The Black Planet (16 page)

Chapter 31

Commander Logan spoke into his microphone, ‘OK men gentlemen we are now in the combat zone.  Double check your weapon controls are set to simulation.’  He glanced at his radar it was clear.  ‘I believe we are looking for a white ship.’

Their laughter was cut short by a streak of green.  ‘What the hell was that!’  Cried one man as his ship fell out of formation under computer control, ‘hell I’m out.’

Logan cut across the chatter, ‘what's going on Joe?’

The exasperated pilot released his controls with a sigh, ‘I've just been taken out, that’s what's going on.’  Before Logan could reply there was another flash of green and two more ships slid out of the formation.

‘We are under attack,’ Logan growled.  ‘Tighten the formation.’  Thirty-seconds later when they had completed the manoeuvre he realised he had made a mistake when three ships suddenly fell out of formation.  The airwaves turned blue quickly.

‘Can that shit, if you are out of the game then shut up.  Break up into pairs and take evasive action.’  It delayed the inevitable.  Only once did he catch a glimpse of the white ship as it took out the two ships to his left.  By the time he began to react the ship was gone.

‘Holy shit did you see that!’  Alfie shouted.

‘Just,’ Logan admitted.

‘Hey I got something on this fancy radar, about a hundred clicks.’

‘I see it, let’s get him.’

They rushed in having to slow down to get the white ship in their sights.  Green light shot from the noses of their craft and hit the white ship dead centre; only the craft shimmered and the light passed clean through.  Alfie cried out in alarm as his ship was hit and Logan was alone.  He realised the shimmering ship was a decoy.  He tried a few manoeuvres swinging back towards the decoy.  As he passed the nose of it, green light shot out and hit his fighter.

‘What the hell!’ He screamed.

The white fighter began to move towards him.  Steven waved at the infuriated pilot as he passed then disappeared.  Their commander’s voice sounded in his ears.  OK Eagle squadron, control of your ships is being returned to you.  Form up and return to base.’  He sounded pissed.  Logan knew he had lost a packet in a wager with Gordon’s second in command Buzz Anderson.  Their commander had been as sure as his pilots that it would be over quickly and Buzz had taken advantage of that.  Now they all had egg on their faces.  He never encouraged any chatter on the way back, not that many really wanted to talk about the beating they had just received.

Their commanding officer was waiting for them in the debriefing room and took the podium as they sat down.  His eyes swept over the unhappy pilots.  ‘Ya’ll just taken a sound whipping boys.  I know you ain't happy, but if I hear one derogatory remark against Captain Gordon you ass is on the next shuttle home.’  He turned to the flag behind him.  He thought it was beautiful, black and gold with a fierce golden Eagle in the centre.  They had only had it a week.  He took it down and began to fold it.  The men remained silent.  That morning when Steven had arrived Logan had pushed him into naming his wager.  He had spotted the new squadron flag and it had been agreed upon.

They were still silent when Steven, Buzz and Cookie arrived.  All three were pushing trolleys laden with manuals.  Cookie had specifically asked for the job and was well satisfied by the morose looks on the pilot’s faces.  Steven stepped up to the podium and accepted the flag presented to him by the commanding officer.

‘Thank you.’  He laid it on the podium and regarded the sullen faces.  ‘Morning again gentlemen.  I won’t keep you long as you all have a lot of work to do.  I sincerely hope you are all beginning to understand where you all went wrong.  It must be obvious by now that you cannot fly and fight in space the way you would back home in air.  You all used your own radar while I used telemetry from my ship which has long range scanners; as will your mother ships when you go into battle.  Your ships are sub-light yet none of you flew more than a thousand miles per hour.  I used telemetry from my ship to predict where one of your ships was going to be.  Came in at about ten thousand miles per hour faster than you were flying at.  Fired on the spot I calculated your ship was going to be in and moved off again at a ninety-degree angle.  Jump in, fire jump out.  That is space fighter tactics one O one.  You are thinking in two dimensions you need to be able to think in five.  Just because your machines can bank and roll as they do on Earth it doesn’t mean that is the way you fly them.’

