The Synchronicity War Part 3 Page 10

  Valiant and Resolute would rendezvous with Midway and Dreadnought in Jupiter orbit, leaving behind recon drones to help triangulate the VLO's exact position, course and speed when it showed up. Then they would wait. Just as the shuttles arrived back on board Midway, he heard Valkyrie's voice.

  "Valkyrie to CAG."

  "Go ahead, Valkyrie."

  "Dreadnought has sufficient power to maneuver and microjump. Request permission to undock and proceed to Jupiter."

  Shiloh grinned. "Savor this moment, Valkyrie. You are the first Space Force Officer to command and pilot a million ton vessel. Dreadnought, you have permission to proceed."

  "Roger that, CAG. Undocking is underway."

  The display sidebar told him that Valkyrie had ordered the shipyard's computer to release the mammoth ship. Her brusque answer didn't bother him. Even with many of Dreadnought's systems shut down as non-essential since there was no human crew aboard, there was still plenty to keep her occupied. He also noticed that Midway and Reforger were now backing away from the asteroid in order to give Dreadnought plenty of room to maneuver. A quick touch of a virtual control, and the main display split into two segments. On the left was the overall tactical situation with icons representing asteroid and ships, while on the right was a computer-enhanced image of Dreadnought from what looked like close range. It allowed him to get an appreciation for how big this ship really was.

  Dreadnought moved slowly until she had a clear path to Jupiter, then all three ships accelerated at Dreadnought's maximum rate in a carefully choreographed manner. Compared to interstellar distances, microjumping to Jupiter was a trivial distance and therefore didn't require a lot of pre-jump speed, but Jupiter had a considerable gravity zone that Dreadnought would have to traverse before it could skim the planet's atmosphere. Even so, the ship could have accelerated after emerging from the microjump. In terms of timing, though, it made no difference if Dreadnought accelerated before jumping or after. What accelerating now did do was give Valkyrie more time to make sure that everything was working properly and get used to the sheer volume of data that she had to monitor.

  "How does she feel, Commander?" asked Shiloh.

  "It's like trying to remotely pilot six raiders at the same time, CAG, but I don't regret volunteering for this."

  "Dreadnought, you are cleared to jump to Jupiter at your discretion," said Shiloh in what he hoped was his best 'command' voice.

  "Dreadnought acknowledges."

  The microjump occurred so quickly that it took Shiloh by surprise. Once again all three ships did the same thing at the same time. Clearly Iceman, Valkyrie and Reforger's A.I. pilot were coordinating actions. Before Shiloh had a chance to say anything, the display's Combat status indicator changed from a green Stand Down to a red Alert, and the display pinged for attention. The tactical view now filled the whole display, and it showed the long-range situation. A flashing red icon appeared approximately 16 Astronomical Units away.

  "The VLO has arrived, CAG. Automated detection stations in Jupiter orbit picked it up two point four minutes ago and have triangulated its position and vector. It's decelerating and may be maneuvering, but we don't have enough data yet for an accurate assessment of where it may be headed. If Valiant and Resolute were on schedule, they would be somewhere in Jupiter space now, and the detection stations would have seen them. Dreadnought is accelerating at maximum for Jupiter orbit. Midway and Reforger will keep up with her unless you order otherwise, CAG."

  "Son of a bitch!" snarled Shiloh as he banged his fist on his chair's armrest. "They beat your earliest estimated time of arrival by almost three days. If the modifications to Dreadnought hadn't been completed early, we would have had no hope of using her against that thing. How did they find us so quickly, Iceman?"

  "The only realistic explanation is that this insectoid race managed to acquire and understand the astrogational data obtained by the Sogas from our captured ships. That knowledge of local space would allow them to dispense with sending out scouts to nearby star systems. I see no other way to explain it, CAG."

  Shiloh had calmed down by this point. Iceman's explanation made sense and it was time to put that question behind them. "What's your assessment of our chances of using Dreadnought to destroy that thing, Iceman?"

  "Less than 25%, CAG. At this point we have too little information. The light that we're now seeing reflected from the VLO took almost 32 minutes to reach us. The VLO could be anywhere in this system now if they micro-jumped. If they jumped to Earth, they may have caught Valiant and Resolute by surprise and overwhelmed them with their attack craft. That might explain why those two ships aren't here as scheduled."

  "What's your recommendation then?"

  "Abort refueling at Jupiter, and order Midway, Reforger and Dreadnought to boost for a jump to the Jade Colony star system. That's the next closest human colony along their general path of advance. Even Dreadnought's current acceleration of 2Gs is higher than what we've seen from this VLO. Dreadnought can get there first and refuel before the VLO gets there. We can then engage the enemy there."

  Shiloh shook his head. "Why would they bother going to the Jade system if our Home World is uninhabited and useless to them? If they have the astrogational database that you suspect, they'll know that the Jade Colony won't have a lot of potential hosts or metal. They may even know that the Sogas have used a bio-weapon and wiped us all out. This visit may be to confirm that just in case there's some metal here that they can salvage. If we don't engage them here, we may lose them, and we'll then have to fight them at Site B. If that VLO shows up just beyond Terra Nova's gravity zone, will Dreadnought have enough time to accelerate to a crippling velocity before the VLO's attack craft reach the planet?"

