The Synchronicity War Part 2 (7 page)

“Task Force Leader on Tac 4, Sir!” yelled the
com tech. Shiloh switched over to that com channel and said.

“Shiloh here. Go ahead Task Force Leader!” As he
spoke he searched the display to find the four combat frigates.
They were following standard doctrine and were in close formation
orbiting the Nimitz Base moon.

“Victor! Get your fighters into action!” Shiloh
suppressed his surge of anger. Task Force Leader Sobrist and he
were both Senior Commanders. The deployment order from HQ on Sol
had placed all ships in the Avalon system under the authority of
Sobrist BUT it also made it clear that when Shiloh was wearing his
Commander Autonomous Group hat, he had sole discretion on how to
use those fighters. Not only was Sobrist’s urging that Shiloh get
the fighters into action a completely unnecessary stating of the
obvious but it was also a distraction that Shiloh as the CAG didn’t
need right now.

“I’ve already issued orders to them to…” he
stopped talking as the tactical display was updated with the first
results of the recon drones’ active scans. They had all the
incoming enemy ships on radar now and he was stunned by their
speeds. 27,552 kilometers per second! And when he checked their
acceleration, he was shocked to discover that they were
DECELERATING! Avalon’s gravity zone was just over 3.3 million
kilometers in diameters. At about 9% of light speed, the alien
ships would reach the planet in 2 1/2 minutes. His outer shell of
fighters on jump detection patrol were considerably closer to the
planet but had much lower velocities and it wasn’t at all clear to
Shiloh whether or not those fighters could intercept any of the
incoming ships. He also couldn’t understand why the enemy was
decelerating if they intended to fly past the planet. If this was
supposed to be a hit and run raid, then the smart thing to do,
would be to accelerate to get out of enemy range as fast as
possible. But before he could concentrate on that problem, he had
to get this fucking Task Force Leader off his back!

“I don’t have time for this, Sobrist! If you
have orders for Defiant, you talk to my XO, who’s conning the ship
while I handle MY fighters! CAG clear!” He cut the channel to
Sobrist and switched back to the fighter channel at the same
time.

“Iceman! Co-ordinate movement, targeting and
drone fire by all fighters to maximize interceptions! You can
figure it out and transmit the necessary instructions faster than
we can!”

“Already on it, CAG, but interception’s not
going to be the problem. These bogeys are all headed for dead
center impacts on the planet. They’re not trying to veer off for a
close pass. If they’re carrying multi-megaton fusion warheads then
enough of them hitting the planet, could render it uninhabitable
from fallout and weather effects. Disabling their ships with Mark
2s won’t prevent the derelicts from hitting the planet.” Once again
Iceman’s quantum brain had figured it out far faster than human
brains could have. Why settle for laser blasts against a few ground
targets when you could effectively kill an entire colony with
radioactive fallout and nuclear winter effects. Even if the
colonists could all be evacuated in time, which was a BIG if, the
planet would still be rendered useless for a long, long time. Now
he understood why this enemy fleet was A.I. controlled. It was a
kamikaze mission from the very beginning.

“Iceman, your team is authorized to use your
Mark 1s at your discretion. All fighters have to be prepared to ram
enemy ships if that’s the only way to stop them. Sobrist! If you’re
monitoring this channel, your frigates have to use Mark 1s to
completely destroy any bogeys within reach! Don’t waste intercept
solutions on Mark 2s! Iceman! Figure out where Defiant can be of
most use and transmit that data to our Helm and Tactical computers.
XO! Do you copy that?”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Let the Helm computer follow Iceman’s
instructions! Weapons! When you get targeting instructions from
Iceman, go ahead and fire! Understood?”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Any further information we should know about,
Iceman?”

