Synchronicity War Part 1, The (19 page)

When it was time to board the shuttle that would take him to
the transport ship, Shiloh was resigned to his course of action. If he’d made a
mistake, then he just had to find a way to make the best of it.

The trip to the Alpha Base in Epsilon Eridani, took almost
three days, and transport ships weren’t known for their comfortable
accommodations. As it turned out, the accommodations at the Base were even
worse. Since the Base itself was so new, parts of it were still under
construction. Naturally those parts included living quarters for the base
personnel. Until they were completed, Shiloh and most of the others assigned
there had to sleep wherever they could find space, as well as be content with
emergency rations until the kitchen and mess hall were completed. It took a bit
of pushing, but Shiloh eventually found out what his assignment was. He was the
Weapons Development Board Liaison to the Base, which was a totally unnecessary
position as far as he could tell. The WDB didn’t need a liaison to the AWDT
Base because the Base Commander and the Project Leader both reported directly
to the WDB anyway. The Liaison position was clearly intended by Admiral Howard
to punish Shiloh for his perceived lack of fighting spirit.

With literally nothing to do, Shiloh made up his mind to
make himself useful in any way he could. When enough of the other technical and
engineering staff had arrived to allow actual work to begin, Shiloh made sure
he sat in on all meetings. One thing became clear very quickly, something that
Shiloh hadn’t expected. The Alpha Base wasn’t going to be doing basic design
and prototype construction. That was being done closer to Earth. What the Alpha
Base would do was take prototypes already built and test them as much as
possible under simulated field conditions to assess equipment reliability. Then
they would calculate the most efficient way to mass-produce the resulting
production versions. Once that was figured out, other facilities in the Epsilon
Eridani system would become the production centers for those weapons.

The first weapon system that the AWDT base would work on was
the modified version of the AFP or Autonomous Fighting Platform. Base Commander
Korolev had been right. The concept had changed. The original concept was a
small AI controlled drone that could be used for long duration patrols and
long-range combat operations, supplemented by larger, human piloted gunboats.
Then someone had suggested the obvious, which was to build one common platform
that was highly modular and could be configured either as an unmanned drone or,
with the proper modules attached, as a manned vehicle. While the advantages of
using a common basic vehicle were obvious, there were some disadvantages as
well. In order to be able to carry a human crew, the vehicle had to be larger
than the original drone concept, which meant that the new ships wouldn’t be
able to carry as many of them as planned. To offset that, it was pointed out
that the larger vehicle could not only carry a powerful enough laser to
actually be a threat to enemy ships, but could also carry an impressive load of
smaller recon, message or attack drones.

It took until almost a month after his arrival for the first
prototype to be ready and delivered for testing. The testing program was a
compromise between being thorough and fast. A thorough program would have taken
up to a year or more, and Space Force Brass decided that was just too long. So
the risk of technical glitches was considered acceptable in order to get the
thing into the field as fast as possible. That was fine when they were testing
the prototype in its autonomous configuration because any technical glitch
would not put humans at risk, but eventually they had to test it with humans on
board and in control. The test pilots assigned to that duty weren’t happy with
the simplified testing program, which they considered reckless, and rightly so,
in Shiloh’s opinion.

When a test of the vehicle’s crew module almost resulted in
the death of its test pilot due to a failure in the life support system, the
test pilots refused to participate in any more tests until the crew module had
undergone hundreds of hours of additional simulated field tests. Shiloh had a
gut feeling that they couldn’t afford that much additional time. It wasn’t a
vision, just a nagging suspicion that wouldn’t go away, and so he volunteered
to pilot the prototype during human-controlled tests as originally planned.
Those tests and their preparations kept him so busy that time flew by. When the
testing program was completed, Shiloh was surprised to learn that he’d been
there almost four months. By then the project to mass-produce the upgraded
production version was well under way. Normal practice was for the first few
production models to be tested, as well to make certain they were being built
to the required standard, but just as the first production model Configurable
Fighting Platform, as they were now known, came off the production line, Shiloh
and the rest of the base personnel heard the bad news.

The Space Force Command Staff, after regrouping, had decided
to try to engineer another ambush using the same tactic that Shiloh had used in
Tango Delta 6. The ambush had backfired badly. In fact, it looked as though the
aliens had set their own ambush. How they had managed that, no one knew, but
the result was that the Space Force had lost two full squadrons of frigates,
including the new Sentinel. The message carrying the news didn’t identify which
other frigates were lost, and Shiloh wondered if the 344 was among them. There
was another surprise message in the same data transmission. Admiral Howard
wanted to reassign Shiloh. It appeared that his exile was over. He arrived on
Earth five days later and found himself back in Howard’s office the following
morning.

Upon entering, Shiloh saluted, and Howard reciprocated, then
gestured to the chair facing his desk. When Shiloh sat down, Howard leaned back
and started speaking in a slow voice.

