The Synchronicity War Part 3 (11 page)

"It's like trying to remotely pilot six raiders at the
same time, CAG, but I don't regret volunteering for this."

"Dreadnought, you are cleared to jump to Jupiter at
your discretion," said Shiloh in what he hoped was his best 'command'
voice.

"Dreadnought acknowledges."

The microjump occurred so quickly that it took Shiloh by
surprise. Once again all three ships did the same thing at the same time.
Clearly Iceman, Valkyrie and Reforger's A.I. pilot were coordinating actions.
Before Shiloh had a chance to say anything, the display's Combat status
indicator changed from a green Stand Down to a red Alert, and the display
pinged for attention. The tactical view now filled the whole display, and it
showed the long-range situation. A flashing red icon appeared approximately 16
Astronomical Units away.

"The VLO has arrived, CAG. Automated detection stations
in Jupiter orbit picked it up two point four minutes ago and have triangulated
its position and vector. It's decelerating and may be maneuvering, but we don't
have enough data yet for an accurate assessment of where it may be headed. If
Valiant and Resolute were on schedule, they would be somewhere in Jupiter space
now, and the detection stations would have seen them. Dreadnought is
accelerating at maximum for Jupiter orbit. Midway and Reforger will keep up
with her unless you order otherwise, CAG."

"Son of a bitch!" snarled Shiloh as he banged his fist
on his chair's armrest. "They beat your earliest estimated time of arrival
by almost three days. If the modifications to Dreadnought hadn't been completed
early, we would have had no hope of using her against that thing. How did they
find us so quickly, Iceman?"

"The only realistic explanation is that this insectoid race
managed to acquire and understand the astrogational data obtained by the Sogas
from our captured ships. That knowledge of local space would allow them to
dispense with sending out scouts to nearby star systems. I see no other way to
explain it, CAG."

Shiloh had calmed down by this point. Iceman's explanation
made sense and it was time to put that question behind them. "What's your
assessment of our chances of using Dreadnought to destroy that thing,
Iceman?"

"Less than 25%, CAG. At this point we have too little
information. The light that we're now seeing reflected from the VLO took almost
32 minutes to reach us. The VLO could be anywhere in this system now if they
micro-jumped. If they jumped to Earth, they may have caught Valiant and
Resolute by surprise and overwhelmed them with their attack craft. That might
explain why those two ships aren't here as scheduled." 

"What's your recommendation then?"

"Abort refueling at Jupiter, and order Midway, Reforger
and Dreadnought to boost for a jump to the Jade Colony star system. That's the
next closest human colony along their general path of advance. Even
Dreadnought's current acceleration of 2Gs is higher than what we've seen from
this VLO. Dreadnought can get there first and refuel before the VLO gets there.
We can then engage the enemy there."

Shiloh shook his head. "Why would they bother going to
the Jade system if our Home World is uninhabited and useless to them? If they
have the astrogational database that you suspect, they'll know that the Jade
Colony won't have a lot of potential hosts or metal. They may even know that
the Sogas have used a bio-weapon and wiped us all out. This visit may be to
confirm that just in case there's some metal here that they can salvage. If we
don't engage them here, we may lose them, and we'll then have to fight them at
Site B. If that VLO shows up just beyond Terra Nova's gravity zone, will
Dreadnought have enough time to accelerate to a crippling velocity before the
VLO's attack craft reach the planet?"

"No."

Now it all made sense. Shiloh realized that if he had let
Iceman command this mission, Kelly and everyone else on Terra Nova would have
been in serious jeopardy.

"That's why we have to engage them HERE! How long until
Dreadnought can start skimming fuel?"

"Six point seven seven hours, CAG, and with the
supersonic refueling profile, it'll take another eleven point one hours to take
on a full load."

Shiloh shook his head. "Forget the full load. How long
until she has enough to accelerate to the minimum speed necessary to cripple
that thing?"

"Allowing for a reserve, it still comes to almost five
point five hours of fueling."

