The Solarian Celebration: Book 3 of the Alliance Conflict (26 page)

Defensive fire was very light, especially in the exposed area.  The first fighter fired a ship buster and the second fired another one 4 seconds later.  These missiles had been fired from the sweet spot; they didn’t even need the electronic guidance beacon to score a hit.

The first ship buster passed through the outer hull, through the inner hull, gently contacted the primary reactor housing, and blew it apart.  The second ship buster flew directly into the reactor core and exploded.

The chain reaction caused the cruiser to violently explode.  The entire ship was engulfed in a tremendous fireball that spewed outward in every direction.  One emergency pod successfully launched from the ship, but it didn’t make it very far.  The exploding debris hit the small pod and tore it to shreds.

The third wave of two fighters targeted and destroyed the remaining 4 enemy missiles.  Gus checked the scan of his immediate area.  The enemy cruiser was gone and so were its missiles.  Gus’ sensor array was clear.

Gus contacted all of the fighters in his squadron and told them to proceed directly to the rendezvous.  Since he was almost at the rendezvous point, he slowed to allow the rest of his squadron catch up to him.  His fighters were spread out over a 4 million kilometer stretch of space and would need nearly two minutes to catch up.  It was time to regroup and attack the destroyers. 

…………………….

The electro barrier behind him activated and flung his fighter out of the hangar.  He turned up and away from the hangar in a casual loop of the
Sunflower
.  He waited for the next 4 fighters to launch.  The remaining 14 fighters launched over the course of the next two minutes.

Paul scanned the immediate area.  There were no remaining missiles from the 4 cruisers.  However, there were inbound missiles from the two destroyers.  The computer showed that the two destroyers had launched a combined 48 missiles.

Fortunately, the last two groups of fighters from Alpha and First Squadrons realized that they weren’t needed for the attack on their respective cruiser and stayed close to the
Sunflower
.  Paul realized that he was now technically in charge of a full squadron – 8 First, 8 Alpha, and 4 from Third Squadron. 

He opened a channel to these fighters and said, “FAT Squadron, form up in a flat-one formation and begin targeting on-coming missiles.  Everyone choose two targets and verify that no one is double targeting before firing.  Maneuver freely.”

Flat-one was a basic formation.  The formation consisted of 20 fighters in a single row.  The new squadron quickly got into formation and raced ahead until they reached the optimum firing position.

Paul targeted an on-coming missile and fired.  Hit.  He targeted a second one and fired.  Hit.  The squadron was now past the missiles.  Paul did a quick calculation to determine whether they squadron could loop and reacquire the remaining missiles before they struck the
Sunflower
.  He grimaced.  They could not. 

Paul sent a mental signal to the fighter requesting an updated scan.  He could have simply looked at the monitor, but it was faster to communicate directly.  The fighter whispered that there were only 4 remaining missiles. 

He did a quick mental calculation – four of the pilots had targeted and destroyed three missiles each.  Darned impressive, he thought. 

The next four fighters launched from the
Sunflower
.  They targeted the remaining 4 missiles and easily destroyed them.  Paul double checked.  They had a clear board for the moment.  Paul was about to give another command, but both Gus and Kip ordered their squadrons to regroup. 

Paul ordered his partial squadron to perform a wide 360 degree loop and wait for the remainder of their squadron to launch.

…………………….

Kolvak wanted answers.  However, before he could get answers he really needed some coherent questions.  At the moment, the only question that he could formulate in his brain was ‘What just happened’.  He tried to think of a better way to phrase the question.

He finally gave up and said, “Captain, what just happened?”

Jim interpreted the question literally and replied, “One of the cruisers just exploded and we are focusing on the other three.”

“I see explosions on the other three.  One has lost the containment of its reactor core,” Shole updated.

Jim replied, “Thank you.  One down, three to go.”

Shole retorted, “Two.”

Jim replied, “Two down, two to ….”  Everyone watched the main monitor as the last two cruisers blew up almost simultaneously.  Jim said, “Correction, all cruisers have been destroyed.  It is now time to focus on the destroyers.”

“We will be there in 3 minutes,” Russ added helpfully.

Kolvak said, “Yes, I can see that we destroyed them.  How did we do that?”

Jim said, “We launched 40 fighters and fired 30 missiles in 1 ½ minutes.  Our fighters attacked their cruisers unopposed.  And as you probably already know, a cruiser cannot defend itself from a squadron of fighters.”

Kolvak did in fact know that a cruiser was overmatched by a squadron of fighters.  However, the knowledge had always been on some abstract level.  He now realized that this particular fact had just moved from abstract to abundantly, glaringly real.  Further, he had just received stunning confirmation of this fact 4 times over. 

Either way, Kolvak’s brain finally started functioning again and said, “I did know that, but I never imagined the battle would be so one-sided.”

Russ chimed in and said, “It’s better to give than to receive.”

Kolvak said, “But we didn’t even give them time to properly state why they were in this part of system or what they were doing here.  They may have had a perfectly legitimate reason for being here.”  Kolvak restated the word ‘give’ with special emphasis as a rebuttal to Russ’ proclamation.

As if on cue, Shole said, “I have a communique from the battleship.  The message was sent in the Hiriculan language, but I had the computer translate it to Alliance basic.”

Jim replied, “Play it.”

…Captain Solear, you and the entire crew of the
Sunflower
are in violation of the treaty and are under arrest for gross misconduct during the battle of Influenla.  Please surrender immediately or you will be destroyed…

“Shall I send a response?” Shole asked.

Jim replied, “No, they seem boorish.”

As soon as the fourth cruiser was destroyed, Jim refocused all 10 missile launchers on one of the destroyers.  Specifically, he targeted the one on the right.  This was the same destroyer that were going to ram in about 3 minutes.  The computer monitor designated it EnDes80.

