusters, it will occupy the blaster bands closest to them. If at the same time we have a group of ships coming in from directly over them…”

Gil saw a circle appear above the ship on the monitor. He moved closer to the monitor and said, “Could you enlarge the upper hull?” The view of the upper hull grew larger. There’s only three bands that circle the center of the upper hull and their numbers are fewer than those bands close to the thrusters.”

“So what will they do?”

Gil started nodded and smiled, “They will target the blaster band above the reactors toward the ships attacking from above.”

Jim smiled, “Which leaves an undefended route in to the reactor band.” Jim took his finger and drew a tight parabola in close to one of the pink areas on the hull and said, “The other ships will come in at normal speed. We’ve learned that as long as they stay eight miles away, the Thresher Blasters won’t penetrate their force fields. The ship coming in on this parabola will be coming in close to light speed.”