Shaitan Wars 2: Wrath of the Shaitans (29 page)

Human missiles were dying for sure, but the speed at which the gap was closing meant that not enough missile killer could be fired in time. A few were also killed by the laser, despite the AWPS system, but very few. Just about 5% were killed by laser. The AWPS protected the rest.

The missile killers however were very effective. They got their target almost all of the time. The Shaitan warships did not just have more missile tubes, the tubes had a much faster reload time than the troop carrier ship they had encountered over Titan.

It was partly because the Shaitan ship over Titan had been undermanned, and was hence slow in the fight, and partly because these warships had better specification and larger reloading machines. The warships did not constrain their war machinery for space considerations. War was the sole purpose, so they used all the space available for war machinery. The troop carriers were optimized for cargo and living space.

However fast the missile launchers may be, there was not going to be enough time to get all of the human missiles. The ship that was closest to the Third Fleet had the least amount of time before the missiles reached it. 19 human missiles were able to reach the ships. It had so many holes in its hull by the end that the force of the last two blast broke the ship into three parts.

The second ship got hit by 15 human missiles. It did not break cleanly into two pieces, but the aft part of the ships was completely blown into pieces and several large pieces floated away. The ship was completely dead.

The last ship, which had been the furthest from the Third Fleet had had the time to launch an extra round of missile killers and that made a lot of difference. Only 5 of the missiles were able to get through. The ship looked like Swiss cheese with five gaping holes in its hull, but the overall frame of the ship was intact. The ship looked dead, but there was no guarantee of that. The Shaitan ship over Titan had been able to revive itself partially after 4 hits, and these warships were tougher.

Fabi would have been thankful that he had decided to increase the number of missiles on each ship from the original estimate of 80 to 120. If he had stuck to the figure of 80, none of the ships would have been hit by a single missile. Fabi however did not have the time to notice or think over these matters. Dramatic events of life and death were playing out on the side of the Third Fleet.

The tactic of sending multiple missile killers at the same time was working. Gerald’s estimate of 5 at a time had turned out to be an overkill. Three would have done fine. The Shaitan missile could not kill more than one at a time. Even if it was because the Shaitan missile carried only two antimissiles, three would have been fine. Gerald however was not worried, and had not reprogrammed the attack. They had plenty of antimissiles. It was better to be safe with an overkill.

There was however a problem. A serious problem. USS Nautilus had fired its missile killers in a bunch of 5 first and had been able to kill all three of its targets assigned as first priority. The other ships of the fleet had done so a few seconds later. The Endurance had in fact taken 20 seconds to do it. This meant that after the Nautilus had destroyed its target missiles, the remaining 9 Shaitan missiles had plenty of time to reassess and reevaluate the situation.

They evaluated that the probability of getting past a bunch of 5 missile killers attacking simultaneously was next to zero. The only way they could increase their chances of reaching at least one target was if all 9 of the missiles attacked one ship. They chose the most obvious target, the ship which had not yet launched a bunched antimissile attack – USS Endurance.

The Third Fleet was flying in a square formation, with each ship being a corner of the square. The ships were separated such that the sides of the square were 50 Km each. This was the minimum distance they could keep and yet have enough leeway for maneuvers by individual ships. Otherwise two ships might come too close to each other.

It was not collision with each other that they were scared of. The probability of that happening is very low. If the ships got too close to each other, say 12 Km, then a missile exploding in between them would damage or even kill both the ships. The monster Shaitan missiles had a yield of 400 megaton. As USS Friendship had found out the hard way over Titan, a Shaitan bomb exploding at 6 Km distance would fry all the electronics and leave the ship dead in space.

That formation with 50 Km separation between each ship presented a problem when all the 9 Shaitan missiles turned towards USS Endurance. It is a lot easier for a missile killer to hit a missile when it is coming head on. The incoming missile cannot move sideways, so the disc of pellets spread in front of the incoming missile killer has a higher probability of being hit.