He turned to the large white board behind him and began to draw, ‘I will explain some of the basics.  Fighters in space aren’t there to dogfight.  They are there to support their mother-ships in battle.’  He drew a sausage shape then a dotted line all around it.  ‘This is the force field around an enemy battle cruiser.’  He drew another sausage ship and changed to a green pen.  ‘This is your mother ship.  Each ship carries ten squadrons.  When a battle cruiser engages another battle cruiser they fire at each other.  This causes the force field generators to react in a predicted way.  They will reinforce the area that is being attacked, tracking the enemy’s fire, and reinforcing that part of the shield just before the beam of the enemy’s weapons hit it.  They do not have an unlimited supply of power however.  Much depends on the tactics their enemy are using.  I have been assured that a modern battle cruiser can with stand the power from a vessel of the same size for months, if they are doing nothing else, but just sitting there on minimal power and just feeding their shields and weapons.’

He began drawing arrows that were attacking the first sausage, ‘if you hit the enemy battle cruiser with your ten squadrons at the same time in a precision attack then you can overload the shield generators; or weaken the shields as it tries to divert power from one point to another.  The idea is to weaken the shields enough so the heavy guns of your cruiser can penetrate your enemy’s shields.  Each attack has to be carried out with precision.  Every squadron arriving and firing at the same time, and each squadron firing at their appointed target.  Attacks are synchronised with the cruiser with pinpoint timing.  Each fighter must arrive at his firing point on his own vector.  Your ship will fire for one hundredths of a second and then you will bomb-burst away on a different vector.  The enemy ships can track you from thousands of miles away; as you arrive at your firing point they will be firing at you with their secondary armament, and if they have dealt with your battle cruiser their main armament; which you won’t survive.  The tactics I used against you were the most simplistic and basic taught.’  He held up the flag, ‘I will be keeping this until you can take me out.  I will see you all in six weeks’ time.  Any questions?’

‘Yes sir I have one,’ Logan sat forward, ‘was that a decoy you used?’

‘Yes it was and as you were blundering about looking for me I switched it off and took its place until you wandered across my nose.  Decoys are always used as part of an attack strategy.  Instead of ten squadrons, the enemy have to select between twenty, which ones to target.’

Logan nodded, ‘I understand now sir, thank you.’ 

He left them to it and Buzz and Cookie to hand out the manuals.  Cookie handed Alfie his one personally, ‘you still laughing yank?’

‘Smart arse,’ Alfie growled.

‘I slipped a few recipes into the back of yours in case you want to change jobs yank.’

Alfie wanted to take a poke at him but the whole world knew who Cookie was; his doll had three uniforms, a chefs, the blue of the Space Corps and the camouflage one with the SAS beret.  He knew because his eight-year-old son had one.  Instead he took the offered manuals and kept his mouth wisely shut.

Chapter 32

Dawn was beginning to rise above the savannah grasslands.  In the hollows a fine mist hung lazily in the early morning air.  As the sun broke the horizon a fine breeze announced the coming of the heat and the mist began to move across the great savannah.  It was these things that greeted Gairloch as he limped out into the open grass using Steven as support.  He indicated for Steven to stop and he lowered himself onto a dense patch of grass.  Almost idly his tongue grabbed a mouthful of grass heavy with seeds and he munched on them contentedly.  He was dying and knew it but refused to die in bed.  Steven sat beside him and kept his peace.

Gairloch’s eyes scanned the grasslands, ‘what a beautiful place to die.  Your world is a jewel Steven my friend, it is no wonder the Albany have sacrificed and risked so much to possess it.  There isn’t a race on our side of the barrier who wouldn’t fight to the death to possess it.  Do you know what we would do then Steven, we would wipe out every living thing on the planet and plant grass for profit.  Your way is much better.  Who knew a race of meat eaters could care so much as to preserve all this.’

Steven laughed, ‘are meat eaters rare in your universe?’

