Shaitan Wars 2: Wrath of the Shaitans (34 page)

Bogey 1 was now getting uncomfortably close. It was now at a distance of less than 2000 kilometers. This was going to be an incredibly complex timing, Trisha knew that. There were too many moving parts, and too many things that could go wrong in their calculations, but her plan needed the fine timing. She nervously asked her navigator something she could have easily seen on her own terminal. “Time to release of the sucker punch?”

“6 minutes approximately captain, assuming TC – 1 and Bogey 1 stay on trajectory. The probability of getting the timing right is still very low. Bogey 1 could change its trajectory at any time if TC – 1 is still controlling it, which is very likely. A small change by Bogey 1 even in the last minute could throw our timing off. I am not too worried about TC – 1 maneuvering, it accelerates too slowly to be of consequence.” The navigator replied.

The navigator was stating the obvious. Trisha was painfully aware of the weakest link in her plans. She had secretly hoped for a miracle, but it had not been delivered. She decided to send a nasty note to the guy upstairs for not helping her out in her hour of need, if she came out of this alive that is. If she didn’t come out of this alive, then she will deliver the message personally to Him.

The weapons officer looked up and said to Trisha asking for permission. “Sucker punch release due in 30 seconds.”

“Go ahead with the release of the sucker punch.” Replied Trisha grimly but with determination. So be it, if she is not going to get her miracle, she will take her chances.

TC – 1 and USS Resolute were now directly in the line of sight, approaching each other from opposite sides in the same orbit. It was improbable that they would collide with each other, but they would pass very close to each other – less than a kilometer apart. Collision was the last thing that was on Trisha’s mind, there were far scarier deaths that she would have to avoid in the next minutes.

Trisha could see the tension on the crew’s face. They were scared, although they did not show it on the outside. It was natural. Trisha herself had to control her hands from shaking due to nervousness. They were going to put their head into the lion’s mouth. There was no point pretending to be brave, for this was insane, and she had not received the break she had wanted.

Then the miracle happened!

“Captain, Bogey 1 slowing down! Its engine burn has reduced significantly! I think it has finally run out of fuel!” The navigator shouted.

Trisha was too scared to believe it, just in case it turned out to be false. “Are you sure that is the case? Are you sure it is not just changing direction or putting some distance between us? Maybe TC – 1 commanded Bogey 1 to lay off till we crossed?”

“Negative captain. The engine burn is sputtering. It has not changed direction at all…” he paused before shouting out again “Captain! The Bogey 1 engines are completely dead now!”

“That is a good omen people, we got luck on our side. Let us keep our eyes on the ball now. Lieutenant you are weapons free, engage the firing pattern.” Trisha had now found her voice. She already felt better, although she was going into the most dangerous phase of her plan.

A Resolute class vessel normally carried a complement of 40 nuclear missiles and 20 missile killers in its holds. This mission however was of a different nature for USS Resolute. It was here to harass and not kill. The Resolute could not have pumped enough volume of missiles with its four tubes to overwhelm TC – 1’s point defense anyway. To harass however, the Resolute needed to stay alive herself.

So the missile composition had been changed for this mission. USS Resolute carried only 10 nukes. The mass freed up by 30 nukes was taken up by 60 additional missile killers, since the missile killers weighed roughly half of a nuke. So USS Resolute carried a total of 80 antimissiles.

The Resolute however opened up with its nukes, firing two rounds of four each. She kept just two nukes in the reserve. The nukes were not expected to hit the TC – 1, but to keep its missile tubes busy for a few rounds firing its own missile killers. If TC – 1 was busy killing missiles aimed at it, then that meant it was not firing missiles at the Resolute. The nukes were for defense rather than offense.

Once the 8 nukes had been fired, the tubes of Resolute got busy firing its cache of missile killers. TC – 1 had fired one round of four missiles. The firing rate of the Resolute was slightly faster than TC – 1. Just before the Resolute fired its first round of missile killers, TC – 1 fired its second round of nukes. So now there were human nukes headed towards TC – 1, and conversely there were 8 Shaitan nukes headed towards the Resolute.