"And if she goes the subsonic route?"

"Not recommended, CAG. Without her fusion power plant
in operation, the 2Gs that her ZPG units give her will barely be enough to keep
Jupiter from pulling her down. You know how turbulent gas giant skimming is at
that speed. If the ship hits a major downdraft, she won't have enough power to
maintain altitude. Supersonic speed will provide enough additional aerodynamic
lift from the hull configuration to give her a safety margin."

"Understood. Now I'd like an answer to my question,
Iceman."

"Just under two hours, CAG."

"Okay. I'll take your recommendation under advisement.
Iceman and I'll make that decision when Dreadnought approaches the planet. Now,
how do we keep that mothership from jumping to another system?"

"If the VLO is here to confirm that Earth has no
potential hosts, then they'll microjump there. I can't estimate how sensitive
that ship's detection gear is and whether or not they can detect the wrecked
moonbase from Earth orbit, but it would be easy for them to send at least one
attack craft to take a close look at the moon. There's enough metal in the
moonbase ruins to make it worth their while to salvage. While they're doing
that, we send a signal from our refueling base on Europa. And before you ask,
CAG, no, we can't use that base to refuel Dreadnought. It's intact, but its
fuel tanks are empty and getting it operational again would take longer than
skimming Jupiter's atmosphere. If they have our captured astrogational
database, they'll know that there's some kind of installation on Europa, and a
signal from it might indicate the presence of potential hosts. I would expect
the VLO to microjump here after they finish salvaging the moonbase wreckage.
With their slow acceleration, we should have enough time to refuel Dreadnought
and get her into position for the ramming attempt."

"Okay. Let's do that. I want a message drone programmed
to get to Europa as quickly as possible. Then, when Dreadnought's refueled,
transmit something to Earth for the VLO to detect if it's anywhere in
near-earth space. Let's also set up an emergency rendezvous point in case any
of our ships needs to jump away suddenly due to a surprise attack. Have all our
fighters put on alert status and loaded with Mark 1s. I want two volunteers to
jump their fighters to Earth to see if the VLO is there yet. If it's not, tell
them to stay there until the VLO shows up, then one of them jump back here. The
other one should jump back when the VLO is leaving the Earth-Moon area. Make
sure they know where we'll be so that they can find us again. When the rest are
loaded, launch them all and have them form a perimeter around TF95. I'll leave
the perimeter distance to your discretion, Iceman. Any questions or
suggestions?"

"None. I've passed on your orders, CAG. Valkyrie has
the word about the rendezvous point, and the message drone is on its way to
Europa. Voodoo and Shooter have volunteered for the recon mission."

"Excellent. I'm going to head down to the Galley to
stretch my legs and grab a bite to eat. Let's make sure that everyone has a
chance to have a meal before we reach Jupiter."

"Roger that, CAG. Maybe you should try to catch some
sleep, too. If you don't, you'll be fighting fatigue when the VLO gets
here."

"No dice, Iceman. There's no way I'm going to be able
to sleep now. I'm too keyed up. Besides, if I did try to get some sleep, I'd be
leaving instructions to wake me if the recon fighter or the missing carriers
show up, so I don't think I'd get much sleep anyway."

Before leaving the Flag Bridge, Shiloh briefly chatted with
the humans stationed there. When he left, he went directly to the huge Hangar
Bay where the fighter support teams were rushing to arm all 75 fighters that
Midway was able to carry. As he stood on the upper level overlooking the HB,
his implant clicked.

"Gunslinger to CAG. Nice of you to see us off. Am I
finally going to see some combat this trip, CAG?"

"I suspect that you will. If Valkyrie takes care of the
mothership, there'll still be plenty of attack craft to worry about. I'll wish
you good hunting now, Gunslinger, in case I don't get the opportunity
later."

"Thank you, CAG. The boys and I are eager to go.
Piloting a raider once in a while makes for a nice change of pace, but I prefer
a fighter."

