Talosian Chronicles 6: Armageddon Page 18

  "Message sent," Chloe replied. "Sir, I know we're a lot tougher now, but two battle cruisers against two Super Nova dreadnoughts, head on?"

  "We don't need to kill them Chloe, just fuck them up real bad," Ian explained. "Super Nova are like walnuts; they have a tough outer shell, but once you crack it you can get to the good stuff. We only need to crack their shells for the fighters and condors to get to the meat."

  "I'm allergic to nuts, Sir," Chloe replied.

  "Yet you work here; why is that?" Ian countered, causing everyone in the room to laugh.

  "Multiple hyperspace events forming! Two in Earth Orbit! Sensors predict Super Nova class ships!" An operator called. The rest of the room got very busy, very quickly. "One event is over the Pacific Ocean, Hawaiian Sector. The other is over Europe! Vulture zero-three-zero-one has locked onto the Hawaiian event. Europe is out of range!"

  "Damn, okay Chloe, here's what we need to do; we're going to trade places with Dawn's Path…" Ian quickly explained how he wanted the two battle cruisers to pass close by and engage the European Super Nova. When he finished explaining it to her, he turned to one of the closest operators. "Hines, I need something delivered. Can you place the order?"

  "Whatcha need Sir?" the young man asked.

  "I need a fifty tactical AM warheads delivered to the Super Nova now over Europe. I'll pay extra for a speedy delivery," Ian said.

  "Company card Sir? The man asked as he entered the orders for the fire mission.

  "Naw, charge it to the Caldarians; they really need them," Ian said.

  "Order placed," he checked a timer on his screen. "Delivery is scheduled for shortly after our arrival."

  Ian nodded as he turned back to the holotank. "I wanted to get them something nice to welcome them to the system."

  "I'm sure they'll appreciate the gesture, Sir," Chloe replied, grinning. "We're on course for Earth and the Super Nova. Jenny thinks your crazy, but was game. Commander Saracen grinned evilly when I gave them their orders. Are we sure that guy's sane?"

  "No one's sane today Chloe," Ian replied seriously. "Sane beings have no place in this."

  "Sir, the Hawaiian Super Nova made it out of hyperspace, but it is heavily damaged. She's launching fighters, but no carriers or missiles. Her weapons appear to be off-line and main propulsion is out. She's slowly falling into Earth's atmosphere."

  "Ensign Hines, copy my previous order to the Hawaiian Super Nova, tell them to keep delivering until that bitch breaks up. We can't let it go down intact!" He turned back to the big tank. "Chloe, we need more hurt put on that one. If it impacts the planet, it'll be worse than a hundred nukes."

  "Sir, in her present condition, she'll make one orbit before entering the atmosphere over the western Pacific Ocean. Impact is predicted for the Gulf of California or the Baja Pennisula. Predicted velocity at impact is between Mach twelve and nineteen. Even without her ordnance detonating, it'll hit the San Andreas fault with the force of a two-hundred megaton nuke," the ESAR commander said.

  "So, what's the worst case scenario, Gene?" Ian asked rhetorically. The man snorted and nodded to him.

  "Sir, two minutes to intercept with the European Super Nova. The Commander recommends we hang on to something!" Someone called. "We're fining the Ion cannon at point blank range!"

  "Sir, your warhead order will be delivered in one minute, forty-five seconds," the operator, Hines, reported.

  "Nice timing, Hines. It's almost like you planned it this way!" Ian replied.

  "Just lucky I guess Sir."

  "Your plan seems to be working Sir; It looks like the enemy is beginning to move. If we can blow these two assholes away, we should be able to get back on task," Chloe replied.

  Ian had been watching and saw the same thing Chloe did. The bulk of the remaining Caldarian forces had exited in the space between Earth and Mars. Orbits. It was obvious, even to Ian that they had not expected to exit in the middle of most of the Alliance war fleets. They immediately closed ranks to protect the bigger ships, but the outcome seemed obvious. The Caldarians were out-numbered and out-classed by the newer, more advanced warships.

