defeat a dreadnought.” The entire room sat up straighter at that announcement. “We learned in the ground war just how dangerous and effective our hornet missiles were to the Alliance heavy weapons platforms. Each one of these missiles carries the equivalent of three primary lasers striking simultaneously in a four-inch circle. They are too small to penetrate the screens of even a small ship, much less the five screens of a dreadnought, but we have developed a new technique with our Coronado screens that should resolve that problem. We took a destroyer and programmed its Coronado screen to fire a hollow beam only twelve inches wide into the screen of one of our old battleships fitted with a Coronado screen. This is what we call the needle. The force of that needle is actually stronger on the twelve-inch surface it impacts than the primary beam of our empire class ships. It will penetrate the five screens of a dreadnought for less than one-tenth of a second. However, in the middle of that hollow tube four hundred hornets will be surrounded by a protective energy sheath, and they will be pushed through the screen that was penetrated in less than one-twentieth of a second. Our small destroyers will be giving the Alliance ship a four- hundred-hornet injection. Four hundred hornets are like 1,200 primary beams, and they’ll be swarming inside the protective screens of the Alliance ships. The only trade-off is that the destroyers must be within one thousand yards of their target for the needle to have full impact. Empire ships only have to be within ten miles for their needles to work. We have been modifying our ships since Ross, and most of the new software has already been installed in our screen’s control system. It was relatively simple to install the eight-inch missile ports on the surface of our ships; however, the auto load magazines for the hornets involved some clever packaging, especially on the destroyers. Most of the ships taking part in the upcoming battle have been upgraded, and the remainder should be ready in time. The rest of our fleets will be completed within ninety days. The Coronado screen has been programmed to fire the needle from the power cells that surround the hornet missile ports. The hornets will be contained in an energy field that will be pulled out with the needle. The hornets are so small that the magazine can be autoloaded in less than five seconds after firing. Each destroyer will have four ports on its surface. These will be formidable ships. Fire control will determine how many hornets will be fired in each needle. A dreadnought will get the full four hundred, a battleship two hundred, a cruiser one hundred, and small ships fifty. This is a weapon platform that will complement those we already have. We will be much more effective this time than our first battle, especially in close-in fighting where our ships are surrounded. The empire class battleships will be truly formidable, especially when using the energy hitting their screen to supplement the needles’ penetrating power. Before when their screen was close to overload they had to use all their power to maintain the screen. The needles give an outlet to that energy and a powerful counter to the attacking ships.”
“So,” Tag said, “how many ships do we use? Keep in mind that unlike the first time where we were able to keep the Alliance blind as to what was happening, it won’t likely happen again. They will have ships stationed in the star drive, one recording everything that happens, ready to jump at the first hint of danger. They will see what we can do. How few are needed to win but so few as to not draw a total response?”
After forty minutes of debate, the leaders of humanity decided that 350 ships would face the Alliance fleet. The Earth fleet would be divided into seven squadrons of fifty ships each. They would be made up of ten empire class battle ships with twenty cruisers and twenty destroyers. The cruisers would be assigned above and below the empire ships and would take targets of opportunity. Their main functions were to help dump excess energy from the screens of the empire ships when the load got too high and to assist the destroyers in getting close enough to use their needles.
The cruisers had the strongest screen of any Earth ship, and a destroyer in distress could fly into its screen and emerge with a decharged screen. The most lethal weapon the cruisers had were the twenty hornet missile ports. Since their screen was the strongest, they also had more penetrating power than any other Earth ships.
“Admiral, will you select the ships for your fleet?” Director Nicole asked. “We also are promoting you to fleet admiral and will await your promotion suggestions for the position of commodore for each of your squadrons.”
