Shaitan Wars 2: Wrath of the Shaitans (19 page)

The two missiles mounted on the satellite on the opposite end of Mars, not visible to the Shaitan ship directly, will rush head on at full speed towards the two Shaitan satellites.

The Shaitan ship will launch at least two missiles. One in the direction of each of our satellites. I am assuming that at this time the enemy captain would still not risk escalating the situation by launching a missile in our ship’s direction. Even if he does, we will be very far should be able to evade such a missile fairly easily.

Given the distance at which our satellites are from the Shaitan ship, the missiles will take several hours to reach, but reach they will. They will be able to destroy our satellites once they reach. The ECM is not good enough to confuse the missile once it reaches close visual range.

The satellites would have however done their job. They would have given us the hours of enemy blindness we require for the next part of our plan, and they have blinded the Shaitan captain on the opposite side of Mars permanently, without the enemy captain suspecting so.

Once the enemy missiles reach our satellites and destroys them, the enemy captain will realize that we didn’t just blind their satellites temporarily as he suspected, but also attacked and destroyed them. He would suspect rightly that we have maneuvers planned on the other side of Mars. However by that time the dice would have been rolled and it would not matter.” Trisha finished and looked up at Choi to ensure that he had understood.

Choi had understood this part of the plan, but he was now curious about the next part. “Ok. So this tactics will buy us about 6-8 hours if my rough calculation is correct. During this time the enemy will suspect that we are up to something probably behind Mars, but will be blind to see anything.

We also do it in such a manner that it does not warrant the enemy captain to see it as an act of outright aggression and bomb our base to dust. This will mean that it will still be holding position over our camp and not running away to join battle with its fleet, thus ensuring our primary objective. So what do we plan to do in those 6-8 hours we have bought with this elaborate plan?”

And so Capt. Trisha Strong explained the steps of her plan one by one, but she called in the commander of the Marines into the meeting as well. His role would be as important as that of the ship. With each move explained, Choi’s eyes went wider in amazement, excitement and respect at the brilliance of this woman. He wondered how this captain ever got the reputation of not being aggressive. This plan was so bold, that it was scaring the shit out of him, and he was loving it.

Chapter 12

Third Fleet

Approaching Rendezvous point beyond Pluto

September 2083

Rear Admiral Fabi Kalinin was sitting on this chair not because he was a Russian, but despite being a Russian. The Russians had fallen behind as a spacefaring nation especially in the last fifty years. About a century ago they had been at the forefront of space exploration. They were even considered the human space pioneers, who took humanity to space.

They were to be eclipsed by the US and then by the Europeans, Chinese and lately even by the Indians and the Japanese. The decline of Russians had nothing to do with lack of ingenuity, it was their economy and their political system, which held back their economy that did them in. It was amazing what the Russians had achieved in space despite their lack of resources.

The nationality of the personnel in USC roughly reflected their percentage vote share. The higher the percentage vote share of a nation, the higher the number of its nationality in USC. It was not a rule, but it tended to happen so. The share of senior personnel in USC tended to be skewed even more highly in favor of the dominant nations like the US and China.

It was a measure of Admiral Kalinin’s brilliance that he had risen to the number 3 position within the USC despite being a Russian. He was widely liked for his jovial nature, and made even the junior most officers comfortable in his presence with just a few words. On this mission however being Russian had turned out to be an advantage. To be more precise, not being an American, Chinese, European or an Indian had become Admiral Kalinin’s advantage.

That was not the reason Admiral Daniel Cloutier had given command of this fleet to Rear Admiral Kalinin. Fabi Kalinin’s nationality was a happy coincidence that solved a tricky political problem for Admiral Cloutier. Admiral Kalinin was given the job because he was tailor made for this job.

