The Tactics of Revenge (8 page)

And that was why Fleet Commander Hoan was sitting in the command chair of his flagship, looking out at the illusionary emptiness of space, and in the process of second guessing the plan he and Overlord Kackil had devised. He knew that a battle of this size and complexity was purely an exercise in military theory, and with the Human’s short history of unpredictability, Hoan was having trouble maintaining confidence in his plan.

Even though he knew the computers had already counted the foreign contacts dotting his main tac screen, Hoan couldn’t help but try to manually count them himself. One-thousand thirty-four contacts, divided into three distinct groups. He let out a deep breath. His fleet level now stood at two-hundred nineteen ships, all front-line battlecruisers with the most powerful weapon systems in the Expansion. Still, it was an overwhelming numerical advantage for the invaders.

The Juirean plan called for the battle to take place within the Melfora Lum system, sandwiched between an asteroid field and a large gas giant. With such a narrow field of battle the Human numerical superiority should be muted, but not totally negated. The battle would be joined, and counting the enemy contacts on the screen, Hoan knew instinctively that the second part of their plan would have to be initiated. That realization made him feel a little better.

The idea of a Juirean victory in this initial meeting with the Humans had been entertained by the powers that be – briefly. But now, in light of the swarm of blue contacts on his screen, he knew that was not a possibility.

So all he had to do at this point was make it look convincing….

Chapter 12

Lee Schwartz couldn’t believe where he was – this was like something out of
Star Wars
.

Less than a year ago, he had been living out his life on the only world he knew of, yet like most boys growing up in America, having spent much of his childhood fantasizing about glorious battles in outer space, with ray guns and light sabers. And now, here he was, over a thousand light years from Earth, staring out at an enormous Jupiter-like planet with a thin, brightly-lit ring of yellow and orange. He was also in the pilot seat of an alien-built flying saucer, his small crew of twenty-five at their stations, and about to enter a desperate fight against the forces of a vast galactic empire.

In one way, it was a dream come true; in another – a nightmare.

Lee was operational commander of Eagle Squadron, with ninety KFV-A’s making up thirty three-ship units. Each unit was configured into a triangular formation, with a lead ship and two wingmen. Lee’s assignment was to feign a head-on attack of the Juirean lines, and then sweep to port, toward the asteroid belt. He would then cut across the enemy lines, crossing the ‘T’ while his ninety ships concentrated fire on the one or two Juireans at the narrowest point in their lines. The Juireans would then alter their profile to confront his forces. Once the Juireans broke formation, Falcon Squadron would penetrate straight through the center of the regrouping aliens and split their forces.

The Juireans were blocking the space between the gas giant and the asteroid belt, having formed four long lines of capital ships, stacked one upon another, and with shorter lines capping the top and bottom of these four lines. Even though the distances involved did not allow for the ships to be visible to Lee and his squadron, their locations were brightly illuminated on the forward tac screen, along with the half-dozen smaller screens at the various bridge stations.

There were six other people on the bridge with Lee. Four others manned the generator room, five were on the damage control gang, with the remaining ten divided among the two weapons-control stations. Lee’s ship was one of the few in the fleet that had been fitted with additional armament, namely the good-old-fashion 90-mm cannon and Hellfire missiles. The missiles had been modified to carry liquid fuel, allowing them to operate in the vacuum of space. Even though he carried this extra firepower, Lee’s orders were not to use them unless necessary. The brass wanted to first see how the KFV’s handled themselves against the Juirean energy weapons before revealing anything ‘special’ to both the enemy and the Klin. In a few short breaths from now, they were about to find out.

The bridge was quiet as the ship approached the Juirean lines head-on, their position represented on the tac screen, and flanked to the right by Sammy Burton’s mirror forces. At the right moment, both squadrons peeled away from each other and Lee accelerated.

