The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict (35 page)

Ace dodged left, then right, then back to the left, and left again. The destroyer’s defensive lasers didn’t touch him. He simply reacted too quickly for them to lock on to him. He fired three shield buster missiles at the shield deflector directly over the destroyer’s power plant. He scored three direct hits and succeeded in lowering that section of shields. He then fired his homing beacon at the unshielded portion of the destroyer and began his loop around the doomed destroyer.

Lexxi announced each missile volley from the enemy destroyers as it was fired. She tried to think of creative names to call them. She had named the first volley ‘hello’. She said, “The enemy destroyers have fired 24 missiles at time mark 17 minutes. Time to impact is 4 minutes. What a fine way to say hello.”

When the second volley was launched three minutes later, Lexxi again announced it. She named this one ‘downer’. She said, “I have to report a real downer, the second volley has launched. Time to impact is 4 minutes.

She also launched the 10 defensive missiles at the same time. The defensive missiles set up a perimeter and tried to stop the 24 on-coming missiles. One Hiriculan missile died, then two, then four, and finally eight. Lexxi announced, “Defensive missiles launched and activated. They were only 80% effective.”

Solear thought, only 80% effective. His nightmare had come true. The Hiriculans had drastically improved their offensive missile technology. They had only stopped 8 of the 24 in the first volley. They may be able to withstand the first 16 hits, but they would not live through the second one.

Clowy had been monitoring the missile pattern. She said, “Captain, the 16 remaining missiles are all targeting different parts of the ship. The pattern seems evenly dispersed.”

Solear knew what that meant. They would receive hits all over the ship. The shields would more than likely go down and a lucky strike may also cripple the power generator. He was certain the Hiriculan commander had intentionally fired the missiles in this pattern. The ship would take a terrible beating. More than likely, one or more of the hits would penetrate the hull and expose the ship to space.

Several crew members would probably die and many more would be injured, but the ship should be relatively intact. The key issue was that once they lost hull integrity, they would no longer be able to jump to hyperspace.

The doubled walled and independently shielded bridge would survive intact, so the bridge crew should be okay. Solear was guessing that the Hiriculan commander would give them another final warning and a chance to surrender after the first volley of missiles struck.

Solear would have to make a decision he really didn’t want to have to make. He knew there were at least a few fighters still active. They hadn’t been able to get an accurate count yet due to the dust cloud from the initial pass and the fact that the fighters were operating independently.

Solear briefly thought about the kill switch on his com pad. It was set to trigger a bomb in a particular Alliance fighter and completely destroy the human inside. It was virtually the same bomb configuration that had been used by the Hiriculans in
Sunflower’s
previous battle. The Hiriculans had blown up the damaged fighters to try to keep the Alliance from discovering their pilots’ were Netos.

Now here he was with a similar decision to make. He would more than likely be given the 3 minutes between the first missile volley and the second to surrender. That is how civilized beings conducted warfare. With one exception, every conflict in the history of the Alliance Navy had ended with one side given the opportunity to surrender and being allowed to do so.

Three minutes did not seem enough time to make the horrific decision required of him – let everyone on his ship die in a pointless battle or save himself and most of his crew by pressing a button and eradicating all human pilots still living. It was one thing to kill the lone pilot whose ship was blown up and was probably already dying from exposure, it was quite another to commit genocide.

Arean pushed the button for ship-wide communication and said, “All hands, brace for impact in 40 seconds.”

Ella said, “Captain, some of the fighters that did not proceed to the destroyer are flying back toward the ship. They are traveling at .23 light and are directly behind the missiles. The scan just detected them when they cleared the dust cloud.”

Lexxi said, “Well, they should have a great view of us getting pounded by missiles.”

Ella said, “Captain, an enemy missile just disappeared. A moment ago there were 32 remaining missiles from the two volleys and now there are only 31.”

Solear responded, “Maybe it got confused by the electronic warfare package.”

Ella said, “There goes another one, and another and another.”