He briefly considered changing the firing pattern, but decided against it.  He had already changed it once, he doubted the crew would appreciate another change.  He left the pattern as S4P2.  It was as good as anything right now and the crew was more than likely already in the process of loading the next missile.

Jim opened a channel to the entire crew and announced, “The 4 enemy cruisers have been destroyed.  We are now targeting one of the destroyers.  Continue firing with pattern S4P2.”

The enemy fleet had initially been parked exactly 4.5 million kilometers away.  The distance had not been random - 4.5 million kilometers was the maximum powered range of offensive missiles.   

In other words, if a ship were directly facing its enemy, any missile fired would exit the side of the ship and fly straight for a second to ensure that it had cleared the ship.  Then the missile would turn in a wide 90 degree arc until it was facing the correct attack vector.  This effectively reduced the missile’s range from 5.4 million kilometers to 4.5 million kilometers and increased its travel time by 8 seconds.

The
Sunflower
had traveled 1.8 million kilometers since entering the Opron system, so they were only 2.7 million kilometers from the enemy destroyers.  Even though they were facing their enemy, they still had a cushion of 1.8 million kilometers before their missiles went ballistic.

Shole had also been monitoring the battle, or more precisely monitoring the sensors.  However, the expanding dust cloud from the 4 explosions was beginning to block the sensors. 

Shole said, “Sensors confirm that all 4 cruisers were destroyed.  However, the dust is now clouding the sensors.  We will have significantly reduced visibility until we exit the dust cloud.”

Jim replied, “Okay.  Were you able to obtain an update on the fighters?”

Shole continued, “The sensors can no longer detect our fighters with any degree of accuracy.  However, the last clear scan showed that all fighters were still intact and active.”

Kolvak heard the word missile and had a sudden revelation.  He said, “Captain, the enemy must have launched a torrent of missiles by now.  We should already be dead.”

Kolvak realized that he could have simply minimized the engineering screen on his monitor and opened the navigation application.  Or, he could have just looked at it on the main monitor.  He decided that wasn’t his job.  Then he changed his mind and looked at the main monitor.

Kolvak saw a completely clear board.  There were no in-coming missiles.  He said, “How is it possible that all of the missiles exploded before impact?  That is simply not possible.”

Jim replied, “The missiles are not a problem.”

Kolvak was frustrated.  The humans just didn’t seem to realize what he was trying to tell them.  He basically repeated his earlier statement, “It still won’t matter.  This ship cannot stop 32 missiles from the two destroyers, let alone the 72 that have already been launched.”

Jim replied, “Watch playback, section 90.12.14 at time zero (Opron entry) mark 140 seconds.”

Kolvak watched as the fighters systematically destroyed the missiles.  He hadn’t dreamed that a fighter could target a missile, let alone get a kill every time.  Now he realized why the captain didn’t seem scared about the enemy’s missiles.  For that matter, he also understood why they were not firing defensive missiles.  There was no reason to bother if the fighters could shoot the missiles out of space before they arrived.

Kolvak knew that the captain had expected another response of incredulity or a compliment of the humans’ flying ability.  Instead, he decided to stop wondering about things he didn’t understand at the moment and focus on the battle.

Kolvak replied, “It is fortunate that the sensors are still working properly in the quadrant of space in front of us.”

Shole said, “Yes.  I have an update.  Both destroyers are now in motion.  They have reversed their direction and are now moving at a speed of .02 light and increasing.

Jim replied, “Smart.  They saw what unopposed fighters can do to a capital ship and they are increasing the range to allow their fighters to launch.”

Russ commented, “It also increases the length of the missile engagement.  I bet they still think they have an advantage.  The reality is that over the next three minutes we can fire 70 missiles to their combined 32.”

Kolvak said, “Possibly more important, by moving away from us they are also moving out of the gravity field.  I will perform some more calculations, but it appears that four minutes from now they will exit the gravity field and will be able to jump to hyperspace.”

Russ asked, “Should we increase speed to prevent them from escaping?”

Jim replied, “Go up to .07 light.  We will allow them to gain a little distance.”

Shole reported, “Enemy fighters are launching.”

Kolvak desperately wanted to yell that it was suicide for 40 Alliance fighters to attack 48 enemy fighters.  However, this time he didn’t speak.  He changed his mind and said, “Captain…”

Jim replied, “Yes.”

Kolvak changed his mind again.  He decided not to discuss the fighter disparity.  Instead, he quickly thought of something else and said, “The debris cloud has intensified behind us.  If the battleship moves, we may not be able to detect it.”

With the debris cloud now behind them, Jim realized that he could once again communicate with his fighters.

Jim opened a channel to all of the fighters and said, “Alpha, First, and Third Squadrons, report status.”

“First Squadron, 20 able to fly.”

“Alpha Squadron, 20 able to fly.”

“Third Squadron, 18 able to fly.”

Jim continued, “Alpha squadron, regroup and attack Destroyer designated EnDes100.  First squadron, attack EnDes80.  Third Squadron regroup and maintain missile over-watch.  The destroyers should fire again in about 90 seconds.”

…………………….

Paul checked his chronometer.  They had been in the system now for exactly 4 minutes.  Paul said, “Look alive.  The next wave of enemy missiles will be here in 20 seconds.”

Paul then checked his scanner.  The fighter whispered the location of each participant.  Both enemy destroyers were at .05 light and steadily retreating.  The
Sunflower
had increased its speed to .07 light and would reach the destroyers in 3 minutes.

Both destroyers had also launched a full complement of 24 fighters each.  The fighters were accelerating independently toward First and Alpha Squadrons.  Their paths would intercept momentarily.