When you try to target a missile that is not coming head on, but moving at an angle targeting some other ship, then the incoming missile is moving sideways from the perspective of the missile killer even as it is approaching closer. The disc of pellets spread by the missile killer is that much more likely to be missed depending on how large is the angle of approach.

There are only two ways to try to maximize the probability of a hit in such cases of angled approach. First is to detonate as close to the incoming missile as possible. This will minimize the sideways drift of the incoming missile. Unfortunately the human missile killers were already timed as finely as they dared. Cutting it any close would risk the missile killers exploding after the incoming missile had passed the missile killer.

The second way is to increase the area of the disc by making a stronger blast. The downside of this strategy is that the disc will be less dense causing lesser damage, which may enable the incoming missile to survive.

The only human ship which had a direct head on perspective to the incoming Shaitan missiles was USS Endurance. The missile killers from all the other ships of the Third Fleet were approaching the Shaitan missiles at an angle. The angle was larger for the ship diametrically opposite in formation to the Endurance – USS Nautilus.

The missile killers from the other ships did manage to destroy two of the incoming Shaitan missiles and probably caused damage in a few more, but it missed and let through most of the Shaitan missiles. The only ship whose missile killers were effective was USS Endurance itself.

The programming bunched up 5 missile killers at a time to attack a Shaitan missile. In hindsight it was not just an overkill, it was the reason for the doom of USS Endurance. There was no time to change the programming, so the computers kept bunching 5 missiles together before it proceeded to attack a Shaitan missile.

The missile ejector technology was fast. It could deploy missiles much faster than the old launch tube technology. But it was not fast enough. The endurance had been able to pump out 30 missiles and destroy 6 of the Shaitan missiles. By the time the next 5 missiles were bunched up and raced towards the last incoming Shaitan missile, it had already reached too close.

The last Shaitan missile was intercepted and destroyed at about 3.5 kilometers. The Shaitan missile exploded as designed sending out radiation, heat and hot plasma racing in all directions. The radiation reached USS Endurance at light speed. The radiation shielding of the ship, meant to shield against cosmic rays, was no match for the hard radiation of the blast.

The amount of radiation the crew absorbed meant that they were all dead men. However the crew were saved the agony of a slow painful death. The hot plasma reached the ship behind the radiation. It was hot enough to melt large holes on the hull. The side of the ship facing the blast looked like a Jaipur window grill with many round openings.

The heat and the plasma was able to enter the ship and raise the temperature of the atmosphere inside the ship to a few hundred degree centigrade. The large holes on the side of the ship, which had been the reason for the destruction of the ship, also saved the ship from further damage. The atmosphere vented out of those holes almost instantly preventing any further damage.

Nuclear explosions in space are an anticlimactic event. There is no atmosphere to heat or burn. No pressure wave as a result. No debris around to be flung at supersonic speeds. There is just a brilliant flash for a second or two and then everything becomes dark again. So there was no further damage meted out to USS Endurance, but it was already dead in space.

“Cease acceleration. Triangular pattern around the Endurance. 2 Kilometer separation.” Fabi shouted over his flag channel for all the three remaining captains to hear. USS Endurance had gone dead, so it was no longer accelerating. It was coasting at the same speed and direction before the engines died. The rest of the fleet had to cut their engines if the wanted to stay with the Endurance.

The triangular pattern parameter option was chosen by the helmsman on each ship and the parameters were fed – what object to center the pattern around and at what distance. Once this was done, the computers of the three ships talked to each other and calculated the required thrusts to come to the mutually agreed position.

While the computers were performing their programmed task of positioning the ships, the crews of the ship tried against any hope to contact the Endurance. Even if anyone was miraculously alive on that ship, none of the electronics could have survived for them to communicate. That didn’t stop the crew of the three ships from hoping and trying to contact the Endurance.

Fabi knew it was heartless to turn his attention away immediately from the search and rescue effort, but he had larger burdens on his shoulders. There were enough capable and trained people in the fleet for the S&R efforts anyway, who knew their job. Right now Fabi had to do his job – worry about the other part of the Shaitan fleet that was behind them.