They looked at the incoming plot. Ella was correct. There were only 24 missiles left – now 23, now 22. One by one the missiles winked out of existence. The ones in the second volley disappeared first and the ones in the first volley now started disappearing.

There were only 4 missiles left, all from the first volley. They were going to impact in 5 seconds. Ella closed her eyes and slowly counted to five. Nothing happened. She was concerned that she had counted too quickly, so she counted to seven just in case.

Nothing happened. She quickly opened her eyes again and checked the board. She said, “Captain, we have a clear board. All of the missiles have exploded short of the
Sunflower.

Solear shouted, “How?”

Ella responded, “Our fighters. It appears that our fighters shot down all of the incoming missiles.” She smiled and clapped her hands, clearly overjoyed.

Clowy asked, “We’re still alive?”

Solear asked, “Commander is it possible for a fighter to shoot down an in-coming missile?”

Arean said, “No, the missiles are too small to hit, even with the advanced electronics on all of our missiles. That is also why we use chaff and false electronic signatures on our ship’s defensive missiles. It is simply too difficult to hit a tiny missile moving at an incredible speed.”

Solear said, “And yet the humans apparently just shot down 32 missiles without issue. Computer, please perform an analysis.”

…Analysis complete. 79.8%. The exterior camera’s view was distorted by the debris and high speed, but it appears that the Alliance fighters fired 32 times and destroyed 32 missiles…

Lexxi said, “Not only did they hit missiles that can’t be hit, but they hit them every time they shot at them. Is that more or less impossible?”

At this exact moment the third volley of missiles was launched from the two Hiriculan destroyers. This time though, the destroyers fired only offensive missiles. Lexxi had run out of clever names and asked Clowy for one. Lexxi announced, “The enemy just fired 32 more missiles, to what end I do not know.”

Too many things were happening at once. Information was coming in at a frenetic pace and most of it was scrambled or unclear. Arean was having a nearly impossible time tracking the fighters. However, he did note that two fighters’ homing beacons collided with the enemy destroyers. He reported, “The two fighters that were attacking the destroyers have been destroyed. It is quite possible that they rammed into the destroyers.”

Solear said, “Did the destroyers sustain any damage?”

Ella reported, “Negligible damage. The only thing I can see is that a small portion of both destroyers’ shields are fluctuating.”

What a waste, thought Solear. Ramming into the enemy ships had had no effect. Despite this incident, he was impressed by the humans’ performance. They had temporarily saved the ship (and themselves he amended). The Hiriculans could only fire 3 more volleys until the
Sunflower
could jump. If the humans could somehow stop these next three waves, they could survive.

However, this raised a new issue. It took just over 8 minutes for the fighters to safely land back on the cruiser. Further, the fighters would have to match speed with the cruiser before they could attempt to dock. This was much more complicated than it sounds. The cruiser is moving forward at a current speed of .12 light and increasing.

To dock, the fighter would have to first catch the cruiser, make a high speed turn either left or right, align their fighter perfectly perpendicular to the ship, and finally fly through a narrow docking bay. The maneuver is similar to a motorcycle trying to chase a train and then jumping between boxcars at a railroad crossing.

Lexxi then looked at her board. Something confusing was happening. She had learned quite a bit about the weapons systems over the past couple of weeks, but this message was completely new to her. She looked over at Arean, but he seemed busy trying to track the fighters’ progress.

It looked too important to ignore, so she interrupted him. She said, “Arean, I need your help. I have a strange malfunction or something. It doesn’t make sense.”

Arean looked up, saw the particular warning and also looked perplexed. He said, “Someone is stealing our missiles. Computer, analysis.

…The 15 missiles that were launched earlier have been hacked. They are being reprogrammed…

Solear also looked up. He said, “By whom, for what?”

Lexxi couldn’t answer either question. However, she was now receiving more information. She said, “The missiles are active and moving under their own power again. They are turning and splitting formation. Seven are headed for one destroyer and seven at the other. Both are getting 5 shield buster missiles and 2 ship busters.”