The task of the Third Fleet was a strategic, not a tactical one. During the discussions of the two Admirals, Fabi had used a chess metaphor to put into perspective the objective Daniel had in mind for the Third Fleet. “You want to force exchange of queens, no? The opponent don’t mind exchanging, thinking equal piece exchanged – no harm done. Only you know, your queen not in good position compared to theirs, the opponent don’t know that. You have more pawns in the game, you win with pawns.”

Fabi had given a wicked smile, and Daniel had smiled back confirming that was the exact strategy. No one in USC could beat Fabi Kalinin when it came to chess, but Daniel was no slouch either. They had become friends in the last 15 years at USC and spent hours playing and strategizing. They understood each other’s chess metaphor completely.

“You want the Third Fleet and me to be that queen, no? Don’t worry my friend, I will be that piece on this chessboard, and I will force an exchange. I will make sure that it is equal exchange. Even though the forces are not equal. Who knows I might even return back alive to bother you again! You came back from the dead on Titan, and I might do it also.” Fabi said jovially in his typical gallows humor.

Daniel had only looked at his friend sadly. There wasn’t much he could have said. They had drowned the rest of the night in Vodka.

The Third Fleet wasn’t a sacrificial lamb. It was the pinnacle of human space technology. There were only four ships in the fleet, so it was a bit of a joke to call it a fleet. Yet these were the four biggest, most advanced and deadly ships humans had ever built till now. These were the Nautilus class ships.

These were the first four human warships what used the new variable geometry fusion reactors. It not just provided unlimited power to the ship, but the fusion reactor, directly powered the ion plasma drive giving these ships almost unlimited endurance and mind boggling range.

These ships could stay in space as long as their crews could endure it, and the food lasted on board. In theory a ship like this could go on a journey for a decade or two if the crew could bear the recycled food, and nothing major broke down on the ship. The mass these ships could carry was only limited by how big you could build the ship, there was almost no engine limitation on the mass.

Each of these ships weighed about 10 thousand metric tons. They were the size of a frigate on the seas with similar space inside. Each of these ships carried 200 nuclear missiles compared to the 20 odd that were carried by Friendship class that fought the Shaitans over Titan, and the 40 missiles carried by the Resolute class. This did not even take into account the new weapons and defenses the Nautilus carried, that were just not available to any ship before, all possible due to the fusion reactor on board the ship.

Yes, the Third Fleet was the queen, the most powerful piece that the humans possessed on the chessboard. Yet like all pieces on the board, it was still an implement, a means to an end. It needed to be used as such. The only objective that could not be compromised or lost was Earth. Everything had to be used and served for that end – the protection of Earth.

When the Third Fleet had started racing out to cut off the two parts of the Shaitan fleet from meeting up with each other, its objective had been simple. Engage one half of the enemy fleet and inflict as much damage as possible to that half. That way the fleet of 4 Nautilus class ships had some chance against 4 Shaitan ships, which were certain to be far superior to the human ships.

If the Third Fleet let the two parts of the Shaitan ship meet up with each other, then they would be facing 8 Shaitan ships against four human ships, which could not be good for the longevity of the human ships. The Shaitans had made the job of the Third Fleet a bit easier when the Shaitan troop carriers on either side were peeled out of formation and headed to a different direction.

That was sure to give Admiral Cloutier tactical headaches with the deployment of his first and Second Fleet, but Fabi could use any break that he and his fleet could get. Now as he reached the projected meeting point of the two parts of the Shaitan fleet, before they reached there, and effectively cutting them off from each other, he would be able to fight 4 to 3 in his favor. It still did not give him a good feeling. He knew why, but he tried to ignore it for the moment.

Admiral Kalinin had chosen USS Nautilus as his flagship. It was not because it was any bigger than any of the other ships. All the four ships were identical in construction. This was the first administrative and political triumph USC in general and Admiral Cloutier in particular had managed in the brief history of USC.

First and Second Fleet comprised of ships contributed by the three main ship building consortium. The North American consortium, which was mainly the US contributed about 40% of the ships, while the ESA-ISRO-JAXA consortium contributed 30% and the remaining 30% was contributed by the Chinese consortium which also included Russia and Brazil as significant members.