‘Yes, quite rare, simply because we wiped them out and stole their planets.  Meat eaters like to fight each other; that holds back invention and innovation.  When your race doesn’t kill each other and faces hunger from over population then you tend to reach for the stars quicker.’  He took another mouthful of grass and munched away thoughtfully.  ‘The emperor has received those seeds we sent and they are now growing in his garden.  Do you know they are worth a bucket of fire diamonds?’

‘Or a battle cruiser.’

Gairloch laughed, ‘cheap at half the price as you humans would say.’

‘I just hope he likes his new grass.’

‘He will, we have similar tastes.’

Steven frowned, ‘you know him so well?’

‘I should do he is my brother.’

Steven was shocked, ‘you're kidding!’

‘No Steven I'm not really a ship’s captain, I am a grand admiral and third in line to the throne.’

‘Why didn’t you say?’

‘You don’t tell a potential enemy, especially a race of meat eaters that you are third in line to the throne and the emperor’s favourite brother.’

‘In case we tried to use you as a hostage you mean.  My god why?’

‘Why did he send his favourite brother to certain death?’

‘Yes.’

‘None of us are indispensable Steven, not even the emperors own brothers.  I volunteered and he chose me because he knew I would get the job done.  It proved to him my love and devotion.  By choosing me he proved his trust in me.  Do not fret over me my friend, I am content.  I am a hero and my brother will weep openly at my passing.  It has to be said that humanity has treated my crew and I like visiting dignitaries and not just common soldiers.  The emperor knows all of this and it has pleased him.  Your people have treated us with great dignity.  You may have few manners but I am sure we will get used to it,’ he laughed.  ‘What you have to offer will give you great bargaining power with the emperor.’

Steven sighed, ‘but we have to survive the Albany first.’

Gairloch nodded in a very human manner, ‘yes, the emperor will not be able to make a treaty with a species that does not exist.  Nor will we interfere with their invasion fleet.  We are recovering from a very long war.  The emperor is trying to get the economy for dozens of planets back on track and feed the masses.  We could intervene and probably defeat the Albany, however the cost would be great and of course the loss of even more of our forces could leave the empire weak and open to attack from other enemies.  We need to regain our strength, so you are on your own my friend.’

‘Yup and hopelessly out numbered and out gunned.’

‘You have builder technology and maybe over an Earth year to prepare Steven, it will have to be enough.  You also have unlimited resources at your disposal, few have that.  The metal you have used for the skin of your battle ships is capable of withstanding a direct hit from all weapons.  In our grand fleet only the emperor’s personal ship has such a skin.  It is far too expensive to build a whole fleet of such ships and yet that is exactly what you are doing.  I can assure you none of the Albany ships will be made of this metal.  It is an advantage, a slim one yes but a true warrior can exploit such an advantage.  Your solar system is so rich in untapped resources.’  He lay back and closed his eyes for a while Steven sat and contemplated what he had said.

‘Tell me of your planet Gairloch?’

His eyes fluttered open, ‘I once thought it beautiful Steven.  Land is so precious we build upwards.  Our air is slightly thicker at higher levels so we can build them until they soar above the clouds.  Truly yours are puny by comparison.  Every other piece of land is covered in fields.  All the same regulation size and every other planet is the same.  Different grasses of course grow at different latitudes and climates so you often get different colours.  I once thought they were the most beautiful in the universe until I came here.  No other planet I know has so much water, it is truly a jewel and yet so deadly.’

His eyes fluttered closed again and this time they never reopened his breathing slowed over time and an hour later he passed away peacefully.  Steven sat for a long time trying to deal with the grief he felt for his lost friend.  Eventually he called the ship.  Half a dozen crewmembers appeared with a stretcher led by the diminutive chief engineer.  They took the body away.  The following day a grand funeral was held and he was interred inside the monument built for them.  Many human dignitaries turned up for it and the savannah was ablaze with military uniforms.  The whole thing was recorded and sent to the emperor.  News came back that he was pleased with the send-off the humans had given his brother.