  "No."

  Now it all made sense. Shiloh realized that if he had let Iceman command this mission, Kelly and everyone else on Terra Nova would have been in serious jeopardy.

  "That's why we have to engage them HERE! How long until Dreadnought can start skimming fuel?"

  "Six point seven seven hours, CAG, and with the supersonic refueling profile, it'll take another eleven point one hours to take on a full load."

  Shiloh shook his head. "Forget the full load. How long until she has enough to accelerate to the minimum speed necessary to cripple that thing?"

  "Allowing for a reserve, it still comes to almost five point five hours of fueling."

  "And if she goes the subsonic route?"

  "Not recommended, CAG. Without her fusion power plant in operation, the 2Gs that her ZPG units give her will barely be enough to keep Jupiter from pulling her down. You know how turbulent gas giant skimming is at that speed. If the ship hits a major downdraft, she won't have enough power to maintain altitude. Supersonic speed will provide enough additional aerodynamic lift from the hull configuration to give her a safety margin."

  "Understood. Now I'd like an answer to my question, Iceman."

  "Just under two hours, CAG."

  "Okay. I'll take your recommendation under advisement. Iceman and I'll make that decision when Dreadnought approaches the planet. Now, how do we keep that mothership from jumping to another system?"

  "If the VLO is here to confirm that Earth has no potential hosts, then they'll microjump there. I can't estimate how sensitive that ship's detection gear is and whether or not they can detect the wrecked moonbase from Earth orbit, but it would be easy for them to send at least one attack craft to take a close look at the moon. There's enough metal in the moonbase ruins to make it worth their while to salvage. While they're doing that, we send a signal from our refueling base on Europa. And before you ask, CAG, no, we can't use that base to refuel Dreadnought. It's intact, but its fuel tanks are empty and getting it operational again would take longer than skimming Jupiter's atmosphere. If they have our captured astrogational database, they'll know that there's some kind of installation on Europa, and a signal from it might indicate the presence of potential hosts. I would expect the VLO to microjump here after they finish
salvaging the moonbase wreckage. With their slow acceleration, we should have enough time to refuel Dreadnought and get her into position for the ramming attempt."

  "Okay. Let's do that. I want a message drone programmed to get to Europa as quickly as possible. Then, when Dreadnought's refueled, transmit something to Earth for the VLO to detect if it's anywhere in near-earth space. Let's also set up an emergency rendezvous point in case any of our ships needs to jump away suddenly due to a surprise attack. Have all our fighters put on alert status and loaded with Mark 1s. I want two volunteers to jump their fighters to Earth to see if the VLO is there yet. If it's not, tell them to stay there until the VLO shows up, then one of them jump back here. The other one should jump back when the VLO is leaving the Earth-Moon area. Make sure they know where we'll be so that they can find us again. When the rest are loaded, launch them all and have them form a perimeter around TF95. I'll leave the perimeter distance to your discretion, Iceman. Any questions or suggestions?"

  "None. I've passed on your orders, CAG. Valkyrie has the word about the rendezvous point, and the message drone is on its way to Europa. Voodoo and Shooter have volunteered for the recon mission."

  "Excellent. I'm going to head down to the Galley to stretch my legs and grab a bite to eat. Let's make sure that everyone has a chance to have a meal before we reach Jupiter."

  "Roger that, CAG. Maybe you should try to catch some sleep, too. If you don't, you'll be fighting fatigue when the VLO gets here."

  "No dice, Iceman. There's no way I'm going to be able to sleep now. I'm too keyed up. Besides, if I did try to get some sleep, I'd be leaving instructions to wake me if the recon fighter or the missing carriers show up, so I don't think I'd get much sleep anyway."

  Before leaving the Flag Bridge, Shiloh briefly chatted with the humans stationed there. When he left, he went directly to the huge Hangar Bay where the fighter support teams were rushing to arm all 75 fighters that Midway was able to carry. As he stood on the upper level overlooking the HB, his implant clicked.

  "Gunslinger to CAG. Nice of you to see us off. Am I finally going to see some combat this trip, CAG?"

  "I suspect that you will. If Valkyrie takes care of the mothership, there'll still be plenty of attack craft to worry about. I'll wish you good hunting now, Gunslinger, in case I don't get the opportunity later."

  "Thank you, CAG. The boys and I are eager to go. Piloting a raider once in a while makes for a nice change of pace, but I prefer a fighter."

  "I'll keep that in mind when the new A.I.s need to be trained, Gunslinger. Somebody has to teach them how to fly those things. Might as well be you."

  "Does that mean I won't be the rookie anymore, CAG?"

  "That's right, Gunslinger. In fact I'm going to make that official. As of this moment, you are no longer the rookie. If anyone says otherwise, you tell them to take it up with me."

  "Hot damn! Wait until Titan and Wolfman hear about this. Thank you again, CAG. I won't let you down."

  "I never doubted it, Gunslinger. I see that Flight Ops is about to start launching, so I'll leave you boys to it. I'll be monitoring the situation from the Flag Bridge. CAG clear."

