Synchronicity War Part 1, The (23 page)

“Message received and understood,” said Shiloh, not wanting
to say more when he knew that all transmissions were recorded. There was a long
pause that started to become awkward. Finally she spoke.

“I’ll keep this com channel open in case you have any other
thoughts or suggestions, but right now I have other things that need my
attention. Thanks for the advice, Victor.”

“You’re welcome, Angela. I’ll be standing by if you need
me.”

The sound coming from Vanguard disappeared, but a quick
check revealed that the com channel was still open. Shiloh understood that
Johansen had muted her microphone so that she could talk to her crew privately.
Shiloh did the same thing. He didn’t want to distract her with his chatter to
his fighters or to anyone else at the Base. A second fighter in the hanger bay
was now ready for launch. Shiloh switched his earphones to the channel reserved
for the hanger bay’s launch operations.

“—it easy, Hunter. Our people are working to get you and
your team ready as fast as possible,” said Sejanus.

“You tell them that if my team isn’t ready for action in two
more minutes, I’m going to complain to the CAG himself!”

Wow
, thought Shiloh.
He’s actually shouting. Don’t
tell me there’s no sentient consciousness behind that voice
.

“Okay, Hunter. I’ll tell them.”

Sejanus’ voice was heavy with amusement. The two minutes
went fast and Shiloh noticed that all four fighters were ready by the deadline.
He switched on his microphone.

“Hunter, this is CAG.”

“Go ahead, CAG,” said Hunter.

“I suspect that the attack on our supply convoy is intended
to divert our defenses in order to attack us in detail there AND here. Your
flight will be held in reserve until we see if they attack us here. I know I
can count on you and your team to accept that as the professionals you are. Are
you getting the tactical feed okay?”

“Yea, we’re getting that. We’ll calm down and be ready when
you need us. Thanks CAG.”

“Very good, Hunter. CAG clear.”

The next hour and twenty minutes were eerily uneventful. No
further message drones from the convoy, which by itself was worrying. No signs
of any alien presence in this system. Suddenly Shiloh’s earphones were filled
with the sounds of a ship going to Battle Stations. At first he thought Korolev
was sending the Base to its Battle Stations, but then he heard Johansen’s
startled voice.

“Victor! We’re under laser attack! Not sure from where!
Vanguard’s already taken one hit! We’re evading! Going to active scanning now!
Oh God! There’s 34 of them! They must have seen us from the reflected sunlight
off our hulls! We didn’t see them because they’re in the gas giant’s shadow! We
can’t microjump yet! Gotta fight it out. I’ve already lost fo—”

Shiloh saw that the com channel was broken off at Vanguard’s
end. He hoped it was just due to damage of their com system and not the
destruction of the ship itself. He was about to hit the alarm when he heard the
Battle Stations warning Siren going off. Clearly Korolev was aware that the
relief mission was under attack. Shiloh then heard the Task Force Leader and
Hunter talking at the same time. He concentrated on Hunter first.

“—give us the word, CAG!”

Switching his microphone to the right channel, Shiloh said,
“Wait one, Hunter.” He then switched back to the Base intercom channel while
focusing on Korolev’s words.

“—re-deploy your squadrons between the attacking force and
the Base. Stay in the GGs shadow when you get around to the other side. You’ll
have CFPs in support. Did you copy that, CAG?”

Shiloh had heard enough to understand that Korolev was
taking a huge risk.

“Copy that. Fighters will support frigate squadrons, however
I respectfully suggest that we keep our remaining strength close to the Base!
This may—”

Korolev wouldn’t let Shiloh finish the sentence.

“I’m not letting them get close enough to fire on the Base
directly, CAG! Now order your fighters to launch, dammit!”

Shiloh reopened the com channel to the fighters, while
keeping the intercom channel open so that Korolev would hear him.

“CAG to Hunter. Your team is cleared for immediate launch.
Form up on our remaining frigates and coordinate your actions with the Squadron
Leader in charge. Acknowledge your orders.”

“Orders acknowledged, CAG. What about Cyrano and Bulldog?
Recommend they shadow enemy force.”