Solear asked, “What about the fifth ship buster missile?”

Lexxi answered, “Unknown, it hasn’t changed direction.”

Arean thought that the missiles’ timing was very good. The Hiriculans had just fired 32 offensive missiles, so they would not be able to fire extra defensive missiles. However, their shields and defense lasers should easily be able to stop them.

The crew watched the monitor as the first missile approached the destroyer. It moved with almost a single minded purpose directly to the destroyer. It evaded all defensive fire and completely ignored the Hiriculan defensive chaff and phantom images. The missile struck the destroyer at the exact spot where the human had rammed the ship.

The hit was significant. It further damaged the shields and created a sizeable spot on the destroyer that was now unshielded. The second missile followed it a moment later and hit the precise spot its predecessor did. This one damaged the hull.

The third and fourth and fifth missiles also hit the same exact spot as the first two. The damage was now extensive. There was now a hole in the hull exposed to space. The destroyer was no longer able to enter hyperspace.

Arean quickly checked the other destroyer. It also had a hole in its hull that was exposed to space. He couldn’t believe it. They had scored 10 hits, 5 on each destroyer, with only 10 missiles fired. A 100% success rate was unheard of and like some of the other things he had seen in this battle, not possible.

There was a momentary pause in the action, so Lexxi announced, “I have fired the 10 defensive missiles. Two and a half minutes until impact.”

Jim Donovan and his sub-squadron of fighters had started slowing down for their upcoming landing back on the cruiser when he spotted the destroyers’ missile launch. He immediately noted they were offensive missiles aimed at the
Sunflower
. In the simulations, the Hiriculans always used the third volley to fire only defensive missiles. Jim reminded himself that this wasn’t a simulation and scolded himself for loafing because he thought the battle was over.

He radioed his sub-squadron and said, “Increase speed and intercept the missiles.” Jim blasted his fighter ahead to try to catch the missiles before they hit. The fighters angled up and behind the missiles. Jim targeted one and fired; a direct hit. The missile exploded. He looked for the next one.

Ace and Blaze had completed their loops around the dust cloud and were now far behind the other fighters. Blaze radioed Ace and said, “Accelerate to full throttle; we need to catch the rest of our unit.” Ace activated full throttle. The force pinned him back in seat. Despite the internal compensators, he was still feeling 5 gees.

They didn’t seem to be gaining on the others, so Blaze said, “Ace, let’s go to emergency override power.” The two fighters now screamed toward the Sunflower at 120% of maximum allowable power. They were pinned to their chairs at 7 gees and struggled to stay conscious.

Lexxi said, “The 32 incoming missiles are being targeted by our fighters. Scratch one, Scratch another. One more is gone. Twenty left, now 15, now 10.” She paused for a moment and said, “All enemy missiles have been destroyed.”

Solear couldn’t believe it, again. He said, “Just out of curiosity, how many shots did our fighters fire?”

Arean shook his head in disbelief and simply responded, “Thirty-two.”

Solear had been distracted by the oncoming missiles and was momentarily surprised when Ella shouted, “The destroyers!”

Exactly 90 seconds after the last shield buster missile hit, the first ship buster missile hit. It easily flew through the destroyer’s defenses and entered the hole in hull that had been created by the shield busters. It exploded, killing everyone in that section and creating a huge hole in the decks between the hull and engineering and cracked open the shielding to the power generator.

The second ship buster missile entered the huge hole caused by the first ship buster missile, contacted the power generator, and exploded. This missile is designed to explode against the side of an unshielded ship and expose a large portion of it to space; effectively knocking it out of the battle and keeping it from jumping to hyperspace.

A ship buster missile exploding directly inside the power core of a destroyer had a completely different effect. The missile exploded and caused a chain reaction in the power generator. A fraction of a second later the power core exploded. The result was beyond dramatic. The ship blew up with such force that it literally disintegrated. It blew into chunks of metal no bigger than a jelly bean and created a cloud of debris that stretched for 200 kilometers.