The Resolute kept pumping out missile killers now. The second round of human missile killers followed the first round. Human missile killers had improved and had been designed specifically to take out a Shaitan missile. Resolute had been retrofitted with a quantum computer. The quantum computers had come into service after USS Resolute had been commissioned, but it gave such an advantage that all older vessels had been upgraded. The quantum computers played a critical part in making the missile killers more effective.

Resolute was launching missile killers as fast as it could reload them into the tubes. The missile killers were not aimed at any particular missile. They were controlled by the quantum computer onboard the Resolute. It would assign the closest target it could find. The job of the weapons officer was to pump out enough volume of missile killers, so that there was always one available to the computer to target any approaching Shaitan missile.

TC – 1 had also stopped firing nukes after two rounds. It was now using its four tubes to fire its own antimissiles. Shaitan targeting was deadly accurate. It was very likely that two rounds of antimissiles would take out the two rounds of human nukes. Still it kept the tubes busy for two rounds, and that was 8 less nukes heading in the direction of the Resolute. Once the 8 human nukes had been destroyed, TC – 1 resumed firing nukes.

All the Shaitan nukes had been shot down so far by the human missile killers. Some of the missile killers had missed, but the backup antimissiles had taken the nukes out. Now as the two ships closed in the 100 Km mark, they were entering a zone where it would become a game of chicken for the two captains.

If TC – 1 launched any more missiles, there was a risk that a human antimissile might take it out close to TC – 1 itself. There was a thick volume of human antimissiles in the space between the ships waiting for launch of more nukes out of TC – 1. The Shaitan captain did the sensible thing and stopped firing any more nukes. He would wait till the two ships crossed each other before resuming.

“Captain, we are crossing TC -1 now! Computers are in control of the sucker punch and reports the trajectory of Bogey 1 as nominal!” There was excitement in the voice of the weapons officer. He had the sound of a prize fighter who had taken his share of the blows covering his face, and now it was his turn to throw a punch.

It would not be known for many generations till the humans cracked the Shaitan archives in their home world, whether the Shaitan captain of TC – 1 had forgotten about Bogey 1 or simply ignored it as unimportant. The captain of USS Resolute however would from that day on be known as Trisha ‘Sucker Punch’ Strong, and the battle over Mars would become the stuff that legends were made of. It would spawn as many urban legends as case studies in military colleges. Informally this battle would be called the ‘Sucker Punch’ battle.

The moment Bogey 1 had exhausted its fuel, USS Resolute had let it drift closer to itself… very close, just 8 Km. Now as the USS Resolute went past TC – 1 barely 800 meters on top of it, three missiles came into view of TC – 1, all drifting towards it. Since they were all trailing behind the Resolute in the same orbit, all of them would pass over TC – 1 at a distance of 800 meters.

TC – 1’s undoing was the fact that the Shaitan captain took several seconds to either realize the danger or to take a decision. By then it was too late. Even then the decision the Shaitan captain took was the wrong one. TC – 1’s missile tubes were loaded with nukes, he fired those nukes to free up his tubes and load missile killers. The fired nukes were targeted at USS Resolute.

As the Resolute passed over TC – 1, Bogey 1 came into view trailing 8 Km in front of TC – 1, closing the distance fast. Drifting just 2 Km behind the Bogey 1 were two human missile killing missiles, which had been released long time ago, before TC – 1 became visible over the horizon – the sucker punch missiles. They were drifting unpowered and dark. They now came to life and powered up their engines full throttle.

The missile killers had been timed to power up reach Bogey 1 at almost the same instant as Bogey 1 would be passing over TC – 1. In the end, the timing was almost perfect – not perfect but good enough. The two sucker punch missiles raced to cover the 2 Km distance and managed to reach Bogey 1 and destroy it while it was still a few hundred meters ahead and 800 meters overhead of TC – 1. The exact distance from TC – 1 was 1.1 km.

This time the dead man’s switch mechanism of the Shaitan nukes was used against them. The dead man’s switch by design was supposed to work on any failure in the missile, like being hit by an antimissile. There was no way to remotely disable a dead man’s switch. That would defeat the purpose of a dead man’s switch.

The four hundred megaton bomb exploded just 1.1 Km from TC – 1. The Resolute had turned on its own engines full throttle the moment it had crossed TC – 1, so it had managed to gain another 2 Km separation from Bogey 1. It was at a relatively safe distance of 10 km. It did suffer EMP glitches all across its instruments, but no permanent damage.