Shiloh looked at the Tactical display closely and saw that
the fighters with those two call signs were on jump detection patrol closest to
the battle. Why hadn’t they detected the enemy’s emergence from Jumpspace? The
answer could only be that they had emerged from beyond the fighters’ detection
range. THAT was disturbing because it implied they knew what that detection
range was. The cluster of dots that represented Johansen’s 16 frigates were all
flashing yellow, signifying hull breaches and major systems failures, and
Shiloh didn’t need to count them to know that there were no longer 16 ships
there. He also noticed that their velocity was so high now that neither of the
two nearest fighters had any hope of catching up with them in time to join the
battle. As he continued to watch, the Tactical display showed a much larger
cluster of red dots intermittently flashing due to interrupted radar scanning
data feeds from at least one of Johansen’s frigates. The red dots were moving
much more slowly, and it wouldn’t be long before the ambushed frigates would be
past the enemy force and moving further away. Hunter’s suggestion was the right
one. Cyrano and Bulldog couldn’t join the fight, but they could attempt to
track and follow the enemy formation with their recon drones.

“Your recommendation is approved, Hunter. Contact Cyrano and
Bulldog. Advise them of their new orders. Maintain an open channel to me. Good
hunting.”

“Yeah. Let’s hope the bogeys cooperate and stay where they
are, but I doubt they will, CAG. Hunter clear.”

By now Johansen’s frigates, what was left of them, were at
their closest point to the enemy formation. The number of dots was shrinking.
Shiloh queried his tactical computer if any of the remaining dots was Vanguard.
The answer was no. He felt as if he’d been hit in the gut. He had to remember
that the absence of a dot didn’t necessarily mean that Vanguard was destroyed.
With Johansen’s force on the opposite side of the gas giant, there was no way
that the Base’s ground-based radars could try to get a fix on both friendly and
enemy ships. What little data they were getting was relayed from Johansen’s
ships, via a satellite in orbit around the gas giant, and then on to the Base.
Without active scanning, the tactical computers had to rely on transmissions
from a particular ship to confirm its status, or indirect data from the radars
of other ships. Vanguard might still be intact but unable to communicate. Once
the reinforcement frigates moved around the gas giant enough to establish
line-of-sight, they could use their own radars to pinpoint enemy and friendly
ships. Shiloh hoped the frigate squadron leader wouldn’t order his supporting
fighters to reveal their existence by actively scanning the battle area. That
was contrary to Shiloh’s standing orders and the Line-in-the-Sand plan’s
doctrine. The CFPs were meant to be one of Mankind’s Aces-in-the-Hole and the
longer the aliens didn’t know about them, the better.

Then Shiloh noticed something quite strange happening. The
number of yellow dots representing friendly frigates stopped shrinking. Shiloh
eventually realized that the enemy ships had to have stopped firing on the
frigates. They were still close enough that some of them should have been hit,
if the aliens were still firing at all.

When all of the alien ships disappeared from the Tactical
display, Shiloh queried the computer for the reason. The answer was lack of
radar data from any of Johansen’s frigates. Some were still able to communicate
with the Base but either weren’t capable of scanning the enemy fleet any longer
or chose not to do so. So now the question was what would the aliens do next if
they weren’t firing on Johansen’s frigates any longer?

Shiloh manipulated his Tactical display to get a better
sense of the overall picture. If the gas giant was the center of a clock, the
aliens were in the direction of 12 o’clock. The moon containing the Base and
the system’s sun, which was much further away, were exactly lined up in the
direction of six o’clock. The sun, moon, gas giant and alien formation all
lined up in a straight line. That couldn’t be just coincidence. What was it
that Johansen had said? The aliens had approached while hidden in the gas
giant’s shadow to avoid detection by reflected sunlight. All human ships, on
the other hand, had to come at them from around the side of the gas giant,
thereby making detection by reflected sunlight a distinct possibility. It
looked to Shiloh like a very carefully planned trap, one that could only have
been planned that way if the aliens already knew about Bradley Base and the
relative positions of the gas giant and its moons. And that meant that the
attack on the supply convoy was in fact a diversion to pull ships away from the
Base so that they could be attacked separately, thereby weakening the Base’s
defenses. The obvious next step was to attack the Base itself. Korolev was
making that possible by sending all her remaining frigates to the aid of
Johansen’s survivors, which the aliens had carefully refrained from wiping out
completely. If it looked like there were no survivors at all, then sending
reinforcements might be deemed unnecessary, and that would leave the Base more
heavily defended then the aliens would want.

