The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict (34 page)

The
Sunflower
can fire 10 defensive missiles at the same mark times. The concept of a defensive missile is to create an overlapping coverage area around the ship and protect it. The missiles are launched in groups of five, one per missile launcher. The first travels 100 kilometers from the ship, the next 200 kilometers, then 300, 400, and 500 respectively. Since they were being chased from the side, the defensive missiles would concentrate on the area directly beside the cruiser.

A defensive missile is designed specifically to confuse and ultimately destroy an offensive missile. After being fired and traveling to the set distance, it explodes and releases both electronics and chaff. The chaff is made of the same material as the shields. Each missile contains about 3,000 small wafers about the size of a napkin. When released, the wafers spread out and confuse the missile into believing it has reached the ship’s shields.

The defensive missile also releases 5 electronic confusing devices. This device is essentially a ship transponder or homing beacon. It generates a signal that appears to be a ship. Some are set to appear as fighters, some as cruisers, etc. They are each also tuned to appear as separate parts of the ship. Some are made to appear as shield deflectors, some as power generators, and some as hyper-drive units. Further, some are programmed to appear as damaged; enticing the offensive missiles to hit targets of opportunity.

So, the ship could fire a total of 50 missiles in the same amount of time the Hiriculan destroyers could fire 120. Assuming his defensive the missiles are 150% effective as advertised by Alliance research and development, he could stop 75 of the on-coming 120.

Again, his shields and defensive maneuvers could possibly stop as many as 20; provided they came in uncoordinated and did not target the same area. If all of the missiles targeted the power generator, for instance, a few direct hits would be ruinous. Still though, the best case scenario was that he could stop a total of 95 in-coming missiles.

He didn’t see how the computer was giving them a 10% chance of surviving the remaining 25 missile hits. One volley – the entire battle may come down to one volley. If they could find a way to gain 3 minutes they could potentially make it.

Solear responded, “Yes, Lexxi, fire the requested missiles at the requested times. This will be the only offensive missiles we will be able to fire. After that, we will have to concentrate all of our efforts on defensive missiles.”

Arean shook his head. He wasn’t going to question the decision to fire the 15 offensive missiles, but he really didn’t see the point. There was little of chance of their few missiles actually getting through to the Hiriculan destroyers. The Hiriculan defensive missiles were just as good as the ones from the Alliance.

The offensive missiles also have a complicated electronics package. The missiles are designed to try to avoid the chaff and false signals. They use sensors to continuously scan the area and track the exact location of the enemy ship they were assigned to hit.

The offensive missiles also try to gather information from previously exploded missiles based upon mass displacement. Since the chaff cannot displace mass when it is hit, the missile can theoretically determine whether or not its predecessors hit or missed the ship and proceed accordingly.

So, when a missile finally contacts a ship and blows pieces off of it, the other offensive missiles in the area can then detect the success and have a much higher chance of ignoring the other distractions and hitting the same ship again.

To date, no one had been successful in creating a ‘heavy missile’, or a defensive missile that gave the appearance of a ship displacing mass; in other words, a ship that is blowing up and expelling its innards. Carank had recently been assigned this project on Advranki Prime and had declared that the technology required to produce a heavy missile hadn’t been invented yet.

Currently, Alliance missile technology favored defensive missiles for protection, ion cannons for offense, and fighters for both. Solear was concerned that the Hiriculan’s newer destroyers decreased the size of the ion cannon and increased the number of missiles.

Also, newer Hiriculan cruisers had dropped the ion cannon completely. It was clear to Solear that the Hiriculans were deemphasizing the role of the ion cannon. He hoped that these changes were a tactical error on their part. Now would not be a good time to discover that the Hiriculans had developed a new offensive missile technology or capability.

Lexxi fired the first set of 5 missiles. Solear imagined that he could feel the ship roll. A minute and a half later 5 more missiles fired. Ninety seconds after that the last set of 5 ship buster missiles fired. Solear looked at Lexxi and Ella. For what little good it would do, those two had executed the maneuver and firing solution perfectly. He said, “Great work ladies. Hopefully they will help our fighters somehow.”