“When you successfully pulled off the makeshift ambush, I
was sure that you had the skill and instincts we needed to win this war. Then
when you refused command of the Sentinel, I thought you’d lost your nerve. That
made me angry. So angry in fact that I made up my mind that I was going to
prevent you from ever having a command again. I was going to make sure that you
were given one useless assignment after another until you either resigned or
retired. I realize now that I was being unfair. By stepping up to pilot the
untested manned version of the CFP, your performance at Alpha Base showed me
that you hadn’t lost your nerve. I still don’t understand the real reason why
you turned down the Sentinel, but I’m prepared to admit that my negative
assessment and treatment of you was unfair and unprofessional of me. For that,
I apologize.”

Shiloh didn’t really know what to say to that, so he just
said, “Thank you, Sir.”

Howard nodded. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way,
let’s talk about giving you a useful assignment. With the time you’ve spent
piloting the CFP prototypes, you’ve racked up more flight hours than anyone
else. That makes you the closest thing to an expert on operational use of CFPs
that we have. We’ll soon have enough production models available to consider
using them in the field. I’d like to hear your thoughts on how you think we
should do that.”

Shiloh wasn’t surprised by the question, and he’d had lots
of time to consider the answer on his way back to Earth. “Well, Sir, I have
some ideas, but it would help me if I knew where we stand now strategically.”

Howard nodded. “Fair enough. You know about the debacle at
Tango Delta 5?”

“I heard the results, but no details of the battle itself,
Sir.”

“Okay. We sent a task force composed of a Command ship,
three support ships, six tankers, and four frigate squadrons to TD5. The plan
was to send two frigates to the vicinity of a gas giant that previous
reconnaissance had determined contained alien surveillance gear. We figured
that sooner or later the aliens would show up to check the activity recorded by
their robotic station, and they would detect our two frigates while, at the
same time, we would detect their presence and order the frigates to microjump
back to the vicinity of the Task Force.

“What we didn’t count on was that the aliens were already in
that star system in force, and they had put their own bait in place. That bait
amounted to eight of their ships orbiting the gas giant. Task Force Commander
Mbutu took the bait and ordered three frigate squadrons, which included the
Sentinel, to microjump to the gas giant. He was aboard her when the Task Force
split up. As soon as the microjump was complete, 32 more alien ships also
microjumped into the battle area. The odds against him were five enemy ships
for every three of his. With that many ships on each side providing radar data,
laser fire accuracy was as close to 100% as is realistically possible, but as
you know, the enemy has more powerful lasers. Our ships started dying faster
than theirs. Sentinel was destroyed within seconds, taking Mbutu with her. His
deputy leader had enough presence of mind to order the rest of the force to
microjump away, while also ordering the rest of the Task Force to rendezvous back
at TD3.

“The microjump by the frigates was only partially
successful. Because of the alien’s ability to detect ships leaving Jumpspace,
they were able to pinpoint where the survivors jumped to, and they followed
them. In hindsight, they should have jumped farther away. When the survivors
were caught again, the Acting Task Force Leader realized his mistake and
ordered another, much longer microjump. That prevented further pursuit. But by
then only 6 of the original 24 frigates were still able to microjump away. We
have to assume that the rest were destroyed either by the aliens themselves, or
by our own crews to avoid capture.

“That defeat has rocked us back on our heels. We’ve lost so
many frigates that our forward bases, particularly Bradley, are now considered
at risk. On the plus side, two more Sentinel-class frigates are very close to
completion, which means they’ll be operational in roughly a month. Six more are
also within a couple of months of completion. The first long-range scout ship
will also be ready in a month’s time. Construction has started on the first two
Heavy Cruisers and the first CFP Carrier. And as you probably know already, CFP
production will be ramping up gradually to a projected rate of one a day by
three months from now. That’s where we are now, Commander.”

“Thank you, Sir. May I ask what we’ve learned about the
alien debris so far and also about the status of the jump detection project?”

“Unfortunately, the debris analysis hasn’t revealed anything
really useful. Their technology seems to be more or less on par with ours. None
of the debris came from their weapons so we can’t analyze those. The jump
detection project has made some useful progress. They’re testing some equipment
they think will give approximate location data on ships that have just emerged
from Jumpspace. The effective range is estimated to be three light minutes, but
accuracy drops off dramatically the further away the emerging ship is.
Arrangements are being made to include the first field versions in the Sentinel
class of frigates and long-range scout ships as they’re completed. Do you have
any other questions, Commander?”

“Just one more, Sir. Have our recon tankers found any more
star systems with an alien presence?”

Howard frowned. “No, and the tanker that we sent out after
Gnat’s successful mission never returned. We have no idea what happened to her.
With the loss of most of our tanker fleet at Zebra 9, we couldn’t afford to
risk any of the remaining tankers. We’ll resume long-range scouting as soon as
the new long-range scouts come out of the shipyards. Anything else?”

“No Sir. Thank you for that update, Sir.”

Shiloh paused to organize his thoughts. The aliens were
moving inexorably closer to the Bradley Base and to Earth, and the Space Force
knew no more about which star systems the aliens occupied than they did after
the ambush at DT6. They seemed to be very aggressive in their efforts to learn
as much about Human Space as possible. Keeping them from learning more had to
be a high priority, but the new weapons systems, and especially the CFPs,
needed to be tested under realistic conditions to see if they performed as
expected. So while stopping the aliens’ advance pointed to a defensive
strategy, gaining operational experience with the new systems required a more
aggressive approach.