Zooming in on the Base’s moon, Shiloh saw that all the
remaining frigates were forming up while accelerating in a curving trajectory
that would take them around the gas giant. He tried to put himself in the alien
Commander’s seat.
What would I do next
, he asked himself.

There were only two ways to get close enough to the Base to
attack it directly. Accelerate towards the gas giant from the 12 o’clock
position and swing around to attack the Base from the rear OR microjump to the
opposite – six o’clock – side of the gas giant, which would put them in ‘front’
of the Base, and accelerate into attack range from there. If the enemy
formation moved into the gas giant’s gravity zone, then microjumping was no
longer an option, and it would be a head on clash between the reinforcement
frigates and the enemy formation.
That would be risky
, Shiloh thought.
24 exploration frigates supported by five fighters against possibly as many as
34 enemy ships. If the alien objective was to destroy as many human ships as
possible, then they’d let the reinforcement formation get within combat range.
But if the primary objective was to destroy the Base, the aliens might not want
to risk having their fleet depleted by battles that could be avoided. With the
Base destroyed, the remaining frigates would have no choice but to retreat to
friendly space, assuming they had enough tankers to refuel them on the way
back. Shiloh then had a horrifying thought. If the aliens succeeded in
destroying the Base AND those tankers now in orbit, then the remaining frigate
crews were doomed to die from lack of air and food when their ships ran out of
fuel.
We can’t let the tankers be caught in orbit if the Base is attacked
.

Shiloh thought about the implications of that for a few
seconds and then said, “CAG to TF Leader.”

Korolev’s voice was calm once again as she answered. “What
is it, CAG?”

“Sir, I strongly recommend that you order our tankers to
disperse out beyond the GG’s gravity zone, just in case the enemy formation
decides to microjump to our side after our reinforcements are too far away to
make it back in time. Even if the Base itself is destroyed, our ships can still
get home as long as they have at least one tanker to let them refuel on the
way. The tankers can microjump to a rendezvous point that’s far enough away to
avoid jump detection.”

Shiloh was expecting his suggestion to be dismissed out of
hand, but to his surprise, Korolev reacted differently.

After a long pause, she said, “Yes I see what you’re
thinking. Use the relief force as bait to lure our remaining strength out of
position and then attack the Base. You may be overestimating their cunning,
CAG, but it’s a scenario that deserves to be taken seriously. If I order our
frigates to stay close to the gas giant, then Johansen’s force will be
completely on its own. The aliens might decide to finish off any survivors if
they come to the conclusion that we’re not taking the bait. Your recommendation
about the tankers is a good one. I’ll do that in any case, but I’d also like to
hear your suggestions on what else we should do now.”

Shiloh thought fast. What they needed was time. Time for
Johansen’s surviving ships to use their built up velocity to get far enough
away from the enemy formation to be safe from additional laser fire. That meant
that the aliens had to continue to believe that the bait was working. If they
saw ships moving towards them from around the gas giant, then that should make
them believe their plan was working, but at some point, the reinforcement
frigates would be too far away to come to the Base’s aid if the aliens
microjumped to the other side. Then he had an idea.

“Okay, Sir. I do have one idea. Since we have an approximate
location on the alien fleet, we can use our recon drones as decoys. When our
reinforcement forces have moved far enough around the gas giant and are in the
right spot, they launch all the recon drones they have and order the drones to
hold their acceleration down to match what our ships can do. The drones will
also be ordered to orient themselves in such a way as to maximize the
possibility of reflected sunlight reaching the alien fleet. Our frigates will
try to minimize the likelihood of revealing their positions from reflected
sunlight. They’ll stay in the gas giant’s orbit and, if possible, stay in its
shadow while our decoys head for the alien fleet. Meanwhile, I have two other
fight—CFPs maneuvering to use their recon drones to track the enemy fleet so
that we know what they’re doing. As long as the enemy thinks our ships are
headed towards them, they’ll continue to leave the relief force survivors
alone. Once enough time has passed, what’s left of the relief force will be too
far away for the enemy to pick off. Sooner or later the enemy will catch on to
our decoy maneuver, and then we’ll see if they commit to an attack on the Base.
However they come at us, we’ll have time to bring back all our CFPs to help
defend the Base alongside our frigates. That should be enough to tip the battle
in our favor, Sir.”