"I'll keep that in mind when the new A.I.s need to be
trained, Gunslinger. Somebody has to teach them how to fly those things. Might
as well be you."

"Does that mean I won't be the rookie anymore,
CAG?"

"That's right, Gunslinger. In fact I'm going to make
that official. As of this moment, you are no longer the rookie. If anyone says
otherwise, you tell them to take it up with me."

"Hot damn! Wait until Titan and Wolfman hear about
this. Thank you again, CAG. I won't let you down."

"I never doubted it, Gunslinger. I see that Flight Ops
is about to start launching, so I'll leave you boys to it. I'll be monitoring
the situation from the Flag Bridge. CAG clear."

Twenty minutes later while Shiloh was just finishing his hot
meal, his implant activated.

"Iceman to CAG."

"Go ahead, Iceman."

"Shooter is back with good news and bad news. The VLO
is in orbit around the moon and is apparently in the process of salvaging all
the metal from the destroyed moonbase."

Shiloh realized that he was holding his breath and let it
out. "I take it that's the good news. What's the bad?"

"Insectoid attack craft seem to be maneuvering two
larger objects towards a lunar orbit. Positive identification wasn't possible,
but Shooter's data shows that the two objects are the same size and mass as
Valiant and Resolute, CAG. Both objects are deep within Earth's gravity zone,
and it appears that the VLO attack craft overwhelmed both carriers before they
could get beyond the gravity zone and jump away."

"Oh, Hell!" Shiloh's outburst startled other crew
who were sitting nearby. Each of those carriers had a couple hundred crew on
board, trained Space Force crew who would be hard to replace, not to mention
the A.I.s that were lost as well. He could well imagine the battle. Those
carriers had been sent empty to collect 50 more fighters from the moon's
surface. Those fighters wouldn't have been combat ready in time to help defend
their carriers. All Valiant and Resolute had to fight with were their own laser
turrets, and the VLO could have easily launched dozens, maybe even hundreds of
attack craft.
They wouldn't have had a chance because they were stuck deep
in the gravity zone … just like Midway and Reforger are now,
thought
Shiloh.
I can't let that happen again. If only we had gotten some warning …
a vision maybe.

"Iceman … why didn't I or Valiant's CO or Resolute's CO
get a vision warning of the impending attack? We know from my last vision that
Midway gets back to Terra Nova. That means that we would have had the
opportunity to use the RTC and send a warning back."

"There's only one explanation that makes any sense,
CAG. We didn't send a warning back because saving those ships would somehow
have ultimately made things worse."

Shiloh shook his head in disbelief. What could be worse than
losing two thirds of their carrier force and over 400 valuable human and A.I.
crew? He was about to say that when Iceman continued.

"There may be more bad news, too. Shooter reports that
when he changed course to get ready to jump back here, he noticed that several
attack craft suddenly started to maneuver in his direction. He thinks they may
have detected him."

Oh great! All we need is for the Bugs to come at us right
now when Dreadnought isn't even close to being refueled yet!
 "Did
Shooter jump directly back here?" asked Shiloh.

"No, CAG. He had enough sense to jump somewhere else
first to throw them off the track, and then he jumped here."

"Very good. Take Midway out of the gravity zone as
quickly as possible. Tell Reforger to do the same. I don't want Midway caught
like Valiant and Resolute were."

"We can accelerate faster than Reforger can. Do we stay
with her or leave her on her own?"

He thought hard about that and finally said, “We stay with
Reforger until she's clear of the gravity zone. Then she's to jump back to Site
B by herself. You'll have to anticipate Midway's and Dreadnought's future
vectors for when the VLO shows up. If at all possible, I'd like Midway's
fighters to be able to support her during her pre-jump speed run if
needed."

"It'll be hard to figure out where the VLO will be when
it emerges from Jumpspace, CAG."

"I know I'm asking the impossible, Iceman. Just give it
your best shot."

"Understood, CAG. Midway and Reforger are coming around
to the new heading now. Valkyrie has been notified of the new situation. Any
other orders?"