“We are also missing one of our explorers. They probably killed that one too,” another leader said.
“How could they have destroyed the explorer before it could have sent a warning about their existence?” one of the younger leaders asked. “One of their ships also took a direct hit by one of the power missiles and survived it. It had also been outrunning it until it suddenly slowed just before impact.”
The group was silent. Finally the Elder said, “I wonder if it deliberately allowed itself to be hit to see if it would survive. I almost believe that they were attempting to determine our weapon capabilities.”
“What do we do about it?”
“We change the way we fire our missiles. No power missile may be closer than 50 geds from each other. We will also launch them from a longer range so that even if they hit them our ships won’t be harmed. We also notify the fifth fleet to be prepared to jump at the first sign of these ships. We need to know who they are and where they are; it could be another valuable food source. Make sure we track their line of departure.” The group buried their feet deeper in the rich soil and absorbed the wonderful nutrients that only existed on their home world.
Chapter 9
The SR fleet gathered in the gamma galaxy preparing for the coming offensive. Commodore Smith had 10,000 of the old Empire and Ultra ships. Admiral Mikado’s fleet of Megaships had grown to 500. They had just completed the software downloads and Colonel McAllister was running tests on the hornets to make sure they would go to the new protocols when a signal was sent to make the change. “Admiral, our tests have been confirmed and the hornets responded as programmed.”
Mikado looked at the old dreadnaught that had been used as a target and there wasn’t much left to look at. “Commodore Smith, take one of the ultras out to 100 miles and use the new focused primary beam to hit that wreckage, please.”
The Atlanta moved away from the fleet and took position then fired an intense beam at the derelict. The beam struck the wreckage and disintegrated half of the remains.”
“Captain Kelly, move the London out to 300 miles and let’s see if we can hit what remains.”
The Megaship moved out of formation and turned as it fired its new primary from 300 miles away. It only caught half of the remains but nothing was left of what it hit. McAllister said, “Admiral, I can only feel comfortable with targeting at 200 miles. Three hundred is stretching the envelope.”
“Did we hit it?” Mikado asked.
“Not a direct hit but yes you did.”
“Then I won’t hesitate to use it from 300 miles. The ships we’ll be shooting at will be more that twenty miles long in some cases. It’s a much bigger target than what we just hit.”
“You will only have 87 % of its energy at that range,” McAllister said.
“Colonel, if a penetrator hits one of those ships and weakens its screen, would the primary penetrate at 87 % power,” Mikado asked?
“If it’s a direct hit it wouldn’t need a penetrator to penetrate the screen. The focused primary beam is stronger at 300 miles than the normal primary beam would be at 80 miles.”
“I couldn’t ask for more than that. We are going to initially use it against ships that are hit by only one penetrator as a follow up. I’ve set up our sensors on the Megas to highlight the ships that only have one designated hornet. Our targeting systems will automatically aim a primary at those ships and also change the color in all the other ships targeting to indicate that a Mega has locked on so that we don’t overlap. We will launch our penetrators from 300 miles out once the second Algean fleet moves that far inside the jump limit so we have time to out run the answering Algean missile salvos. We will jump 300 miles behind the Algean fleet that jumps in to support the planetary ships, launch our penetrators, follow up with the new primaries, fire another salvo of penetrators, and then jump in to our fleet at the planet just before the Algean missiles reach our position. I’m hoping the second Algean fleet actually fires two salvos at us before we jump.”
McAllister said, “They shouldn’t know you can jump that far in system so they may even turn to move toward your first position which will delay their arrival to help the fleet they have at the planet.”
“That is exactly what I’m counting on; I plan to move away from them when they launch their first missiles and run to ensure a second salvo. We’ll jump in once the second fleet turns toward us.” Mikado said.
“Commodore Smith, form up your fleet and prepare to jump,” Mikado ordered. “Mega Captains, maintain formation and jump on my command and launch penetrators upon emergence into normal space. Commodore Smith you may jump when you’re ready. Notify me as soon as you learn whether or not one penetrator will get thru their screens.”
The bright white Ultra and Empire ships were formed into three lines of 3,300 ships per line and were glowing waiting for their jump instructions. The crews of those ships were anxious about the upcoming battle but had faith in their commanders.
“Will do, Admiral; prepare to jump on my command, Execute.” The 10,000 Stars Realm ships disappeared.
And reappeared at the jump limit in the Pydres system, “Start moving in system at? speed and hold your formation,” Smith ordered. Eric smith thought back to the time he was just the helmsman on the destroyer Moscow and wondered at how quickly the world had changed. His promotions had been fast and he attributed it to the time he had spent watching Kosiev and Mikado fight their ship in the battles against the old Alliance. He had learned a lot and he was determined to not let them down even though he was heavily outgunned by the Plant fleet. “Target the heavies first and be prepared to run from their missile salvo. Launch our penetrators at 240 miles and follow them in to 200 to use the primaries. Needle operators, no hornets initially; use them to target the anti matter missiles. If you’re hit and your screen goes blue, increase speed and move behind the other ships in your line until you bleed off the excess energy.” The SR fleet moved in system and for an hour it looked like the Algean fleet at the Planet didn’t know they were there.
“Lt. Barrett, have you detected that frequency the Plants use?”
“Yes sir, it started as soon as we broke into normal space.”
“Well, it shouldn’t take long now,” Smith said.
Lt. Chen looked up from his display and said, “Sir, our sensors show some of the fleet moving away from the planet in our direction.”
Smith looked at his display and said, “Time until contact?”
“They are matching our speed so we will be in range in 7 hours.”
“Maintain current speed. We don’t want them to know how fast we are capable until they fire their missiles.”
There were 4,000 ultras in his command and they were at the point of his attack so they would have a clear field to use their new focused primaries. The Glod and Cainth dreadnaughts were on each side of the Ultras because their primaries were actually stronger than the Ultras. They were four times the size of an Ultra and had ten primary beams to the Ultras two so they should have a heavy impact on the initial contact. The old Empire ships were going to be used to target missiles and close in fighting. “I want the Ultras to fire one pulse penetrator each followed ten seconds later by a full salvo by all ships. Sensors I want to know if the initial penetrators make it thru the plant screens. If not, I want the signal sent to the full salvo five seconds before they reach the Plant fleet. Be sharp, Lt. Chin, have your finger on the signal and don’t hesitate if the first ones don’t get thru.” The full salvo of 300,000 penetrators would be halfway to the Plant fleet and only ten seconds from contact when the first three hundred impact. There would be less than a second to send the signal which at the speed of light would arrive in time if sent within that one second window so that the penetrators can change their targeting program. I also want each Ultra to follow the penetrator it fired and be prepared to fire its primary beam at the ship its penetrator hits. Chen, notify all the Ultras of the follow up.”
Time dragged as the two huge fleets moved toward each other. “Sir,” Lt. Chen said, “only 12,000 ships are moving toward us; evidently 8,000 were on the planet and are now lifting off the surface. All the heavies are in the first group; the second group will arrive ninety minutes after we contact the first group.”
“That’s good news,” Smith thought. “Our numbers are almost even. We will need to make quick work of the first group before the second group arrives. If that’s possible; those ships are huge; how many heavies,