The effect on TC – 1 however was devastating. The bow of the ship had melted and mangled. The top hull of the ship had also suffered damage. There was a gaping hole where the bow of the ship used to be. For the first time in their fight with the Shaitans, humans saw secondary explosions on a Shaitan ship as things caught fire inside.

Human missiles, puny in yield in comparison to the Shaitan missiles managed to only damage the hulls and equipment next to those hulls. They did not cause devastation deep inside to create secondary explosions. The monster Shaitan missile was another story altogether.

The crew inside the bridge of the Resolute had just started cheering when the sensor operator shouted at the top of his voice. “Four Shaitan nukes turning around and starting the chase towards the Resolute!”

All of them had forgotten about the last salvo of missiles that TC – 1 had fired in its last act of desperation. The bridge quietened immediately as everyone scrambled to their stations. Trisha shouted her command. “Stay on full throttle and on current course. Don’t bother about fuel consumption right now. Weapons, are we at antimissile launch distance?”

“The Shaitan nukes are within the range of our antimissiles captain, but I wouldn’t recommend launching them yet.” It was the XO of the ship Lt. Hugo Choi, who spoke over the general channel from the other end of the ship.

“Why is that XO?” asked Trisha.

“I hate to sound like a bean counter captain, but I just want to draw you attention to the weapons’ inventory on your terminal. We are on our last four antimissiles.” Choi said sheepishly.

“Thanks for pointing that out XO.” Trisha said and then turned to her weapons officer. “The missiles are faster than us, let them catch up with us. Program the missile killers for contact with the nukes at the 15 Km point rather than the optimum 12 Km. point. After launch, load the remaining two nukes in the tubes 1 and 2. Program the nukes as antimissiles, just in case any of the last 4 antimissiles fails to destroy its target.”

It was a good precaution, because one of the antimissiles failed to destroy one of the Shaitan nukes, so they had to use one of their nukes to destroy it at the 8 Km mark. This was the first time a human nuke had been used to destroy a Shaitan nuke, and the targeting had been especially good, with the human nuclear missile exploding within 10 meters of the Shaitan missile.

The humans discovered one more trick by serendipity. The Shaitan nuke’s dead man’s switch failed to trigger as the entire Shaitan missile evaporated. This data would be sent back to command headquarters. It was important. It may have been due to the exceptional targeting. It may not be possible to prevent a Shaitan nuke from exploding every time, especially if the targeting was not this good. And the cure was only slightly better than the disease. A 2.1 megaton nuke is better than a 400 megaton one, but it is still a nuclear explosion.

Trisha ordered a high orbit over Mars to check the progress of the Marines. The Shaitans below may have ground to space missiles. They had no more defensive missiles left except the last nuke, so Trisha didn’t want to take any chances. In this current orbit, it will be 6 more hours before they came on top of the Kormas base. They would have to wait to see how things were progressing on the surface, but the crew needed a break after a life and death fight for so many hours.

They were now very low on fuel after the battle. They were stuck here on Mars for some time, since they didn’t have enough fuel to make it back to Earth in a reasonable time frame, but they had won the battle against all odds. True celebrations aboard USS Resolute began now.

Students of military history would be taught in later generations that the Shaitan captain made many mistakes which led to the defeat of a Shaitan ship superior on paper than USS Resolute. First he did not anticipate the danger Bogey 1 floating without power behind USS Resolute posed. If he had done so, he could have moved out of the way before the battle even began.

Second the Shaitan captain hesitated a few seconds after the resolute crossed TC – 1, which made all the difference between life and death. He had managed to load and fire his missile killers, but by that time Bogey 1 had already reached too close.

Third was that the antimissile he managed to launch in the last few seconds were not given a specific target amongst the three missiles in front of it. It was left to the default automated program on the antimissile (although some argued that it was not the Shaitan captains fault, there wasn’t enough time). The antimissiles initially rushed towards Bogey 1 as the biggest target, and on getting a friendly beacon then turned towards the human antimissiles, but that delay meant it was never able to reach those two sucker punch missiles in time.