Ella responded, “Thank you. Our fighters will intercept the enemy fighters in 10 seconds. The external cameras are on-line and recording.”

Solear didn’t know what to say. He briefly considered sending the humans a message wishing them well and reminding them once again of their duty and the honor of their sacrifice. He didn’t think they would understand or appreciate the message, so he silently mouthed the words ‘good hunting men’.

Chapter 16

The Hiriculan commander had split his fighters into two groups. The main group of 40 fighters was attacking the Alliance cruiser and the remaining 8 fighters were held in reserve to protect the destroyers. The Hiriculans had arranged their fighters in a box and one format. There were three rows of 10 fighters each (top, middle, and bottom) followed by one additional row of 10 trailing directly behind the middle row.

The enemy would attack straight ahead with one row, then have the top row loop up and back down and the bottom row loop down and back up. Both looping rows would catch the Alliance fighters in a pinch between them and easily kill them. The trailing row would then make its pass and destroy any stragglers.

The Alliance fighters had been flying in the standard box formation of two rows of 10 fighters – one row on top of the other. This formation was thought to be the best defensive formation against the double loop because it seemingly cancelled the enemy’s ability to loop the bottom set of fighters and gave the Alliance fighters a better chance of surviving.

Jim Donovan had seen this enemy formation in simulations many times. In the simulation, every time the two lines approached, the Hiriculan fighters would make a sudden, last minute formation change. They would have the back row of 10 fighters accelerate hard and become the new bottom row. Now, the enemy alignment consisted of four rows of 10 fighters. Then, the bottom row would now be free to perform the bottom loop.

Jim’s (and all of the other humans) enhanced awareness allowed him to feel the whisper of the enemy formation change almost before it happened. Jim spoke over the fighter to fighter channel and said, “Line up, pattern tailgate, you know the drill. Execute now.”

The Alliance fighters had been flying in a standard formation, but had flying much closer to each other than Alliance Navy regulation suggested was appropriate. However, the tighter formation allowed them to make their formation change at literally the last available moment.

Jim took a deep breath. He was utterly calm and relaxed and completely focused in the moment. The fighter was feeding him information at a lightning pace and he was easily processing it. He instinctively knew it was time. The Hiriculans had started their loops and were committed. He also knew that every other human pilot knew. There was no need to even announce the Hiriculan formation change.

At that millisecond the 10 fighters in the bottom row decelerated momentarily and swung up and behind the first row of fighters. Now, these trailing fighters were out of position; the bottom loop of Hiriculan fighters would pass right in front of them.

The 10 fighters in the top row accelerated and swung down. Now they were out of position; the top loop of Hiriculan fighters also would fly right behind them. Unfortunately for the Hiriculan fighters, this means that they too would pass directly in front of the trailing row of Alliance fighters. The leading fighters had initially been facing the second row of Hiriculan fighters. However, when they swung down, they were now facing the third row.

The leading Alliance fighters fired three missiles each. The first was a dummy missile aimed at the straight ahead location of the second (now top) row of Hiriculan fighters. This row of fighters was normally confused in the simulation because they were not looping and were no longer face to face with Alliance fighters. Their behavior was predicable; they normally flew straight ahead and tried to target any Alliance fighter they could find.

These first ten dummy missiles were fired in a crisscross pattern to make it appear more random and less likely to attract the enemy’s attention. In the simulation, sometimes it worked and the enemy fighters ran headlong into the missile and sometimes they made a maneuver. The interesting point is that their ability maneuver was limited. They couldn’t go down or they would risk hitting the fighter below them. They could go left or right to a limited degree, but again they would risk hitting a fighter. The only direction readily available was up.

