The Spindle Station: Book 2 of the Alliance Conflict (44 page)

…The carrier fired 36 missiles from each side, 72 total. Time to impact is 4 minutes. However, this volley’s damage should be negligible…

Solear said, “Display the missile paths on my workstation.” Solear would have preferred to review them on the main monitor, but he needed to stay at the navigation station.

…Displayed…

Solear quickly understood why the computer said the carrier’s volley wasn’t an issue. Half of the carrier’s missiles were pointed into the dust cloud. They became confused and exploded. The 36 remaining missiles would have to chase the
Sunflower
for 4 minutes to catch it, meaning that all of the defensive missiles would be concentrated in one small area directly behind the ship.

The
Sunflower
had already fired 30 defensive missiles. Based on the extreme angle the enemy’s missiles had to take, these 30 should be able to stop all of the on-coming missiles.

Therefore, they had 7 minutes until they were threatened by the next enemy volley and 4 minutes until they needed to fire another defensive missile. Solear made a quick calculation – at 4 volleys per minute the Sunflower could fire offensive missiles 16 straight times.

Solear said, “Lexxi, change of ordinance plans for the next 7 minutes, fire 14 straight volleys of shield buster missiles, followed by 2 rounds of ship busters. Then fire defensive missiles the next 12 times.”

Solear made a small course correction so that the ship’s missile launchers directly faced the enemy carrier. Now, his offensive missiles were on a least time, straight line course. Solear hoped that the command carrier would panic when they recognized that there were 80 offensive missiles headed toward them and shoot 72 defensive missiles in its next volley.

Solear smiled at the thought. If the command carrier stayed defensive, then they couldn’t launch another volley at the
Sunflower
for another 6 minutes. However, once they rounded the Spindle Station, the missile travel times were going to drastically reduce and the carrier was going to be in a much better firing position.

He needed to ensure that didn’t happen. Solear hated to do this immediately after changing the standing order a second ago, but he said, “Lexxi, make another change, fire only offensive missiles for the next 7 minutes– 14 shield, 2 ship, 10 shield, 2 ship.”

He said, “Putat, what is the landing team’s status?”

“They received permission to land and the station doors are open. They will be landing in the next minute,” Putat responded.

Solear asked, “Can you contact the transport without the Hiriculans discovering the communication?”

Putat said, “Yes captain. Provided we send a one-way communication burst no more than a word or two. And it has to be quick.”

Solear responded, “Contact the transport and tell them 12 outside, 6 inside.”

Solear had a free minute. He turned to Clowy and asked, “How is the fighter battle going?”

Chapter 20

Jim Donovan felt calm and completely relaxed despite the fact that he was hurtling through space in a tiny fighter at .14 light. First squadron had almost reached the edge of the fighter wing surrounding the command carrier. Jim ordered the squadron to slow down to .08 light and assume the box formation

Jim queried whether the computer had obtained an accurate count of the on-coming fighters. The flight computer whispered 160 in his brain. He was able to see the outline of 80 fighters swarming toward his squadron.

The enemy had split its fighters evenly into two groups; one directed at Alpha squadron and the other pointed directly at First squadron. However, that seemed to be all of the oversight that was given to the organization of the enemy fighters. They didn’t seem to be flying in any particular formation or to any particular destination. They split into 52 separate groups of three and 2 groups of two. Each sub-group started acting independently.

It really didn’t matter though. Even if the enemy wasn’t interested in performing complex maneuvers, they still outnumbered the Alliance fighters by a margin of 4 to 1. The enemy’s lack of a battle plan frustrated Jim.

Normally, the enemy would fly in a large line formation and attempt to perform their patented under and over tactic in a large group. The two Alliance squadrons were well trained in countering the over/under maneuver and could deal massive losses to the enemy in one pass. However, in this particular battle the enemy was not going to be so obliging.

Jim opened a direct line to the other fighters and said, “Break formation, groups of two, operate independently.” He paused for a second and added, “good hunting men.”