There was another pause followed by, “CAG, come over to my
station.”

Shiloh got up and walked quickly over to the center of the large
Command Center where the Base Commander’s station was. Korolev watched him come
and leaned towards him. She clearly wanted to speak to Shiloh in a voice low
enough that none of the other personnel would hear her. When Shiloh was just a
few centimeters away, Korolev quietly spoke.

“I like your idea but I’m concerned about Johansen’s relief
force. Once the enemy knows we’ve fooled them with our decoys, what’s to stop
them from microjumping in front of the relief force survivors and wiping them
out?”

She waited while Shiloh pondered the question.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t come up with a solution to the problem.

“I wish I had a solution for you, Sir, but I don’t see any
way that we can protect the survivors as long as there’s a substantial enemy
presence in the system.”

“So how do we get them out of this system?”

Just as Shiloh was about to say that he didn’t know,
Korolev’s face disappeared, and was replaced by a vision of Shiloh standing
next to a medical bay bed where a heavily bandaged Johansen lay.

She looked up at him and said, “God, that was tricky of them
to microjump to the opposite side so that the sun was directly behind them! If
we had launched attack drones from in front, the reflected laser light would
have been lost in the sun’s glare. Having your fighters attack them from the
rear not only eliminated the glare problem, but you caught them by surprise
too!”

The vision faded and Korolev’s concerned face was back.

“Are you okay, Commander? You seemed to blank out there for
a few seconds.”

Shiloh was too overcome by relief that Johansen wasn’t dead
to respond right away, but he nodded so that Korolev could tell he was
listening again.

“I’m okay, Sir. I was just lost in thought. I think I may
have a solution. I’m convinced now that they intend to microjump to our side
and attack the Base as soon as they think it’s no longer well defended. And
while they could microjump just about anywhere along the gas giant’s gravity
zone perimeter, I’ll bet a year’s pay that they’ll jump to the exact opposite
side so that the sun’s directly behind them. That will make optical detection
impossible, and our attack drones will not be able to distinguish the
reflections from their targeting lasers from the sun’s background glare. That
is, unless we shift our CFPs around so that they’ll be able to attack the enemy
fleet from THEIR rear. Then the sun’s glare will benefit our side instead. With
a little luck, my fighters might be able to catch them completely by surprise.”

Korolev frowned. “What if they stay where they are long
enough to figure out that we’ve used decoys?”

Shiloh took a deep breath and said, “That’s definitely a
risk, Sir. But if we forget about the decoy idea, and our reinforcement
frigates really do go after the relief force survivors, then they’re more
likely to fall for OUR trap. And if the enemy microjumps as expected, the
reinforcement frigates can then continue to go to Johansen’s survivors’ aid.”

“So now you’re recommending we abandon the decoy idea that
you suggested a few minutes ago?”

“That’s right, Sir. I hadn’t fully thought through all the
ramifications when I suggested it.”

Korolev looked away while she drummed her fingers on the
armrest. After a brief pause, she said, “If we go with your CFP ambush idea,
can they get into position before the enemy jumps?”

“If we need more time, we can slow down the reinforcement
force and make it look like they’re advancing cautiously. If I were the enemy
fleet Commander, I’d wait until the approaching ships were at least half way
between the gas giant and my fleet before ordering the microjump. With the CFPs
acceleration, they should be able to get into position long before we reach
that point, Sir.”

Korolev took a deep breath and said, “Okay. We’ll go with
your ambush plan, but those five CFPs escorting the frigates stay with that
force. If the enemy intends to fight them first, those frigates will need all
the help they can get. The other 15 CFPs are at your discretion, Commander. As
soon as you know how much time they’ll need to get into ambush position, let me
know, and I’ll order the frigates to adjust their accelerations accordingly.
Any questions, Shiloh?”