Within moments they were near the edge of the first Juirean battle line, and to his relief, the Juireans did not attempt to change course to form a broader profile to his attack. Just then he felt the first jolts as his ship opened up on the target ships. The Juireans were still too distant to be visual, but he knew the maximum range of the bolts was somewhere around thirty-seven hundred miles, with the maximum strength rated at around twenty-five hundred. The bolts left his ship traveling at around three-hundred thousand miles per hour, so even though they consisted of a single intense concentration of electricity, they appeared as streaks shooting out from his ship, like beams from a laser. The bolts were also strictly ballistic, with no guidance once released. At the speed they traveled, impact would be only seconds away.

Off in the distance, Lee could see circles of light bursting forth as the bolts struck the diffusion shields of the Juirean ships. The area around his own ship suddenly flashed bright as well, as bolts from the Juirean ships impacted Lee’s own shields. The screens held, and he swept past the line and out of range, heading for the next row of Juirean battleships. Behind him, the string of KFV’s continued to pour a constant torrent of electric bolts at the lead Juirean ships until Lee noticed two of the red circles disappear from his screen.

The Humans had their first victories.

On the screen, Lee saw the long Juirean lines begin to break at their centers, with each half swinging around to face the string of Human ships speeding past them. The enemy began to move forward as a unit, forcing Lee to steer more to his left, maintaining the safest distance from the massive Juirean ships. As the Juireans reformed to face the Humans they unleashed such a barrage of fire that it looked like a solid wall of light coming his way.

The bolts hit, knocking his ship even further to the left. Nine of his ships disappeared from his active list, while twelve others reported damage sufficient to cause them to fall out of line and back to the main fleet.

Two more Juireans disappeared from his screen.

Sammy was having similar success on the opposite side of the lines, and with similar casualties. The plan was working; the Juireans had separated their lines of defense, opening up a channel in the center of their forces. Soon, a force of two hundred Human ships would penetrate the center and form two more attack lines, one to the left and one to the right. The Juireans would be split into two clusters, with Humans surrounding them both. Then depending on the attrition of the Human forces, Admiral Levin would either let the existing forces squeeze the Juireans into submission, or he’d bring up additional forces to overwhelm the aliens.

Everyone in the fleet knew the outcome of the battle was a foregone conclusion. The only question came from not knowing how many of the Human forces would be lost. They had been told that the Juireans did not retreat, so it was working out be a bloody battle – for both sides. But Lee and his crews would learn a lot. They would come out of this engagement battle-hardened and experienced. The next battles wouldn’t be any easier, just the expectations would be more realistic.

Lee’s ship continued to unleash barrage after barrage of bolts at the wall of aliens slowing moving his way. On the tac screen, he saw the first traces of the main Human force moving toward the Juireans. Soon the aliens would have to divide their attention to confront this new threat. At that point, the punishment his squadron was taking would be lessened—

Just then, an excruciatingly loud sound came from the port side of his ship. Alarms began to sound, as lights flickered and sparks shot out from the control boards behind him.

“Report!” he called out.

“We’re taking damage to the port perimeter, hull breaches in a number of locations,” Tim Carlson cried out from his position at the console. Tim knew the intimate operations of the ship better than anyone, so he was in the best position to evaluate the damage. “Damage control teams are being deployed. Port weapons battery is offline.”

“Send the port weapons crew to assist with DC,” Lee commanded. “What’s causing the damage?”

“We’re passing through a field of microscopic meteorites. The forward field is being absorbed by the well, but others are passing through the diffusion screens and ripping through the hull.”

“I’m reducing speed; that should limit the damage.”

“If the Juireans don’t blast us to dust….” said Latoya Scott, Lee’s navigation officer.

“Anyone else in the squadron reporting damage?” Lee asked the room.

Steve Sexton, his communications officer turned toward his captain. “Most of the forward units are reporting damage. The rear units are turning back.”

Lee watched the forward tac screen as the four stacked lines of Juirean battlecruisers continued to close on their position. He made a decision.

“I’m turning toward the asteroids. We’ll use the forward gravity well as vacuum for the particles to clear a path.”