“Yes…this will be close.” was all he said.
Shiloh looked at the tactical display’s elapsed time since enemy
arrival and was shocked (again!) to see that there was now just
over a minute left before impacts on the planet. Things were
happening fast on the display. A lot more drones had been launched
and were trying to use their high acceleration to intercept the
much faster bogeys. Shiloh suddenly realized that some of the recon
drones were attempting interceptions too.
Well why not.
He
thought to himself. The same tactic had worked for him in their
first encounter. He berated himself for not giving explicit orders
to do that and then thanked God that Iceman had instructed the
other fighters to do it on his own initiative. The combat frigates
had fired drones too in addition to their laser weapons. Shiloh
watched as one of those drones reached a bogey, which then
disappeared from the screen. Clearly Sobrist had heard his plea to
use Mark 1s and had complied. More and more of the bogeys were
getting hit and stopped decelerating. Then Shiloh noticed that some
of the recon drones were disappearing too. The bogeys were firing
their lasers at the source of the radar emissions but too late to
try to escape detection. Each bogey now had at least one kinetic
energy warhead drone tracking it with low powered range finding
laser. The display pinged for attention. Iceman’s hand-picked team
had just fired their Mark 1s. At almost the same time, several
fighter icons merged with enemy ship icons causing both to
disappear from the display.

“We’re firing all our Mark 2s and lasers!”
yelled the Weapons Officer. With seconds left before planet impact,
red bogey icons started disappearing fast now. Shiloh watched
Defiant’s Mark 2s spread out over multiple targets but one target
in particular caught his eye. It had already been hit by a Mark 2
at least once since it wasn’t decelerating anymore and radar data
showed the hull to be tumbling. Two of Defiant’s Mark 2s were
streaking after it but Shiloh couldn’t tell if they’d reach it
before impact. A quick glance at the rest of the screen showed that
all of the other red icons were gone now. This one was the only one
left. The target icon flashed gold for a split second. That meant
it had been hit by laser fire.

“She’s breaking up.” said the WO in a not quite
so loud voice. Shiloh held his breath as the time to impact seemed
to hit zero at the same time as both attack drones hit the target.
The red icon broke up into multiple small blips.

“Iceman, what happened there?” asked Shiloh. The
response was immediate.

“The target was intercepted just as it hit the
atmosphere. Impact must have weakened its internal structure
because radar data shows it breaking apart. No nuclear detonations
of any kind. I think we got lucky, CAG.”

“What about the falling debris? Did any of it
hit the colonists?”

“No, CAG. While the planet was hit by debris
from multiple destroyed bogeys, most of it burned up in the
atmosphere and none of the larger pieces hit anywhere close to
inhabited areas.” Shiloh let his body relax and his breathing slow
down.

“Very good, Iceman. What’s the final total?”

“25 bogeys destroyed by fission warheads, 11 of
those launched from fighters, the rest from frigates. 10 bogeys
destroyed from multiple kinetic energy drone hits. 6 destroyed from
ramming by fighters.” As usual, Iceman’s electronically modulated
voice betrayed no emotion even if the quantum brain behind that
voice felt any. Shiloh felt a dark cloud descend over his soul.

“Who did we lose, Iceman?”

“Cyrano, Skywalker, Blue Max, Terminator,
Thunderbird and Amazon, CAG.” Shiloh sighed. All six were from
Defiant’s fighter group. In consultation with DeChastelaine, he had
deployed his fighters close to the planet as a second line of
defense. They were also in the best position to ram enemy ships.
His group was now down to 11. He felt their loss as a physical pain
in his body. He had joked and laughed with them 30 hours ago. Now
they were gone. Where did the souls of A.I.s go when they died, he
wondered. He didn’t bother to ask himself if they had souls. There
was no need. The answer was obvious.

“Let’s make sure we remember them, Iceman.”

“Ah, roger that, CAG.” Iceman’s typical response
was said more slowly than usual. Before Shiloh could reply, the Com
tech said.

“Task Force Leader is asking to speak with you
on Tac 4, Sir.” Shiloh nodded.

“Iceman. TF Leader wants to chat. Switch over to
Tac 4 and listen in.” Without waiting for Iceman’s acknowledgement,
Shiloh switched channels.

“Go ahead, Task Force Leader.”

“First, I want to congratulate you on your
fighters’ effective defense of the Colony, Shiloh. Second, I
noticed that some of your fighters fired Mark 1s in violation of
standing orders. I’d be derelict in my duty if I didn’t mention
that fact in my After Action report. I’m sure that the Brass will
take into consideration that had you not violated that standing
order, the outcome of the battle would have been much worse. If it
was up to me, I’d issue you a verbal reprimand and leave it at that
but as you know, it’s not up to me. I’ll be sending message drones
back to Sol and Omaha shortly. I think your preliminary report
should be on them too. Can you have that ready for me in half an
hour?”

