“It was bad enough to be dressed down by the general, it was worse that she did it in front of my entire squadron. The only thing that softened the blow were the sympathetic looks from my squadron mates.”
“General Bugarov scheduled a major tactical exercise for the entire 15th Battle Fleet. Our squadron commander briefed us that our wing, and those from the carriers Lincoln and Mandela, were to be the blue force and defend against the red force wings of the Juarez and Gorbachev. The battle damage simulator systems on each fighter would be used to count battle losses. They used setting five, so if you were “killed,” your fighter was automatically disabled, your weapons computer would go offline, and your navigation lights would be turned on. Only limited maneuvering was allowed for safety purposes.”
“General Bugarov wanted us to use full squadron formations against the red force to protect the Bolivar and other carriers. Strict formation was to be maintained. We were to use the Wall of Fire tactic against all bandits.”
“I remember inwardly groaning when I heard that.”
“The combination of full squadron formations and Wall of Fire made the fighter pilots’ primary function that of just keeping formation, while the fighters’ networked computers did all the combat work. In essence, the combined tactics required the squadron to fly in a strict single-layered, square formation, much like a flying wall. The computers on all the fighters linked together and in concert chose which fighter would engage which targets. The theory is that the computers can apply firepower much quicker than humans and any enemy will face an impenetrable wall of firepower. The reality is that it made you a very predictable target.”
“The wall of fire is a stupid waste of manpower. The whole point of having a live pilot in the cockpit is to allow the human mind to be creative. In my eyes, the mind processes information as fast as the shipboard computer can. True, drones can maintain large formations, such as the Wall of Fire, much better than human pilots. Unmanned fighters, however, have been tried before, and although they can turn tighter and accelerate faster than manned fighters, the brain is still smarter than a computer. Computers are only as good as the mind that programmed them. If the computer comes up against a situation it was never programmed for, it doesn’t know what to do. A human can improvise. Computers should only assist the pilot, not replace them.”
“When LTC Matthews, my old squadron commander, finished up his briefing, he specifically told me to keep strict formation. He had been instructed to make that point by the general.”
“As the briefing broke up, Angie, my lead pilot, came over and walked with me to the ward room.”
“She said they don’t even teach Wall of Fire in fighter transition anymore. It was like teaching ground troops to use the phalanx.”
“I agreed with Angie, but still felt the earlier sting of General Bugarov’s tongue. I would not complain openly about her orders. I don’t think it’s professional to question a superior’s orders once they are given. My comments at the morning critique were done openly and professionally. It was the general’s reaction that was unprofessional. I was not going to stoop to her level. Whether I agreed with them or not, I would follow her orders to the letter. My squadron commander’s comment was totally unnecessary.”
“Angie knew that the Wall of Fire leaves you vulnerable to an enemy that is willing to stack forces and overload the linked computers’ ability to prosecute targets. They could punch right through by concentrating on a single squadron.”
“Angie also knew that the way the general had the squadrons arrayed, they couldn’t support each other. She had them orbiting the fleet in equally spaced orbits. If one squadron was attacked suddenly, the momentum of the orbits would cause a significant delay before any other squadron could react and support.”
“I could see Angie’s logic. My mind started to work out solutions to the problem. The obvious solution was to layer the orbits so forces could move to block any penetration, but the general’s battle formation contained no such defense in depth. She bet her entire defense on a supposedly impenetrable shield of fighters around the Fleet. I wondered how much freedom of action she had given the Red force commander.”
“As the exercise began, the 15th Battle Fleet split into two task forces. The Bolivar Battle Group, along with the Mandela and Lincoln carrier battle groups, moved toward the frontier. We were out there to be as visible as possible, so the K’Rang would know we were there. The admiral positioned the task force parallel to the frontier. He wanted to make sure that any missile radar lock-ons were aimed away from the frontier. He expected that the K’Rang would come to observe the exercise from their side of the frontier and he didn’t want any misunderstandings.”
“My squadron launched and we moved out to our position. Our starting position was on the frontier side of the fleet. Even though there was to be no exercise combat on that side, General Bugarov made us practice the all- around defense. As we approached the position to form up into the Wall of Fire formation, my computer malfunctioned. It reacted as if I had been destroyed and shut me down. I was drifting in space with my navigation lights blinking on and off. I tried to recycle the battle damage simulator, but it was locked in position 5. It would not let me do anything but slow speed maneuvering.
'I called out to Angie and my flight commander that I was out of action due to a computer malfunction. My squadron commander said to stay where I was and wait for the carrier to send out a recovery craft. I settled in for a long wait. The carrier wouldn’t send out its recovery craft until the combat phase was over. That would be an hour or so.”
“I sat there in my cockpit watching the stars and trying to use my limited maneuverability to keep my fighter masked behind the Bolivar. I didn’t want to give away the fleet’s position with my blinking navigation lights.”
“It turned out to be a useless gesture. The red force fighter attack pulled all the blue force fighter squadrons in their unwieldy Wall of Fire formations to the front side of the fleet. I was quite alone.”
“I tried every trick I knew to get my fighter working again. Nothing worked. I pulled circuit breakers and replaced them. I tried hot and cold system reboots, to no avail. I even tried reasoning with Wanda, my ship’s artificial intelligence.”
“I asked Wanda why I couldn’t reset the combat damage simulator.”
“She responded that she couldn’t get the simulator to recognize the reset command. It was talking to her, but it wouldn’t reset.”
She said that it wouldn’t reset without the proper authentication code. It was not a very sophisticated computer.”
I asked what its orders were.
She told me the ship is disabled, my weapons computer was offline, and your navigation lights were turned on. Limited maneuvering was allowed for safety purposes only.”
“I looked for ways to get it to return control to me. I had Wanda reason with it. I needed to get into the fight.”
“Wanda was apologetic but not able to help. She said that it would only allow me control over the fighter if there were a safety of fleet issue. It would allow me to maneuver to maintain distance from the Bolivar and any other ships or fighters, but no more than that. And the radio didn’t appear to be transmitting either. She had been periodically transmitting our position to the Bolivar, but she was no longer getting their confirmation signal.”
“I couldn’t figure any way out of that fix. There I was, unable to move, shoot, or communicate. I just sat there looking out into space waiting for the hook to pull me back onto the Bolivar.”
“That’s when I noticed a movement across the border. It was probably just a far star blinking in and out, but I caught it out of the corner of my eye in the darkness. Stars don’t twinkle in space.”
“I asked Wanda if her sensors were working or were they out also.”
“She said they were working.”
“I told her I saw something across the frontier at our level, about 11 o’clock. I asked if she could pick out anything?”
“Wanda responded a few seconds later. She couldn’t resolve anything, but there was something out there. In fact, there was more than one. She suggested that if we moved parallel to the frontier, she might be able to triangulate them and get a location.”
“I moved the ship parallel to the frontier and waited for Wanda to make her calculations.”
“She gave me the news I expected. There appeared to be three of them at 583,000 km. They appeared to be just sitting there, watching.”
“I put them down as K’Rang scouts watching the ongoing exercise, but kept Wanda focused on our friends across the frontier. I was sure the Bolivar had its attention focused on the incoming red force fighters and attack ships and probably hadn’t noticed. The blue force fighter pilots were probably all concentrating too hard on their