Jim felt Blaze just above him and let his wingman take the lead. Blaze banked hard to the left, swooped up and caught two enemy fighters from behind. Jim fired a single missile and killed the third. Suddenly, three enemy fighters formed a single file line and flew straight toward Blaze.

Jim immediately knew that these three were going to try their loop maneuver. Jim sent a single click to Blaze; their code for the loop counter move. Jim sped up a little until he was directly behind Blaze. At the last moment, Jim fell back and Blaze sped up. Blaze killed the fighter directly in front of him and Jim fired two missiles and killed the two enemy fighters – one that was looping from above and the second looping from below.

Jim felt the presence of three fighters directly behind a second before they fired. Jim rolled left, Blaze right. Ace flew by and shot both missiles targeting Jim and Ace’s wing mate Rush shot the remaining missile targeting Blaze.

Jim finished his loop and fired 3 dummy missiles. All three struck and killed the enemy fighters. He scanned his navigational panel and noticed that the four of them had broken through the enemy’s screen. They all had a clear path to the command carrier.

Jim looked and found that there 80 missiles inbound, 16 sets of 5 missiles spaced 15 seconds apart. The first few wave was about to strike the carrier. Perfect.

Jim contacted the other three pilots and said, “We are free of the swarm for a minute. Let’s make a single pass at the command carrier.”

Jim verified that there were no fighters pursuing him. He set his shields to maximum power forward and dove at the carrier. The defensive fire was tremendous. He dodged left, then a hard left, then spun in a hard 430 degree loop and dodged back right. He couldn’t avoid all of the in-coming fire and he was hit by a defensive laser. His shields stopped the laser bolt, but now they were shuttering and about to fail. Jim pulled out of his attack run and let his shield deflectors regenerate.

Jim noted that Blaze and Rush were also hit and had to stop their attack runs. Ace made it through the carrier’s defensives and fired three shield busters and his homing beacon. He turned up and away from the carrier. It was too big to fly around. Ace’s homing beacon landed beside a relatively non-critical area of the ship.

The enemy command carrier fired 72 defensive missiles. The immediately formed a defensive barrier and confused and ultimately destroyed the first 55 attacking missiles.

Jim said to himself, “Let’s even the odds” and programmed the remaining 25 missiles to lock onto Ace’s homing beacon. The defensive laser fire was still very high and was ultimately able to target and destroy 5 additional missiles.

The net effect was that 5 waves of 4 missiles each slammed into the side of the command carrier. The first wave knocked out the shield deflectors in the area. The second wave widened the area no longer covered by the shields and prevented them from repairing.

The third set slammed directly into the hull. The carrier’s hull withstood the first 4 strikes, but the final shield buster missile penetrated the outer hull. Fifteen seconds later the third wave hit. These were ship buster missiles. They tore a very, very large hole in the outer hull and pierced the inner hull. That section of the carrier was now exposed to space.

The next two ship buster missiles exploded in order, destroying the interior of the ship and severely damaging the inner hull on the opposite side of the ship. The fourth missile in that volley flew straight through the now missing interior of the ship and exploded between the inner and outer hulls respectively. One could now look directly through the ship and see the other side.

The final ship buster missile entered the hole, veered slightly left, and exploded. The explosion blew an entire section of the outer hull off of the ship. The large hull plate started spinning on its axis and headed toward the station. Jim fired a fighter-to-fighter missile at the plate and succeeded in creating a hole near the edge. Jim left the thing to drift on its own accord.

Although the internal damage was massive, it was contained in a one-quarter section. The explosion had blown out in both directions. They hadn’t hit power generation or any other system. The carrier could no longer jump into hyperspace, but it was certainly still able to fight.

Jim rolled left just as he felt three enemy fighters looping in behind him. Blaze made a corkscrew turn and killed all three of them. Blaze dodged two of the oncoming missiles, but the third struck his fighter in a sidelong glancing blow.

