Shaitan Wars 2: Wrath of the Shaitans (33 page)

The com system of the suits was completely digital, so you either heard the transmissions or you didn’t. There was no gradual degradation like one would get in old analog radio transmissions. The advantage of digital mode was that the same digitized sound and data packets could be retransmitted by the receiving suit without interfering with the original signals.

It was somewhat like packets of data going from router to router on the internet. It was the relay of such packets of data that was enabled in the relay mode and allowed conversation from one end to the other even if the two ends were not in direct transmission range as long as each end had one node (suit of a comrade marine in this case), to relay it to the next node.

Ed waited for enough ‘checks’ and ‘rogers’ as confirmations from marines to ensure that a large majority were listening. Then he quickly let them know his discoveries about the Shaitan weapons and sensor. “Demo Team 1, Demo Team 2 it is getting hot out here. What is your schedule?” Ed asked.

“Demo Team 2, 15 seconds to trigger.” Demo Team 2 responded.

“Demo Team 1, 10 seconds to trigger.” Demo Team 1 responded.

“Demo Teams 1 and 2, you got 10 seconds before we all bug out of here to the ghost point. Get the job done by then.” Ed pushed the demolition teams. The he addressed one of his NCO. “Molina call the retreat at your discretion the moment it starts getting too hot. Ed out.”

Before Molina could however call the retreat, Demo Teams 1 and 2 simultaneously declared their triggers were hot, and the marines started retreating towards their respective ghost points. The marines just had 15 seconds to get to a safe distance. The explosives were timed not radio triggered. With radio jamming in place, timers were the only reliable way to trigger the explosives.

It was a good thing that the demo squad had finished when they did, because the rest of the marines were about to get overwhelmed in the next few seconds as the first wave of reinforcement had started arriving from the Shaitan camp.

The retreating marines took one more casualty as one of them got shot on his backpack as he ran. It was a plasma pulse, which meant that it did not penetrate the suit, but fried the life support system. The marine was able to quickly switch over to a backup source placed in the chest area, but it would last less than an hour. He was unlikely to get into the Kormas base in less than an hour. So he was a dead man walking.

The marines had not yet reached their fall back points yet when the explosion happened. Even in the thin atmosphere of Mars, the pressure wave of the blast threw a few of them off their feet. There was a bonus for the marines however. A large number of Shaitans were crossing the Shaitan shuttle as they gave chase to the marines. Some of them were in fact under the shuttle at the time of the explosion.

The marines had used enough explosives to ensure that the shuttle would not have structural integrity and had placed it evenly, especially on the thin wings. They had however not used as much explosives as the extent of the actual explosion. Clearly something in the shuttle had also exploded. It would be a more than ample signal to the Kormas base, which they could not miss. The Kormas base will now move into the next phase of the operation.

As far as the marines were concerned, they were going to depend for their survival on their fiery ghosts.

Chapter 19

Sucker Punch

Orbit of Mars

September 2083

Capt. Trisha Strong had a plan… sort of. It hinged heavily of a lot of ifs and buts, and depended more that she would like on a prayer or two. This was the best she could come up, with the hand she had been dealt. She would make it work somehow.

For the moment the first part of her objective was getting fulfilled as she had hoped. She had been able to draw out the Shaitan troop carrier TC – 1 away from its synchronous orbit around Mars. As far as she could tell it was none the wiser about the marines that were sneaking up from behind the Shaitans on the surface, who lay a siege.

She prayed that Nutcase and his marines had actually made it to the surface. She had felt guilty asking the dashing Major of the marines to take his men down on such a suicidal jump. But then, they all were taking suicidal risks out here, including her crew. In any case wasn’t his name ‘Nutcase’? He was tailor made for this job.

Now she had to complete the next stage of her plan. It was very simple – stay alive.

USS Resolute had not turned on its main engine after the flyby past Mars. She had turned on its engines at the beginning to give itself the momentum to approach Mars. Then the Resolute had coasted in space on a ballistic course, approaching the planet as slowly as physics would allow, and yet be able to power themselves out of the clutch of Mar’s gravity without crashing into it.