“No questions, Sir. This will work.”

Korolev nodded, and Shiloh headed back to his station. It
only took a second to open the com channel to Iceman.

“CAG to Iceman.” There was a seven second lag due to the
distance.

“Iceman here. Go ahead, CAG.”

“We think the enemy will wait until our frigates are out of
range, then microjump to the base side of the GG and attack the base. All
gravity zone perimeter fighters including Cyrano and Bulldog will proceed at
maximum acceleration to a rendezvous point that will enable you to attack the
enemy fleet from their rear after they microjump. Once they microjump, let them
get within the gravity zone before you fire on them. The location of the
rendezvous point and attack vectors is at your discretion. Once you figure that
out, transmit the information to Base asap. Hunter’s wing will stay with the
reinforcement force. Repeat my orders to confirm, Iceman.”

The A.I. repeated the orders and then added. “Very clever
idea, CAG. Who knew you were that sneaky?”

Shiloh didn’t laugh or even smile. He wasn’t finished giving
orders.

“Iceman, when you fighters are ready to fire, I want all of
you to fire all of your attack drones. All 15 of you are then ordered to
accelerate at maximum with the objective of ramming any enemy ships that have
not been destroyed or crippled by the drone attack. We have to get them all,
Iceman, otherwise the survivors will attack the Base before our frigates can
get back. I need to know that I can count on all of you to carry out that order
if the circumstances require it.”

Even with the light speed lag, Shiloh thought there was the
barest hint of a pause before Iceman responded.

“All of us understand the situation, CAG. We’ll do
whatever’s necessary to stop them. Is there anything else?”

Shiloh felt a lump in his throat. Over the weeks of waiting
for the attack, he had come to like all twenty of his fighter A.I.s. Each one
was a unique individual with its own quirks and eccentricities. Losing any of
them would be like losing someone from his own former crew.

“Yes, there is. Once you’re in the ambush position, cut off
communication with the Base the instant that the enemy jumps. Maintain
communication silence until the battle’s over. Any questions?”

“No questions, CAG.”

“Very good, Iceman. I’ll be available if you need me until
you break communications. Good luck and good hunting to all of you.”

“Ah, roger that, CAG. Iceman clear for now.”

It took less than a minute for Shiloh to receive the data
concerning the rendezvous point and the estimated time to get there. He passed
that on to Korolev. Within a couple more minutes, all the frigates and fighters
were responding to the new plan. Cyrano and Bulldog had the furthest to go, and
even at 400Gs acceleration, it would take them almost 30 minutes to go from the
edge of the gas giant’s gravity zone on one side all the way over to the
opposite side. The tricky part was arriving at the rendezvous point facing the
right direction and at the right speed, which in this case meant facing towards
the Base’s moon and traveling slow enough not to overrun the enemy’s emergence
point. Korolev’s frigates, with Hunter’s wing as escort, were accelerating at
only 66Gs,and the frigates were doing their best to be obvious about it.

Shiloh wondered if they should send a message drone back to
the nearest contact point, but then realized that the drone would get
dangerously close to the enemy formation before it could enter Jumpspace. As he
watched the display, he noticed that the tankers, which had been orbiting the
moon, were now heading for orbit around the gas giant. From there, they could
avoid detection by keeping the gas giant between them and the enemy fleet.

The next 45 minutes were the longest of Shiloh’s life. He
couldn’t help thinking about Johansen. She was still alive. Of that he was
certain, but she was also apparently severely injured, and it would be many hours
yet before the reinforcement ships could catch up with the damaged frigates.
The reinforcement force was almost half way between the gas giant and the enemy
fleet that had been tracked for several hours by long range radar from the
frigates. The enemy fleet had moved away from the gas giant in order to get
outside the gravity zone, but now it disappeared into Jumpspace. Within
seconds, the com channels to the fighters in Iceman’s squadron shut down. That
was the tipoff that the enemy had jumped to the opposite side. Shiloh and
Korolev didn’t know precisely where the enemy was, but it was clear that Iceman
did. With the communications blackout, Iceman was in charge of the ambush.
Shiloh called Korolev.