Jim contacted him and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Blaze replied, “That one shook me up a little, but I’m good.”

Jim suddenly saw that the First squadron #17 identification icon disappeared. Jolly is dead, Jim thought. Jolly received his nicknamed because he was heavy set, had dark hair and features, and loved to laugh. His wing mate was his exact opposite, short, thin, and blond haired. The group had forced him to take the nickname Green Bean to match.

Jim was about to reassign Green Bean when he received a priority hail from the marines routed through the
Sunflower
. Paul said, “Jim, we need a pilot for the transport.”

Jim realized exactly what Paul was saying. The area was still crowded with enemy fighters. They had killed scores of them, but they had spread out everywhere. An Alliance transport launching from the station would make a prime target. They needed their best pilot to safely transport the Admiral and his staff to the
Guardian
and Paul didn’t want to entrust the task to Ella.

Jim opened a channel to Ace, Rush and Green Bean and said, “Green Bean, form up with Rush. Ace, Captain Solear wants to talk to you.”

Solear checked that he was broadcasting and said, “Ace, we need your expert piloting skills again. Please proceed immediately to the space station and land at the transport dock. There will be an Alliance shuttle sitting there. Prep it for immediate departure and wait for Admiral Dolen and his staff to board. Then fly them to the
Guardian
.”

Ace asked, “Do I get to pass go?”

Solear realized that he was faced with what must be another Earth colloquium. He didn’t know how to respond, so he whispered, “Computer, applicable responses.”

…72.3%. This isn’t a ride on the B&O…

…69.2%. No. You are landing on boardwalk and I own it…

Solear thought both answers seemed nonsensical, but he noted that they seemed negative. He responded, “No. Do not pass go. Fly directly there, time is of the essence.”

Ace responded, “Understood, proceeding to the station” and broke the communication with the
Sunflower
. He reestablished squadron communication and asked, “How am I supposed to get the Hiriculans to open the doors to the landing shuttle area?”

Rush replied, “Just flash your pearly whites at them and ask real nice.”

“Seriously.”

“I am sure the greatest fighter pilot in human history can think of something.”

Jim was smiling at the exchange when Rush stated, “They are launching more fighters.”

Jim checked his scanner. Rush was correct. There must have been a reserve of 80 fighters on the command carrier. They were launching from all four hangar bays as rapidly as possible.

The enemy was losing the fighter battle badly despite their unorthodox formation, or technically their entire lack of a formation. Jim queried the flight navigation system and noted that there were only 30 of the original 160 enemy fighters still flying. These 30 had spread out away from the battle and were making little to no effort to engage the Alliance fighters.

Jim took a deep breath and prepared himself for round two.

………………..

Majestic Admiral Fruid’la was sipping gungberry juice
*
at a one of the finest restaurants in the Spindle Station. He had a prominent table just outside of the cafe in the main X corridor. The section was cordoned off with low powered lasers to show that it was still part of the restaurant.

Fruid’la chose this particular location because he could see beings passing by and more importantly everyone else could see him. He tried very hard to look calm and give an aura of power and control. He wanted everyone to know he was in charge.

Fruid’la was seated across from Plot’ko, the station commander. Fruid’la conspicuously looked at the time on his communication pad and magnanimously said, “Only 40 more minutes and you can be rid of the Alliance prisoners and have your station back.”

The passenger cargo fleet was due to arrive in 40 minutes. Fruid’la had taken a shuttle from the command carrier to the station an hour earlier. The reason for his visit to the station was to personally oversee the prisoner transfer.

More precisely, his real reason for being here was to be seen and heard. He wanted to remind everyone, citizen and military member alike, that he had been responsible for the capture of the Alliance fleet. Today was his day and this was going to be his finest hour.

The Admiral opened his com pad and said, “Computer, connect me to my command carrier, the
Retribution
.”

Plot’ko stared at the admiral. Technically, the call should have been placed through the station’s traffic control department. However, Fruid’la used his authority to override the civilian chain of command.