  Ian had ordered the Task Force commander of that sector to make sure the Caldarians knew they had the opportunity to surrender or to run, even though no one believed they would accept either option.

  The Super Nova that Star Dancer and Dawn's Path were attacking had arrived and started standard Caldarian invasion protocols before the two allied warships could get there. They had launched their troops ships, and had begun orbital bombardment of major population centers.

  They hadn't expected anti-missile defenses, but they did know how to deal with them. After the first wave of missiles had been shot down, the old ship's main batteries were turned toward the planet and fired.

  Heavy mount lasers and particle cannons targeted the hardened bunkers housing the anti-missile batteries. Fighters from the local Earth base frantically tried to disable or knock the heavy weapons out before they could break through the shields, but there were just too many guns. The Super Nova was also equipped with her own fighters and anti-fighter weapons systems.

  In the twelve minutes the ship was attacking, it destroyed Budapest, Vienna, Prague, and Munich. There was heavy damage to Rome, Berlin, Frankfort, Brussels, and Paris. Six weapons emplacements were destroyed and nine other were damaged; three badly. Of the thirty-five fighters and Condor bombers involved in the attack, nineteen of them would never return to base seven others made it back into the atmosphere before ejecting. Six hundred and fifty thousand civilians also died in the shelters under the destroyed cities. No one had an exact count of the civilians that had remained on the surface in those cities.

  From there, it only got worse.

  Cybernetics Lab Complex

  Team Tiamat

  Phoenix Base

  Selene, Earth's Moon

  Sol System

  "Mama Bear to all cubs," Tara said over the comm. "We have incoming. The Caldarian's are sending in troop transports protected by fighters and their carriers in squadron sized groups. We are to focus on the transports while the other wings work on the fighter carriers. Those troops are heading for Earth, guys. We have to stop as many of them as we can. If we get them all, the fighter carriers next, then the fighters themselves; but don't pass up any opportunities."

  "You heard her, team! Let's go kick some blue butt!" Ashley said, supporting their leader.

  As one, the excited kids replied 'Yes Sir!"

  Tara was happy her team was so fired up, but she wondered what the Commodore was thinking; It certainly wasn't a milk run, but by destroying those transports, they were going to flying through a lot of bodies. Her kids were going to see the ugliest part of combat in their first sortie. Then again, perhaps that would be for the best. They would quickly know who could handle it and who couldn't.

  The video game simulators the kids were used to playing, did show things like ejected or dead pilots floating in space, but the kids knew this wasn't just a simulation this time. They will know the bodies they see were real.

  "All cubs, turn to heading two-niner-three by one-three-six relative and accelerate to point seven. Hostile intercept in eighteen minutes; weapons hot!" Tara ordered. "Save your missiles for the transports and keep an eye on your power levels."

  As one, the flight of eleven fighters turned and shot off on the new course. Moments later, Tara caught a small flash of light out of the corner of her eye. She turned and looked down at the planet, where she thought the flash had come from. They couldn't be nuking the planet already could they? She asked her command computer for an update.

  "Mama Bear, this is Cub Six, did you see that flash of light?" one of the kids asked.

  "Yeah I did, hang on a sec; I'm trying to find out what it was," Tara replied. When she saw the results she grinned. "North American Sector tracking and weapons installations report confirmation of the destruction of a Caldarian Super Nova in orbit over the United States. The second Super Nova is aba
ndoning it's troop transports and fighter carriers and has broken orbit. It has been heavily damaged and appears to be attempting to rejoin the main Caldarian fleet."

  "Hell yeah!" one of the kids yelled.

  "As good as that is, we need to keep our attention up here team. You're going to need your complete attention on what we are doing up here. We can update ourselves on current events when we get a break, understood?" Tara said.

  "Yes Sir!" the team replied.