The problem that USC faced was that all the three consortiums constructed their ships according to their own specifications, which was a nightmare for the military operationally. USC had tried to manage the non-uniformity of ship capabilities by segregating all the US and a few ESA-ISRO-JAXA ships to form the Second Fleet, while all the Chinese and the rest of the ESA-ISRO-JAXA ships formed the First Fleet. It was difficult to say the least for a flag admiral to manage a fleet with varying capabilities amongst the same class of ships.

When the new Nautilus class of ships were beginning to be planned, Daniel had just taken over as the chief, he had invested a huge amount of his time and political capital traveling continuously between Beijing, Brussels, New Delhi, Tokyo and Washington to convince that this class of ship, which was the first to be designed after the formation of the USC should be done with its concurrence and a uniform specification should be laid out.

It wasn’t as if the politicians did not understand the logic of Daniel’s request, but egos are hard to assuage. Ironically for Daniel, he got the hardest of time from his own country and his own compatriots. Washington gave Daniel a hard time primarily due to intellectual property concerns. How that was overcome is another story altogether.

So Admiral Kalinin was commanding a set of 4 identical ships. The reason he had chosen USS Nautilus was not even for sentimental reason, it was after all the first of the class. The reason he had chosen this ship was political. This was a US ship and crewed almost exclusively by US and Canadian citizens.

So why is that important in a so called nationality less organization like the USC? Because the reality is that national politics does not get left back on Earth however much the USC brass would want it to be so. USS Nautilus and USS Endurance were built under sponsorship from the US consortium and in US orbital space yard. The Shiva was built under the sponsorship of the ESA-ISRO-JAXA consortium, while the Qūzhújiàn was built in the Russian space yard New Vladivostok under Chinese sponsorship.

The US ships were crewed by US and Canadian citizens. The Qūzhújiàn was crewed primarily by the Chinese with some token Russian and Brazilian. Only the Shiva was a truly multinational crew. It had an eclectic mix of Europeans, Japanese and Indians. It was always tricky for a flag Admiral to choose a flagship that catered to petty national sensibilities that humans still carried to space.

The nationality issue is usually not a problem with the ESA-ISRO-JAXA combine, who are so used to working with various nationalities, that they have gotten over such mental barriers mostly. There are occasional nationality related issue that do crop up, but they are few and far between and usually minor in nature.

Not so with the US and Chinese crew and marines. They are still insulated in homogenous groups of their own nationality, and carry their petty suspicions into space. This had been one of major projects that Takamori had started, which now Alex in pursuing in USC-GCF. To make USC-GCF heterogeneous. It is tougher than it sounds. Battalion, company and platoon compositions are touchy subjects with any army, and space marines are no different. Add to this various military of the parent nations that get involved and reorganization is a nightmare.

Admiral Cloutier faced similar problems with the Navy. His task of achieving heterogeneity was complicated further by the difference in the ships of each of these countries, which required specialized people from those countries. Daniel was hoping that with the new uniform Nautilus class, that task would become easier. It hadn’t happened yet though.

So a Russian flag admiral was acceptable to the American captains and crew, primarily because he was not Chinese. The Chinese thought of Russians as close allies so they did not have any problems either. If however the admiral chose a Chinese ship as his flagship, then it would look like favoritism to the Americans. So Nautilus it was for Fabi.

The price Capt. Gerald Shannon had to pay for his ship USS Nautilus being chosen as the flagship was his ready room. He didn’t have one any longer. It had been hastily converted into the Flag Admiral’s bridge. Gerald had drooled at the captain’s ready room, when he had first come on board the Nautilus.

It was 10 by 15 feet in size which was massive compared to the one he had on his previous command in the Resolute class ship. Now it was gone. The only consolation was that the Nautilus was big enough to have a conference room of a similar size, which was to be his ready room whenever he needed to use one.