The trailing Alliance fighters also fired 10 dummy missiles in the same crisscross pattern and targeted at the same row of enemy fighters. However, these missiles were aimed at a point just above the second (now upper) row. Now, if the enemy stayed straight, they would get hit and if they went up, they also would get hit.

The leading row then fired their second missile with the computer guidance enabled. It was aimed at the third (now bottom) row of Hriculan fighters. This was the row directly in front of them. The enemy fighter would immediately react to the guided missile. This row had much more available space to make a course change. They could go left, right, or down. However, the maneuver was still predictable once the direction of the initial course change was identified.

When the enemy fighters made their defensive maneuvers, the leading row identified the direction (down, left, or right). They then fired their third, dummy missile at that location. If the enemy’s move was predictable, the result was even more so. The dummy missile would strike and then the guided missile would inevitably follow.

The trailing row of Alliance fighters then waited another 17 seconds and fired two guided missiles at point blank range, one at the corresponding fighter looping in from the bottom and one at the fighter in from the top.

The Alliance fighters then made individual defensive maneuvers to avoid the on-coming missiles. There were defensive fighter-to-fighter missiles, but there was not enough time or distance for them to be effective. Only the enemy pilots in the in the third row had fired a missile, so there were only a total of 10 missiles targeting the Alliance fighters.

Ella had put the fighter battle on the main viewer. At this distance the images were only delayed a few seconds. All five officers silently watched the formation changes and the battle. There was little else they could or wanted to do at the moment. The camera angle was fair and they were able to get a decent picture until the missiles exploded.

Arean yelled, “What happened. Are any of ours still alive?”

Ella yelled back, “Scanning. Unclear, a debris cloud has formed where the missiles exploded. There is far too much debris to provide exact numbers or really any reliable counts.”

Arean said, “The computer will have to reconstruct the battle by relating scans of each fighter before and after the pass. It may take up to 30 minutes to get an accurate picture.

Solear said, “What do we know?”

Ella said, “Some of our fighters did make it through the initial pass. A small group of them have broken off and are proceeding directly to the destroyers.”

Solear said, “Arean, why would some break off the battle and head for the destroyers?”

Arean said, “I would theorize that they intend to force the Hiriculans to choose whether to defend their destroyers or continue on their initial path and attack us.”

Solear said, “Perhaps, but your order was specifically to defend the ship at all costs. This seems like a huge gamble on their part.”

Arean said, “I hate to say this out loud, but perhaps the humans believe we are all dead and just want to attack the destroyer for glory before being killed.”

Ella said, “We will know the answer soon enough. I have a partial scan showing some of the fighters are indeed flying toward the destroyers.”

Jim easily dodged the missile aimed at him and then destroyed it with a defensive missile. The enemy had targeted his squadron on a one for one basis, so each fighter only had one return missile to dodge. Jim reformed his leading row and headed for the two destroyers. He calmly scanned the entire area. There were 8 fighters defending the ship that would have to be destroyed first, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

They reached the destroyers and targeted the 8 Hiriculan fighters. They repeated the firing maneuver. They fired a guided missile and watched for the enemy’s initial reaction, then fired a dummy missile at that location. Jim didn’t bother to verify if he had a scored a hit. He already knew the answer. These enemy fighters hadn’t fired a missile single missile in response.

He opened the fighter only channel and said, “The road is clear. Ace, Blaze, you’re up. Execute operation pancake.” It was time to flatten the enemy.

Jim and the other fighters in the attacking squadron peeled off and completed a loop. They slowed down and headed back toward the cruiser.

Ace and Blaze continued to the Hiriculan destroyers. Ace was the best pilot in the squadron and Blaze was number two. They would attack the destroyers alone. The simulations, and for that matter the final examination, had shown that only one fighter was required. There was little need to send more; they would either get in the way or create magnificent overkill.

Ace smiled. He directed his shields to the front because no one was chasing him this time. The destroyer’s defensive lasers started firing at him. He noted that they were already firing offensive missiles. Good, he thought, one less thing to worry about.