“The seven selections will be easy,” Kosiev said. “Captain John Alverez of the Melbourne will be the first promotion after Lin Mikado, giving him seniority over the other captains’ promotions. Mikado is being groomed to replace me in the event that becomes necessary. Then the captains of the other three surviving empire ships from the first battle and the captain of the Saratoga will be the next promotions, and they will name the officers to replace them as captains of their ships. There were two cruiser captains that flew through the screen of the Melbourne to save her during the first battle and then teamed up to destroy three of the dreadnoughts. They will be promoted and assigned an empire class ship. They already understand the value of teamwork. They also got to watch our empire ships during combat and should know their capabilities. They will certainly know how to effectively use their cruisers.”
General Masseem said, “The promotion announcements and ship assignments to their squadrons will be done immediately. Fleet exercises will start tomorrow at 0800 hours. Does that meet your approval, Admiral?”
“Yes it does,” Kosiev responded while looking at the Alliance ships on the live feed from the Cleveland. “I also want coordinates for each ship’s assigned position just inside the star drive limit, and I want them spread out so they won’t trigger a mass sensor until the Alliance ships are right upon us. We will wait with minimal power and have one hundred transports hiding behind their screens directly behind us inside the orbit of Mars. Maybe the Alliance fleet will think that they are our war ships.”
“How do you know where they will jump in system?” Tag asked.
“Draw a straight line from Ross to Earth,” Kosiev replied. “This first open battle won’t be subtle; that will come after they respect us. They are coming for the kill and, like you said earlier, the Cainth are consistent. Get working on those assigned coordinates immediately. When the other four hundred Alliance ships show up we’ll jump to our assigned location. They’ll probably train for a few days to work them into their fleet doctrine, but we can’t take the risk that they might just jump immediately. I also want ten empire class ships landed on Pluto and prepared to jump on any ship they detect that might be recording the battle. I don’t expect them to use more than ten, and probably no more than five. Once the Alliance fleet jumps in system and starts toward Earth, I want them to find those recording ships and once the battle begins, to use their star drives and jump right next to them and take them out. It may be wishful thinking, but it really would be good if we could keep the Alliance in the dark about our ships’ capabilities. They will probably broadcast how many ships we use, that can’t be helped, but if we get them early, they won’t learn about our weapons or screens. The longer we can delay that the better.”
“I have an idea that you might consider,” Tag said.
Kosiev had turned to go but stopped and turned back. He looked at Tag and said, “What?”
“You mentioned that you used one of our old battleships to test our new weapon against.”
“Yes, what of it?”
“How many old warships do we have?”
Kosiev thought for a moment and then looked at General Masseem and said, “I think we have about 290 that are still able to fly.” General Masseem nodded.
“Instead of having those transports behind us, why not use those old ships with remote control in front of our ships to attack the Alliance fleet as soon as they jump in system? It will certainly disrupt their formations, and the ease with which they can be destroyed with their old technology will give them a false sense of security. While that fight is taking place, I suspect that the ships recording the fight will start broadcasting their live feeds back to Cainth, showing a slaughter of the Earth fleet. That should make it easy to find them and target them. Once we destroy them, or force them to jump out of system, our real fleet can then go to work. The only thing the Alliance will learn is that our ships are old and out of date. It should confuse them.”
Kosiev and the other members of the conference just looked at Tag. Then Kosiev said, “Madam Director, I don’t know why you made me admiral. He comes up with ideas that, after hearing them, you want to kick yourself for not thinking of them yourself. Mr. Gardner,” he said, “that is an outstanding suggestion. Most of those ships are already set up with remote controls and their weapons active so we could use them as targets during fleet training exercises. General Masseem, will you assign which ships will control the old ships when you set up their jump coordinates? We’ll have the old ships out front with their screens active and they should mask our fleet from the Alliance sensors. If there is nothing further,” he said as he looked at Tag, who shook his head, “then let’s go to work. One thing is certain; we are approaching the end of the beginning.”
Tag sat with Danielle on the balcony outside their living room overlooking Central City. The city was glowing like a multitude of stars and the moon had risen overhead, looking huge. The soft glow of the light from inside highlighted Danielle’s profile, and Tag was mesmerized by her beauty. He wondered what he had done in life to deserve this wonderful woman. Tag had his arm around Danielle’s shoulders and was enjoying the rare moment with her.