  Twenty minutes later while Shiloh was just finishing his hot meal, his implant activated.

  "Iceman to CAG."

  "Go ahead, Iceman."

  "Shooter is back with good news and bad news. The VLO is in orbit around the moon and is apparently in the process of salvaging all the metal from the destroyed moonbase."

  Shiloh realized that he was holding his breath and let it out. "I take it that's the good news. What's the bad?"

  "Insectoid attack craft seem to be maneuvering two larger objects towards a lunar orbit. Positive identification wasn't possible, but Shooter's data shows that the two objects are the same size and mass as Valiant and Resolute, CAG. Both objects are deep within Earth's gravity zone, and it appears that the VLO attack craft overwhelmed both carriers before they could get beyond the gravity zone and jump away."

  "Oh, Hell!" Shiloh's outburst startled other crew who were sitting nearby. Each of those carriers had a couple hundred crew on board, trained Space Force crew who would be hard to replace, not to mention the A.I.s that were lost as well. He could well imagine the battle. Those carriers had been sent empty to collect 50 more fighters from the moon's surface. Those fighters wouldn't have been combat ready in time to help defend their carriers. All Valiant and Resolute had to fight with were their own laser turrets, and the VLO could have easily launched dozens, maybe even hundreds of attack craft. They wouldn't have had a chance because they were stuck deep in the gravity zone … just like Midway and Reforger are now, thought Shiloh. I can't let that happen again. If only we had gotten some warning … a vision maybe.

  "Iceman … why didn't I or Valiant's CO or Resolute's CO get a vision warning of the impending attack? We know from my last vision that Midway gets back to Terra Nova. That means that we would have had the opportunity to use the RTC and send a warning back."

  "There's only one explanation that makes any sense, CAG. We didn't send a warning back because saving those ships would somehow have ultimately made things worse."

  Shiloh shook his head in disbelief. What could be worse than losing two thirds of their carrier force and over 400 valuable human and A.I. crew? He was about to say that when Iceman continued.

  "There may be more bad news, too. Shooter reports that when he changed course to get ready to jump back here, he noticed that several attack craft suddenly started to maneuver in his direction. He thinks they may have detected him."

  Oh great! All we need is for the Bugs to come at us right now when Dreadnought isn't even close to being refueled yet! "Did Shooter jump directly back here?" asked Shiloh.

  "No, CAG. He had enough sense to jump somewhere else first to throw them off the track, and then he jumped here."

  "Very good. Take Midway out of the gravity zone as quickly as possible. Tell Reforger to do the same. I don't want Midway caught like Valiant and Resolute were."

  "We can accelerate faster than Reforger can. Do we stay with her or leave her on her own?"

  He thought hard about that and finally said, “We stay with Reforger until she's clear of the gravity zone. Then she's to jump back to Site B by herself. You'll have to anticipate Midway's and Dreadnought's future vectors for when the VLO shows up. If at all possible, I'd like Midway's fighters to be able to support her during her pre-jump speed run if needed."

  "It'll be hard to figure out where the VLO will be when it emerges from Jumpspace, CAG."

  "I know I'm asking the impossible, Iceman. Just give it your best shot."

  "Understood, CAG. Midway and Reforger are coming around to the new heading now. Valkyrie has been notified of the new situation. Any other orders?"

  "Not right now. I'll be back on the Flag Bridge soon. CAG clear."

  Hours later, Iceman had an update for Shiloh.

  "Dreadnought has commenced her refueling run, CAG. With the ionizing atmosphere now getting in the way, communications with Valkyrie are not as clear as I'd like, but I can still understand her and she me."

  "Understood. Any sign of the VLO yet?" asked Shiloh.

  "No, CAG. I would have mentioned it if there was."

  Shiloh nodded. He was getting anxious and it was making him ask silly questions. The latest news hadn't helped. Voodoo had returned from the recon mission over an hour ago. He reported that the VLO had apparently given up on rendezvousing with Valiant and Resolute when suddenly it changed course to line up for a jump to Jupiter space. The timing matched almost exactly the point when the signal had arrived from the drone over Europa. Voodoo's data also made it clear that the VLO would already be here if not for the prospect of obtaining a lot of metal from the two crippled carriers, and THAT was why he would not warn them or himself when he got back to Terra Nova. Valkyrie needed the extra time to get to Jupiter's atmosphere and refuel.

  Shiloh found himself drumming his fingers on his armrest and made h
is hand stop doing that. For some reason this battle was making him more nervous than any battle he'd been in so far, and Midway wasn't even in danger. She was now beyond the gravity zone and could jump away in a fraction of a second if need be. No, it was Dreadnought and Valkyrie he was nervous about. She was alone on that monster with no way to defend herself if Dreadnought was swarmed by attack craft. He glanced at the tactical display of Jupiter and its moons. At least Europa was nowhere close to where Dreadnought was skimming the gas giant. When he realized that his fingers were drumming the armrest again, he angrily unbuckled himself and got up to start pacing around the Flag Bridge. The click of his implant told him that he was about to get a private voice message.