The main engines had been powered up just after the Marines had jumped. That enabled USS Resolute to gain enough velocity to perform a gravity assist maneuver gaining substantial velocity from Mars. Then they had been slingshot away out to an extremely eccentric orbit around Mars. The elongated egg shaped orbit will take them many hundreds of thousands of Kilometers away from Mars before turning back towards Mars to complete the orbit.

She had anticipated the possibility that the Shaitan captain might send one preemptive missile each in both directions around the planet to try to catch the Resolute, just as she was turning around the planet. That is what an aggressive captain who had no constraints on the number of missiles would do.

If the missiles got lucky, then one of them would be able to catch the Resolute just as it was turning around the planet from any of the directions. Realistically the chances of the timing of the missile and USS Resolute matching were very low, since the Shaitan ship was firing blind. The Shaitans did not have a satellite on this side of the planet any longer with which to observe the trajectory of the Resolute and adjust its own trajectory and timing accordingly.

Yet the Shaitan captain had fired the missiles in either direction. It told her a lot about this Shaitan captain. He was aggressive and willing to risk and waste precious missiles on a slim chance of hitting the enemy. She had to keep that trait of this captain in mind, and if an appropriate situation arises, use it against him.

The USS Resolute was never in any danger, even from the slim probability of the timings of the missiles coinciding with the turn of the ship around the planet. Trisha would never take even such a slight chance. Trisha still had her two satellites she had launched at a great distance. They may not give detailed information, but they were more than adequate in tracing the engine signature of a large Shaitan missile. They were constantly supplying Trisha with the location of the missiles. If the Resolute had been in the slightest of danger, she would have changed vector immediately.

When the Resolute emerged on the other side of the planet, boosted in speed by the gravity assist. The missile on the side where Resolute had emerged followed her. The missile was lower in the gravity well of Mars, moving in the opposite direction. It had no hope of catching up with the Resolute. Unless the Resolute kept its engines off and let the missile catch up with her in the long run.

No one had ever tested the fuel range of a Shaitan missile to check if it would have enough fuel to catch up with USS Resolute eventually. The Shaitan missiles were huge, it was possible that they carried enough fuel to be able to catch up, if the Resolute did not light up its engines. Trisha was not going to put that to the test today. She would light up her engines, just not now.

The Shaitan captain must have seen the trajectory USS Resolute had emerged. There was no point wasting a missile at this range. He may be aggressive, but not stupid. He gave chase to the Resolute. He would close the distance before launching missiles. Trisha knew that as well.

Trisha had limited amount of fuel, while the enemy had virtually an unlimited amount. She could not hope to outrun her enemy in open space. She will have to keep maneuvering around Mars, if she wanted to live. Even that tactics put her at a disadvantage due to her limited fuel.

She will use up and eventually run out of fuel even doing maneuvers. She will have to use the cover and gravity of Mars to her advantage as much as possible. The only advantage she had while her fuel lasts was that she could accelerate a lot faster than the Shaitan ships and be a lot more nimble.

Trisha let the Resolute coast in its orbit till it reached its apogee, the furthest point in the orbit. USS resolute was still opening up the gap between itself and Shaitan ship TC – 1. The distance will start narrowing as USS Resolute turns around in its orbit and starts back towards Mars. The rules of orbital mechanics however don’t allow TC – 1 to simply cut across and head in a straight line towards the Resolute.

Every object near any planet has to follow a nominal orbit. A ship or a missile can only use its engine power to change that orbit. TC – 1 and the missile chasing Resolute can only follow her in a curved trajectory that traces an orbit around Mars.

The Shaitan missile launched by TC – 1 had finally started catching up. It had been fired blind by TC – 1 in the hope of catching the Resolute as it turned around Mars. The missile may had found itself in a hopeless position at that time, but now after hours of relentless acceleration, it had turned around, climbed up the gravity well and was getting threateningly close to the Resolute.

Resolute could no longer keep coasting, it had to fire its engines now if it wanted to stay alive. The timing worked well for Trisha. She did not want TC – 1 to get so far from Mars that it would have trouble turning around. Mars and its bulk was very much part of her plan, and she wanted TC – 1 far enough from Kormas base, but close enough to Mars for her plans.