He had to observe the reaction and response of the surviving Shaitan fleet, and draw out an appropriate plan. And he needed the military mind of Gerald on this, along with his full attention on the surviving enemy fleet. So Fabi opened a conference channel with all the three captains.

It took many seconds for the captains to tear their attention from the visual images of the Endurance as the three ships were approaching the doomed vessel. While one side of the ship was completely devastated, the opposite side was completely untouched and shiny new. The blast had imparted a tumble and spin to the dead Endurance, so every part of the vessel was coming into view by rotation.

“Captains, lets pray for the safety of the crew of Endurance. I don’t need to emphasize the importance of speed in our search and rescue operation. We have an enemy fleet behind us. If they decide to avenge their ships that we killed, then we may be forced to abandon any crew still alive on Endurance to their death. So we need to get this over with before the surviving enemy fleet can arrive here.” Fabi opened the conference.

“Understood Admiral, the Endurance is tumbling and spinning at a fair clip. S&R may be a tricky. I suggest that we cut corners on the safety protocol to get the job done faster… with your approval and concurrence of course.” Capt. Dar added quickly. Captain Hamid Dar was from India and the captain of the Shiva. Capt. Dar was the hot head of the navy. Shiva, named after the Hindu god of destruction had a suitably apt hot headed captain.

Capt. Dar had been given the command of a coveted Nautilus class ship despite his impulsiveness because he was otherwise one of the best captains. In many ways he was the polar opposite of Capt. Shannon of the Nautilus. Gerald was erudite, with deep knowledge of battle history, which made him a master strategist.

Hamid did not care much about past battles. According to him, every battle situation was unique and one must not burden oneself with what worked in the past, the same situation is not likely to repeat again. He spoiled to get into a fight and figure out what to do once he was into it. The only reason he was able to pull it off was because he was a brilliant but instinctive tactician.

Gerald had a healthy respect for process and procedures and tried to do things as far as possible by the book, though he was not a bureaucrat by any stretch of imagination. He would do whatever was needed if the situation so demanded. Hamid on the other hand was rebellious by nature and avoided processes whenever he got the chance to do so.

Fabi smiled at the Hamid’s hasty attempt at being politically correct. Daniel’s efforts and long talks with Hamid, trying to make a disciplined military man out of him were paying efforts he guessed. Fabi however was a different kind of a leader. He never tried to tame the wild instincts of a soldier. He harnessed and channeled it instead.

“Yes Capt. Dar, I concur with your assessment. Which is why you are the ideal person to lead the S&R efforts. You have my nod for any way you can speed up the S&R efforts, as long as a single crew member does not die or get injured.” Fabi smiled as he replied. That was the appropriate use of an inveterate risk taker in a situation that demanded risk taking. They really did not have much time if the other Shaitan fleet decided to attack.

It also left his best strategizing captain free for planning the next phase of the battle. “Capt. Dar, please be so kind as to give me a situation report every 15 minutes and coordinate with the XO of Nautilus for anything you require from her. I am going to keep Capt. Shannon busy for some time. Capt. Shannon, if you could please come to the flag bridge. Thanks captains. That will be all and best of luck with the S&R effort. Let’s pray once again for the safety of the crew of Endurance once more.” Fabi concluded the conference.

As Gerald entered the flag bridge, Fabi said. “I know Tom is a good friend and you are anxious to hear about him and the crew of Endurance, but the S&R is in good hands. We have work to do that cannot wait.” Fabi pointed to the screen on the wall, which displayed the position of the remaining Shaitan Fleet. Gerald nodded, which could be made out through this thin suit, unlike the thick suits.

“It has been over five minutes that Shaitan admiral of the fleet would have seen the fate of the other half of their fleet from Beta Shaitan, they would have also noticed that we have stopped accelerating and rightly concluded that at least one of our ships is wounded. My staff has been continuously watching the Shaitan fleet since then, there has been no reaction from them so far.”