The Synchronicity War Part 4 (33 page)

The countdown was synchronized to take into
consideration the light speed lag of being a million kilometers away, and as
soon as the countdown hit zero, a computer-enhanced image of the VLO appeared
on the Flag Bridge’s main display.

“Titan’s team is firing,” said Iceman
unnecessarily.

Shiloh smiled. If he didn’t know better,
he’d interpret Iceman’s superfluous remark as a sign of jitters. Was it
possible that AIs could get anxious the same way some humans did? He’d have to
ask Iceman that question after the battle.

The VLO exploded with a satisfyingly large
blast. Shiloh looked at the battle chronometer. Six point seven seconds after
emerging from Jumpspace. No sign of any attack craft to mop up.

“I wish they would all be this easy,” said
Shiloh.

“Roger that, CAG. I should use the RTC now
and send the vision back. It’ll be interesting to see if I get another one
right after that.”

In fact, he did get another vision right
away. The next attack was 18 days away, and this time there’d be three VLOs,
not one.

                                                              *
* *

Eighteen days later it was Shiloh who was
clearly nervous. Careful analysis of the shot that seemed to have triggered the
power unit overload indicated that wherever else the power units might be, the
center of the sphere apparently held at least one of them. That actually made
sense to Shiloh, considering that these 10 km spheres started out as much
smaller spheres that could maneuver and jump and therefore had to have at least
one power unit to begin with. With that data, the 21 cannon-armed raiders that
were now available would split their fire evenly among the three targets, and
all would fire simultaneously at the center of the spheres from slightly
different angles.

In addition, there were now 151 laser-armed
raiders riding shotgun between the Earth and the emergence point. One hundred
and forty-nine X-ray laser drones were deployed in geosynchronous orbit. They
would be held back as the last ditch defense against bug attack craft
attempting to land bug soldiers. The other aspect that made Shiloh nervous this
time was that Midway would be closer to the action. A LOT closer. Less than
300,000 kilometers. The time lag due to distance would be one second each way,
compared with more than three seconds for the previous battle. That was
something that Shiloh had insisted on, over Iceman’s objections that Midway and
therefore The CAG would be risking battle damage and injury. But with three
VLOs to overcome, Shiloh figured the battle was likely to last long enough that
his and Iceman’s ability to issue orders quickly might make the difference.
While the logic of the move closer was undeniable, that didn’t prevent him from
reacting emotionally to the perceived danger. He hadn’t felt that anxiety
before other battles, but that was because he didn’t know exactly when those
battles would start. This time he did.

When the countdown hit zero, three
motherships emerged from Jumpspace exactly where the vision had indicated. The
laser-armed raiders began firing once again to draw the attention of the enemy,
while the 21 cannon-armed raiders fired from the opposite side. As the seconds
started to accumulate, Shiloh noticed from the main display sidebar that he was
losing some of his laser-armed raiders. Two GLB cannon volleys had fired now
with no corresponding explosions in any of the VLOs. As soon as the third
volley fired, one of the cannon-armed raiders disappeared from the display.

“The enemy has detected Vandal’s group,
CAG,” said Iceman.

Shiloh had already figured that out for
himself, and that wasn’t good. If they lost too many of the cannon-armed
raiders, future battles might become unwinnable, and Shiloh’s gut told him that
there would be at least one more battle before the timeship was repaired.

“The enemy is launching attack craft now,”
said Iceman.

Shiloh bit his lip. By prior arrangement,
Titan’s group of laser-armed raiders would shift their fire to the attack craft
when they got within a certain range, but that would allow the motherships to
shift all of their fire to Vandal’s group, which was now down to 18 raiders.
Shiloh made a decision. Midway was being escorted by 55 F2 fighters.

“Order Gunslinger’s fighters to micro-jump
into attack range of the enemy attack craft and take them out. Titan’s raiders
are to continue to target VLO laser batteries.”

“Orders have been sent and acknowledged,
CAG. Fighters have jumped.”

Shiloh checked the battle chronometer.
Thirteen seconds now since the battle began. Vandal’s cannon-armed raiders
would fire another volley within two seconds. Shiloh crossed his fingers.
Apparently that made the difference. As soon as the next volley fired, one of
the VLOs exploded. A quick check of the sidebar data showed there were 16
cannon-armed raiders left. Analysis of enemy laser fire showed a steady and now
steepening drop in the number of laser blasts coming from the remaining two
VLOs. Titan’s group was obviously having some success in knocking out enemy
laser batteries. The next GLB cannon volley was coming up fast.

“Explode, you bastards,” whispered Shiloh.
A second VLO exploded. Shiloh smacked his right fist into his left palm in
triumph and relaxed. The momentum of battle had shifted in their favor.
Vandal’s group was now down to just 12 raiders, but after five volleys, those
raiders now had a lot of data about what part of the target NOT to aim at, and
they adjusted their aim accordingly. The remaining VLO was clearly damaged too.
Estimates of firepower from an undamaged 10 km mothership were 66 laser
batteries. The Battle Computer was now estimating that the 3
^rd
VLO
was down to less than 10 batteries still functioning. That number was dropping
fast.