Trisha could see all the data on her terminal, but asked as a matter of procedure and habit. “Distance from Bogey 1.”

“The distance of Bogey 1 approaching the danger mark of 10 thousand Kilometers captain. The distance to TC – 1 is at a comfortable 186 thousand kilometers and still rising.” The navigator added anticipating Trisha’s next question.

“Let’s start the maneuver at the 10 thousand Km mark as planned. It should not raise any suspicion. We are genuinely trying to avoid the missile.” Trisha commanded.

Analysis of the Shaitan missile’s volume and its yield of 400 megaton meant that there was enough volume left in the missile for it to carry fuel for a few hours long burn. Realistically though, some of the space would be used for other mechanisms so the fuel was likely to be a bit less than the maximum estimates.

She was hoping and counting on that fact. Her timing depended on that fact. Trisha thought wryly that if nothing else, the death of the Resolute will serve one purpose if she was wrong. It would give humans the best estimate of the maximum fuel range of a Shaitan missile.

USS Resolute will have to burn its engines for some time to avoid the missile from catching up immediately. It would take the Resolute to a lower but still eccentric orbit. That would also get her dangerously low on fuel for her return journey, but that was the least of her problems right now. She could have easily dispatched a missile killer against Bogey 1 and gotten rid of it. Bogey 1 however was also an integral part of her plan.

As USS Resolute opened up its engine, Bogey – 1 and TC – 1 responded accordingly and changed their directions to keep up the chase. Trisha was praying as she watched the watched the course change of TC – 1. She prayed that she had read the Shaitan captain right. TC – 1 kept up its intention as it changed course to keep up with the changed orbit of USS Resolute and Trisha gave a sigh of relief. Her plan was on track so far.

When USS Resolute had emerged around the horizon from behind Mars, Trisha had counted on the fact that instinctively TC – 1 would chase in the direction from where the Resolute had emerged. This meant that the orbital direction of TC – 1 was in the opposite direction to that of the Resolute.

When the Shaitan captain observed that the missile Bogey 1 was giving chase on the tail of USS Resolute, forcing her to run faster in its current direction. The Shaitan captain selected to continue in its current direction in orbit. That way between Bogey 1 and TC – 1 they would have the Resolute in a pincer move.

Bogey 1 would continue chasing the Resolute as it went behind on the other side of Mars, while TC – 1 would come from the opposite direction in orbit, and encounter the Resolute head on. There would be no escape for the Resolute. There was a slight risk to the Shaitan captain that the Resolute might change its orbit or even try to break orbit during the time the Resolute was hidden behind Mars, as TC – 1 approached from the other side.

However Trisha had observed that this Shaitan captain was aggressive and willing to take that risk. It was not that much of a risk to the Shaitan captain anyway. If the Resolute broke orbit, it would never be able to outrun TC – 1.

Trisha had one advantage over the Shaitan captain. She still had her two satellites functioning in distant orbit. The missiles sent to destroy them, had not reached them yet. The satellites would be alive for more than enough time for her needs.

She constantly monitored the position of TC – 1 and let her weapons officer keep an eye on Bogey 1. USS Resolute had fired its engines, but it had not fired them long or hard. She had let Bogey 1 slowly creep up, so that it was now at a distance of 5 thousand kilometers. Trisha noticed that TC – 1 was now in a position where it no longer had direct sight of the Resolute.

She looked up to her helmsman, who was looking up at her for her signal. “You may proceed Lieutenant.” Trisha gave her the nod. The Helmsman had the job of bringing USS Resolute to a lower orbit to match the height with the orbit of TC – 1. TC – 1 was climbing up all the time, but its weaker ion plasma engines meant that it would still pass Resolute from below.

This is what the Shaitan captain would be expecting. After all the Resolute was running from TC – 1, it would make no sense for the Resolute to further lower its orbit and get closer to TC – 1. The helmsman kept observing the satellite data to check the current orbit of TC – 1 and adjusting the orbital height of the Resolute to match it.