“Well, Sir, I want to say first that the time I spent observing and testing the
CFP prototypes was a useful experience. We learned some things that hadn’t been
considered yet. For example, if more than one CFP is operating autonomously in
an otherwise uninhabited star system, on some kind of sentry patrol let’s say,
and alien ships shows up, what criteria do the AI’s controlling those vehicles
use to determine what their reaction should be? Does one AI made a decision on
behalf of the group? Or do they react individually depending on their relative
positions to each other and to the aliens? One approach will be best under some
circumstances, while the other approach would be better under others.

“There are other considerations as well. There wasn’t time
to do long term field tests. So we don’t know how mechanically reliable the
production CFPs will be after they’ve been operating autonomously for months at
a time. It’s considerations like that, that have me in a quandary. I recognize
and understand the need for preventing the aliens from advancing further into
our space. We need to deny them as much information about us as possible, while
at the same time learn as much about them as possible. Having said that, field
testing our new ships, weapons and other systems, might be crucial to victory
in the long run. With the CFP carrier at least a year from being operational,
our ability to concentrate a large CFP force will be limited, and I can’t help
thinking that CFPs won’t realize their full potential until they are used in
large numbers. What I would hate to see is them being used in small groups as a
way of stretching our limited number of frigates. I think that would be a grave
mistake. With that in mind, I think the best use we could make now of the
limited number of CFPs that we’re going to have available in the near term,
would be to assign them the base defense role at the Bradley Base. I’d
recommend using them to accomplish the following objectives.

“First, if the jump detection gear can be made so that it
can be loaded as a module, then we can use a small number of CFPS as jump
detection pickets to extend coverage, but also to increase accuracy by
combining data from multiple platforms.

“Second, they would carry a mixed load of recon and weapon
drones so that we’d have the option of tracking the alien ships without giving
away the location of our own ships or platforms.

“Third, we’d have to arrange for communications between the
Base and the CFPs, so that their AIs can be instructed on the best way to
coordinate any response to the alien incursion, without also tipping off the
aliens to the presence of the CFPs.

“As far as the CFPs directly attacking the alien ships with
modular lasers, I would recommend doing that only as a last resort. The longer
we can keep the aliens in the dark about our CFPs, the better. Essentially what
I’m suggesting is that the system containing Bradley Base becomes our line in
the sand that we keep them from crossing. While we’re keeping their attention
focused on that line in the sand, our long-range scout ships will be trying to
find their bases and inhabited planets. To avoid jump detection, they’ll be
jumping into unexplored star systems far away from any planets, and then, if necessary,
maneuvering deeper into the systems to get better data or to refuel. When we
find one of their bases or planets, then we can switch from a defensive
strategy to an offensive one and take back the initiative.”

Howard didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “I’m not sure
I like the idea of allowing them to push forward until they find Bradley. My
instincts tell me that we should try to stop them where they are now.”

“Well, Sir, in order to do that, we’d have to commit large
numbers of frigates to multiple star systems to prevent them from flanking the
systems where we’ve already had encounters. Given our recent loses, do we have
enough frigates to accomplish that on a sustained basis? Wouldn’t we be risking
further loses that we really can’t afford?”

“I see your point, Commander. But what’s to prevent them
from bypassing Bradley altogether?”

Shiloh had to think about that one for a bit. “In order to
bypass it, they have to know about it. If they just explore every star system
in the direction they think we come from, sooner or later they’ll arrive at
Bradley. Considering that they’ve inflicted disproportionate losses on us in
every battle except one, I’d expect them to have enough confidence in their tactical
superiority to make at least one attempt at attacking Bradley base, if only to
further assess our defensive capabilities. Isn’t that what we’d do if the
positions were reversed, Sir?”

“Hmm. Perhaps we would and perhaps we wouldn’t, but I take
your point. Fortifying Bradley would have some advantages that we wouldn’t have
if we were trying to hold the line in an otherwise empty system. Refueling
would be a lot easier for one thing. So would communications.”

Howard paused and Shiloh took the opportunity to comment.
“Operating CFPs out of the base would give the CFP commander a lot more
flexibility too, Sir. CFPs deployed from combat frigates are going to be stuck
with whatever modules and weapons load they were given when the frigates left
the nearest base, but if they’re operating from Bradley, they can be configured
for the most effective payload before being launched from the base and also
reloaded quickly if they’ve fired their drones and the battle is still
continuing.”

Howard raised his eyebrows at the mention of a CFP
Commander.“Do I understand you to mean that any CFPs deployed out of Bradley
should have their own commander?”

“Yes, Sir. If Bradley has a mixed force structure that
includes frigates and CFPs, then I think each weapon system needs to have
someone in charge of it who is familiar with the best way to employ that weapon
system. Neither the Base Commander nor the frigate Task Force Commander will be
familiar with the potential that CFPs have, Sir.”