As the disk-shaped Klin saucer turned to port, the buffeting from the particles began to decrease, but now he was ass-end to the advancing Juireans.
Where is Falcon Squadron? They better engage soon.

On the screen, Lee could see the blue-indicated contacts from his supporting squadrons move further into the gap down the middle of the Juirean lines. The two hundred Human ships passed cleanly into the opening then began to separate, with two units each beginning their attack on the rear of the Juirean lines. Immediately, the Juirean advance began to slow, as rear units broke off their pursuit of Lee to confront this new threat.

Once Lee was out of range of the Juireans, he slowed his ship down to a crawl, minimizing any further damage from the unseen meteorites.

“Damage report – how we holding up?” he called out.

“The breaches are being sealed, but the port weapons are still down and we’ve suffered damage to one of the generators, Carlson answered immediately. “Well intensity is down by thirty percent.”

“Quarterback to Eagle Command, report,” an announcement blasted out of the comm speakers. “Condition update.”

“Eagle Command to Quarterback. We’ve entered the outer edges of the asteroid field and have suffered damage to our weapons, hull and generator. I will be assembling the other damaged ships at fallback position L-151 for assessment and to commence repairs.”

“Understood,” came the immediate reply. “Repair units are already on station.”

Oh well,
Lee thought,
that didn’t go exactly as planned….

Just then a remarkable thing began to happen. One-by-one, the red Juirean contacts on the tac screen flared bright and disappeared. The momentum of the flares grew exponentially, until, in the span of about thirty seconds, the Human forces suddenly found themselves completely alone on the battlefield.

Lee was on the comm with Command immediately. “What happened to them?” he asked without protocol.

The answer that came back was from Admiral Levin himself. “The Juireans have activated deep-gravity wells and have bugged out. The gravity waves have them departing the system.”

“I thought they never retreated, sir?”

“That was our belief as well. Commander, continue on to the repair coordinates; I will send other units to pursue the Juireans.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

Lee turned to face his stunned bridge crew. “So much for military intelligence. But in any case, it looks like we survived this battle.” Even though his words were encouraging, the faces of the bridge crew did not reflect his confidence. Something just wasn’t right.

Chapter 13

Admiral Levin called an immediate meeting of his senior advisors. In attendance was Michael Rittenberg, the 2G/Savior tactical advisor to the fleet. He had been trained by the Klin to think like a Juirean and to attempt to anticipate their every move. All eyes fell on him as the other six men took seats around the table in Admiral Allen’s ready room.

“So what just happened, Rittenberg?” Admiral Levin asked, not hiding his anger. Even though he welcomed the conclusion of the battle, he did not like surprises. “Reports show the J’s had only lost nine ships out of two-hundred nineteen before they bugged. We lost twenty-two, with another seventeen damaged enough to be out of the fight. At that rate, the aliens could have caused considerable damage to the fleet.”

“I do not know, Admiral,” was Rittenberg’s embarrassed reply. “All reports we have indicate that the Juireans do not retreat, but there have been so few battles in recent history for the reports to be reliable. I would think this would be good news, sir.”

“Normally it would be. But now we have a nearly-intact alien fleet moving further into Juirean territory where it will invariably be reinforced. And we’ve suffered more losses than anticipated, especially counting the damaged units.”

“This may be their plan, Howie,” Admiral Allen spoke up. “They may be looking to strike then retreat, whittling us down a little more with each encounter. After all, we’re a long way from home, and they’re moving closer to their high-ground.”

Levin nodded. “That may be true, but do you honestly think the Juireans believe us to be that naïve as to fall for such an obvious trap?”

“This is an alien race we’re talking about here, Admiral,” Allen replied. “And from their history, they haven’t had to use too much strategy in the past to defeat their enemies. They may be operating from their own simple thinking, not anticipating that their plan is obvious to us. The Human race does have considerably more experience with the tactics of war than they do.” He then looked over at Rittenberg. “That’s why the fucking Klin picked us in the first place, wasn’t it?”