  "Great. Cub Six, good work on spotting that. It shows your keeping your eyes open. Don't stop doing it. Once we get into this fight, those fighters and fighter carriers are going to come after us with a vengeance. That's why we have three other wings meeting us; to keep them off our backs," Tara explained.

  Tara noticed a private comm request form Ashley. "What's up Ash?" Tara asked after opening the channel.

  "Are you sure this isn't a suicide mission? 'Cause it sure sounds like one," the girl asked.

  Tara chuckled. "Hardly! It's actually more of an important role than I'd thought we'd get. You see, what we're going to be doing is actually important in two ways. First, the destruction of the transports. That's a biggie, we can't let them get to Earth. Second, when we do, the fighters and carriers protecting them will focus on us and not on the fighters attacking them. Caldarian fighter pilots are notoriously single minded when they get angry. They also get an order of magnitude dumber. That'll make them a thousand times more vulnerable to our fighters. The trick here is to pop the transports and get out of there before the enemy fighters pop us.

  "I suppose you could say we're bait, but we're not really. When we destroy those transports, it'll piss off the Caldarians, They'll get stupid and try to attack us. When they do, they will run right into the thirty plus shadow fighters that'll be covering us," Tara explained.

  "But, even in a Wasp, it takes two or three passes on a transport to get through the shields. Won't this just be a big turkey shoot for the Caldarain fighters?" Ashley asked.

  Tara grinned. "Nope, you see, we're going to take them all out in single pass. Think of the transports like a big turtle; the shell is hard as hell, but they do have a weak spot; at the rear of the ship, centered between the four plasma vents, is the main shield generator. Caldarian generators leave a small open space directly over themselves and can be destroyed with a single laser shot. Follow that up with a missile or two and you'll hit the reactor. Poof! No more ship!"

  "What? They weren't like that in the simulators!" Ashley replied.

  "Actually, they are, but no one has ever taken the time to scan for weaknesses in the shielding. We'll come in from behind them, leap-frog them, and fly right through the incoming Shadow fighters, pulling the now royally pissed-off Caldarian fighters along with us." Tara explained.

  "So how big is the target area between the plasma vents? It can't be that big; the vents are only forty meters apart." Ashley asked.

  "About five meters in diameter. It won't be that hard to hit if we get close enough," Tara explained.

  "What happens if we miss one?" Ashley asked.

  "We'll circle around and get it after we lead the fighters into our friends," Tara replied. "Oops! I have a call from the fighter team leader, can you explain this to the rest of our team?"

  "Sure, no problem Mama Bear!" Ashley replied teasingly now that she wasn't nervous anymore.

  "Smart ass!" Tara shot back before ending the call to speak to the other fighters.

  The Croanian flight leader wanted to know how Tara was going to handle the mission. When she explained it to him, he grinned. "A bold plan. Audacious, yet efficiently simplistic and elegant in execution. It is sure to anger our enemy beyond reason." He nodded. "I like it. We will set it up for you."

  "If, by some chance, we miss one of the transports, we'll just loop around after we bring you your playmates and finish it," Tara explained.

  "…and versatile. Yes, a very good plan. Good hunting, Commander," the Croanian officer replied. "I was unaware the Wasp Fighter had been equipped with a mass driver cannon?"

  "These are experimental variants, Force Commander. We are conducting pre-deployment trials. Unlike the cannons you have, ours are smaller caliber, fixed position, single barrel guns. We added them to use against enemy shields," Tara replied.

  "I look forward to the performance then. We will take position and await your signal, Lieutenant. It is time for our enemies to greet their ancestors," the being replied.

  Tara nodded. "Let's not keep them waiting."

  Tara got her team in position and they started their pass at the five large transports. The transports themselves were almost the size of an Imperial Light Cruiser, but carried only some anti-fighter weapons. Most of the ship's armaments was geared to a ground combat support role; which is why it needed the escorts. They were heavily armored and had strong, but slow engines.

  Due to the situation, the fighters from the carriers were already deployed, and flying in protective formations around the carriers and transports. Because of the new armor and power systems of the Alliance fighters, the Caldarians had no way of detecting or tracking their opponents.