Suddenly the unexpected happened. The 3
^rd
VLO micro-jumped away. Shiloh cursed long and loud. That was one VLO that he
was sure they’d now have to face again, and it would almost certainly be in the
company of reinforcements. After analyzing and repairing the damage caused by
the GLB cannon, the Bugs also would have a much better idea of the kind of
weaponry they faced. If he were the Bug in charge of strategy and tactics, he’d
wait until he could organize a massive force of at least six motherships before
attacking again. He had to remind himself that the battle wasn’t over yet.
There were over 200 bug attack craft attempting to get to Earth, but Titan’s
and Gunslinger’s forces were now concentrating on them. None of the attack
craft got close enough to Earth to warrant using any of the X-ray laser drones,
however additional raiders and fighters were lost. Overall, Shiloh would have
to categorize this battle as a major but not decisive victory, with significant
losses to friendly forces.

When the battle was finally over, Shiloh
told Iceman to send back the vision. Both of them were expecting Iceman to get
another vision about the NEXT battle, but he didn’t. Thirty seconds later
Iceman received a lasercom transmission from Valkyrie at the shipyard asteroid.
She had gotten the vision containing all the targeting data for the next
battle. Nine VLOs would emerge from Jumpspace in 23 days.

Shiloh didn’t know what to think about that
news at first. Why didn’t Iceman get the vision? Would something happen to
Iceman during the next battle? There was nothing in the vision to indicate
which side would be victorious. The fact that Valkyrie would continue to exist
long enough after the battle to send the vision back to herself was a positive,
but she would still need at least another five days after that battle to finish
repairing the timeship.

“Why didn’t she include information about
the outcome of the battle? What tactics were used?” asked Shiloh in an
exasperated voice.

“The explanation that makes the most
logical sense is that the results of the battle are not as good as we would
like, but there’s no consensus on what tactics would have worked better.
Therefore she’s leaving the choice of tactics up to us, without  injecting any
biases into the timeline, CAG,” said Iceman.

Shiloh grunted his acknowledgement, then
said, “How many Mark 6s will we have in 23 days time?” 

“Minimum of six with a possible seventh.
The power charging schedule for the seventh warhead will be tight. Any delay
will make it unavailable, CAG.”

“Naturally it would be that way for this
critical battle. If we had seven, we’d only have to overpower two with cannon
fire, and that’s doable, but with six warheads, we’d be faced with three VLOs
and less than half as many cannon raiders as in this last battle.”

“My brothers and I will carry out
simulations of every tactical plan we can think of, CAG. With twenty-three days
to work with, we’ll come up with something,” said Iceman.

“Very good. While you’re doing that, let’s
get Midway back into low orbit. I’m sure The Old Man wants me available for the
after-battle media frenzy.”

“Roger that, CAG.”

                                                        *
* *

Four days later, Howard called Shiloh into
his office. Shiloh was surprised to see Commander Kelly there. Her greeting was
such that he couldn’t detect any hint that she might be aware of the
relationship they had in the old timelines. If she knew about it, she was
hiding it very well. With the usual pleasantries out of the way, Shiloh sat
down facing Howard and waited. Howard, as usual, got straight to the point.

“Commander Kelly tells me that the SPG in
conjunction with all the other AIs have run hundreds of combat simulations of
the upcoming battle, and our only chance of coming out on top depends on the
seventh Mark 6 warhead being available. And even then the victories, if you
want to call them that, are almost as bad as a defeat from the point of view of
losses on our side. I wanted to hear your thoughts on what we should do about
that, Admiral.”

Shiloh nodded. Iceman had kept him informed
periodically of the results of the simulations. Losing half their cannon raider
force made a huge difference. If they knew precisely where to aim the GLB
cannon on the first volley, the outcome would be a clear victory, but there was
no way of knowing if the targeting data from the last battle was valid for the
next one. As Iceman had pointed out, the VLOs didn’t have to be all designed
exactly the same way, and even if they had been, how do you define the front,
back left side and right side of a sphere? There’s no obvious giveaway of its
internal orientation. And as for the seventh warhead, the best they could
realistically hope for was to be able to load the damn thing onto a fighter
minutes before the battle was due to begin. Even minor delays would make it too
late.

“I regret to say that right now I don’t
have any recommendations to make. We still have 20 days. Perhaps the AIs will
think of something new to try before then, Sir.”

Howard sighed. “I can’t blame you for not
being able to pull the proverbial rabbit out of your hat when Kelly and I can’t
either, but the Commander does have an interesting proposal.” He looked at her
and nodded.

She turned to Shiloh and said, “I’ve
watched the AIs chasing their tails over several dozen tactical plans. They
keep going back to the same plans and retesting them over and over again.
They’re limited by their ability to think logically, which means they can’t
come up with a counter-intuitive idea that defies logic. If we’re going to win
this next battle, I think we have to step back from the AIs and use human
intuition and inspiration to generate alternatives the AIs can’t conceive of on
their own. To that end, I’m proposing setting up an Ad Hoc tactical team
composed only of humans. The team’s mission brief will be to brainstorm
unconventional tactical plans that the AIs can then simulate.”

Shiloh was impressed. She was right of
course. Humans were relying too heavily on the AIs and had forgotten that their
greatest strength, their ability to think logically and quickly, was also their
biggest constraint.

“I think that’s an excellent idea,
Commander,” said Shiloh.

“I do too!” exclaimed Howard. “That’s why
I’m appointing you to the team, Shiloh. The two of you worked well together back
in the early days of the SPG, and you’re the natural choice for the team
considering your combat and tactical experience. But unlike last time, I’m not
putting the Commander in charge. I’m tossing this hot potato to you, Shiloh. I
don’t care what it takes. Just get results. If you want specific people added
to the team, I’ll get them for you. Any questions?”