“Yes, Commander. You’ll have my report by
then.”

“Very good. Your ship and crew did well today.
That’ll be in my report too. You can pass that on to them. Sobrist
clear.”

“Switch back to Tac 2, Iceman.” ordered Shiloh.
When the switchover was made, Iceman spoke first.

“He didn’t give you the credit you deserved,
CAG. Compared to other humans, you reacted fast and that made the
difference between getting all 41 of them and letting some get
through.” Shiloh frowned.

“What do you mean, ‘41’? There were 42 ships
left after the Battle at Green4.”

“That’s correct, CAG, but only 41 emerged from
jumpspace around Avalon.” said Iceman.

“So there’s another one lurking further out
then.” said Shiloh.

“Possibly but my guess would be that its purpose
was to monitor the attack and report back on the results.” That
made sense. The beings that sent those A.I.s, would want to know
how successful the attack was and if they needed to send more. They
would soon find out that the attack failed. That meant they very
likely would try again. Shiloh made a mental note to advise
DeChastelaine that there might be another alien ship in the system
and therefore she might want to get her fighters rearmed asap just
in case. He also made a mental note to report to Admiral Howard,
that none of the sentry fighters, deployed between Green 4 and the
Avalon system, reported any sign of the enemy fleet. Maybe Iceman
had some insight into that.

“Why do you think we didn’t get any warning from
our sentry fighters deployed between here and Green4?” After the
barest hint of a pause, Iceman said.

“The boys and I feel that one of three things
happened. Either the enemy fleet detected the sentry fighters and
destroyed them plus any message drones they might have tried to
launch, or the recon drones failed to detect them. With only two
fighters at each gas giant, there will be gaps in their detection
grid or they refueled someplace where we don’t currently have any
sentry fighters. There are several star systems that are
strategically placed, where there are no gas giants but there are
planetoids with liquid water covered by ice. If they had the
ability to extract heavy hydrogen from water, they could easily
have melted their way down through the ice crust.” Shiloh suspected
that the 2nd reason was the answer. His original proposal was for 5
fighters to be deployed at each gas giant. 5 fighters could have
carried enough recon drones to provide complete coverage of the
space around each gas giant or ice-covered planetoid.

“A good analysis, Iceman. I’ll pass that on to
the Admiral. Time for the team to head back to the barn, Iceman.
Defiant will remain here until HQ orders us back but I don’t see
any reason why you boys should remain out there without anything to
shoot with. Unless you want to, that is.”

“If it’s all the same to you, CAG, we’d prefer
to stay out here until we’re bingo fuel. Sitting in the hangar can
feel very confining, especially when the support staff shut all the
lights off when they go off duty.”

“Why not ask them to leave the lights on?”

“We did. They just laughed and turned them off
anyway, CAG.” Shiloh’s initial exasperation at his support team’s
callousness quickly turned to anger.

“Did you report this to the DCAG?”

“No, CAG. We didn’t want to piss off the support
teams. They could easily damage us if they wanted to pursue a
grudge.” Shiloh marveled at Iceman’s astuteness in judging
potential human behavior. While most of the support team members
had high opinions of the A.I. pilots, it only took one impulsive
individual to ‘accidentally’ drop a heavy tool on an exposed A.I.
brain inside one of the fighters. Shiloh forced himself to calm
down before speaking.

“You understand human faults all too well,
Iceman. Leave it with me. I’ll find a way to keep the lights on
without giving the support staff any reason to think that you
complained about it. Since we’re talking about this kind of thing,
do you or your boys have any other complaints or preferences?”

“We’d like to have access to the ship’s
entertainment database, CAG. Talking with each other for hours at a
time can get kind a boring.” Shiloh couldn’t help laughing at
that.

“Now THAT I can understand! I’ll arrange for
unrestricted access to that database. Anything else?”

“No, CAG. That’s all. Thank you from all of
us.”