  When the first transport exploded for no apparent reason, it too the entire Caldarian formation completely by surprise. When the second exploded, they knew they were under attack but couldn't find the enemy. The fighters began buzzing around like angry bees without direction; two of them actually collided destroying both small ships.

  The third and forth transports exploded almost at the same instant, the Caldarian fighters swarmed around the last remaining transport so closely, Tara's team was having difficulty targeting it. Her team grouped up and literally blasted a hole through the defenders in order to destroy the last ship.

  By now, the Caldarians were very angry but finally managed to locate at least some of the ships attacking them. Five of the eight squadrons roared after the escaping offenders to avenge the deaths of their transports.

  They blasted forward as fast as they could…

  …right into the waiting shadow fighters.

  The ploy had worked very well, so well that Tara and her team had been asked to proceed to the next group and see if she could pull it off again. The next group of ships had tried to adjust their formation to prevent a repeat performance. They tried massing fighters behind the transports to protect the weak spot in the shields.

  As with the last transport in the first group, Tara's team just blasted their way through and destroyed the transport anyway. The third group moved the fighter carriers themselves behind the transports, and moved all the ships closer together in order to defend them better. Instead of attacking the transport, Tara had her team attack the carrier that so close to the transport, it was almost touching the plasma vents.

  When the Carrier blew up, it took out one transport and severely damaged two others. This group wasn't any more difficult than the first ones had been, but it took longer because were catching on to the ploy. The fighters and carriers kept getting in the way.

  After the final transport blew up, Tara was ordered to return to the ship to rest and rearm. She was about to protest the orders when she realized it was almost eleven p.m. and they had been in the cockpits since six o'clock.

  "That was great work guys! We've been ordered back to the ship to rest and rearm before the next mission. I don't know about you guys, but I'm beat! Freya will debrief all of us on the flight back, we land, get a shower and hit the rack. Any questions?"

  "When do we report problems?" Cub Eight asked. One of her missile racks had locked up and she still had two missiles that wouldn't launch.

  "The crew chief will be there when we get out of our cockpits. Make sure those missiles are disarmed and the safety is reset on them before you land, okay? We don't want them to decide to launch while we're trying to land," Tara said.

  "Yeah, that would be bad," the tired sounding girl replied. "I already powered them down and reset the safeties on them, but I'll recheck them now."

 
; "You guys did great work out here today; I'm really proud of you," Tara said.

  The whole team raggedly, and tiredly said thank you. It was obvious they were exhausted. "Now, just hang in there for a little while longer team, we can get to sleep after we land the ships."

  An image of Freya appeared on one on Tara's monitors. "I'm beginning the debrief now, Lieutenant."

  "Okay Freya, how'd we do?" Tara asked.

  "Remarkably well. There were no issues with the control or interface systems. The two issues reported so far were related to the craft and not the control systems. Your pilots performed very well, with a shot to hit ratio twenty-eight point six percent higher than all our other squadrons. None of your craft were destroyed, which considering the action you've been in today is remarkable in itself." The AI replied.

  "Yeah, I'm really proud of them. I thought we were going to lose Eight when her missile rack fritzed-out, but three, five and seven were right there before she could even call for help. These may be just kids, but they had really good instincts," Tara replied.

  Freya kept talking to her in this manner and the 'debrief' continued. Finally, Freya smiled at her. "You're heath readings are good, but you should eat before you rest. The Commodore is very proud of your team as well, and has recommended commendations for all your pilots. The tactic you devised for dealing with the transport/escort groups had a eighty-one percent effectiveness rating fleet wide. He has also recommended you for promotion to captain. Congratulations, Lieutenant."

  "Thank you Freya," Tara grinned back. While they had been talking, the flight had arrived back at the ship and was circling, waiting for landing clearance. Tara could see battle damage to her port-side and one of the massive landing bays was dark.

  "Freya, what happened to the ship?" Tara asked.