A Savage War Of Peace (Ark Royal Book 5) (2 page)

Chapter One

“Go,” the coordinator ordered.

A single starship - a light cruiser - hung in front of the observers, illuminated by the pulsing light of a holographic star.  Suddenly, a dozen starfighters appeared out of nowhere, spinning down towards their target.  The cruiser brought its point defence online and opened fire, spewing out thousands of bursts of plasma fire at the starfighters as they closed in.  One by one, they vanished from the display until only a couple survived to launch their missiles at the cruiser.  Both missiles were picked off before they had a chance to do any harm, then one of the remaining starfighters was vaporised.  The sole survivor turned and fled into the endless darkness of space.

“Simulation complete,” the coordinator said.  “Victory; Blue.”

Captain John Naiser sucked in his breath as the handful of military officers watching the display started to babble amongst themselves.  He’d been a starfighter pilot, back before the war, and he’d never seen any cruiser defend itself so effectively against a conventional swarm attack.  But then, neither had the human pilots who’d fought in the Battle of New Russia, where the entire Multinational Fleet had been obliterated by the Tadpoles.  They'd been caught by surprise - no human fleet had been able to put out so much point defence - and never had a chance to recover.

“The starfighter is doomed, I believe,” Admiral Yeager Soskice said.  The head of the Next Generation Weapons program rose to his feet as the room lightened, his face glowing with triumph.  “There is simply no way a swarm of starfighters can punch through the defences of a capital ship, not now.”

John felt his eyes narrow as he peered at Admiral Soskice.  The man was a genius, of that there was no doubt, but he’d never seen action in his life.  And he was the man who had foisted an unqualified XO on
Warspite
, when she’d left the Sol System on her mission to Pegasus.  There was a very real danger that Soskice and his followers believed their own simulations, while any experienced officer would have known that real life was rarely so cut and dried.  What would happen, he asked himself, if the cruiser’s sensors weren’t so effective at tracking incoming starfighters?  Or if the ship’s plasma cannons overheated in combat and exploded, depriving the ship of some of her point defence?

“The simulation was rigged,” Vice Admiral James Montrose Fitzwilliam said.  “You deliberately slanted the advantages in favour of the cruiser.”

“The simulation was
not
rigged,” Admiral Soskice snapped.  “I programmed it to reflect the tactical realities ...”

“As you see them,” Admiral Fitzwilliam cut him off.  “I don’t think real life is so cut and dried.”

He muttered orders to the coordinator, who hastily reprogrammed the simulation.  The lights dimmed as the simulation reset, then the starfighters zoomed down towards their target for the second time.  John watched, feeling a pang of bitter regret, as they zipped from side to side, making it impossible for the cruiser to target them with any real accuracy.  Nine starfighters survived long enough to salvo their missiles at the cruiser, four missiles survived long enough to strike home.  The cruiser disintegrated in a blinding series of explosions.

“Target destroyed,” the coordinator said.  “Victory; Red.”

“That simulation was rigged,” Admiral Soskice said, sharply.  “Change enough variables and even
you
could win.”

“The variables change constantly, depending on the situation,” Admiral Fitzwilliam said.  “I will happily concede that, under ideal circumstances, the plasma cannons make life hairy for starfighter pilots.  That’s what happened at New Russia, after all.  But
Ark Royal
and her flyers managed to adapt to the new threat and deal some pretty effective blows against the Tadpoles.  The day of the starfighter is not yet over.”

John smiled, feeling a flicker of admiration.  Admiral Fitzwilliam had been
Ark Royal’s
XO, then her commanding officer, during the war.  He would have gone down with the ship if he hadn't been badly wounded at Alien-Prime and sent home to muster reinforcements.  Since then, he’d commanded the MNF that patrolled the border between human and alien space, watching for signs the uneasy truce was about to come to an end.  Unlike Admiral Soskice, no one could say he didn't have any experience.

And he served under Theodore Smith
, John thought, wryly. 
He wouldn't have stayed on Ark Royal if he’d been incompetent
.

“We must advance our own weapons and defences to ensure that we can never be caught by surprise again,” Admiral Soskice insisted.  “Your ... fixation with the glory days of the starfighter is holding us back.”

“I believe there are very real dangers in advancing forward too far, too fast,” Admiral Fitzwilliam countered.  “You have read
Superiority
?”

John - and most of the other officers in the compartment - nodded.  The short story had been required reading at the Academy, even though not all of them had agreed with its premise or the outcome.  One interstellar power had thrown its resources into developing newer and better weapons of war; the other had continued to build the same old starships and weapons, even when the first power accomplished some remarkable achievements.  But the newer weapons and innovations had never quite worked out in practice and there had been no time to get the bugs out.  The first power, which should have won the war handily, had suffered a humiliating defeat.

“We are not talking about taking a new device and sticking it on every ship in the Royal Navy,” Admiral Soskice said.

“But you
are
talking about cutting starfighter squadrons and redirecting resources to smaller ships,” Admiral Fitzwilliam pointed out.  “We still have a need for starfighters and fleet carriers, Admiral.  And we cannot assume that we should cut a whole spectrum of weapons systems because conditions for deploying them are no longer ideal.”

John sighed, inwardly.  The hell of it was that both admirals had a point.  Starfighter pilots had taken the brunt of losses during the war - John had heard that only ten percent of the Royal Navy’s pre-war pilots had survived the fighting - and most of them had died because the Tadpoles had changed the rules.  But, at the same time, humanity’s starfighters
had
managed to adapt and fight back.  The starfighters hadn't been remotely useless.

“We are not the only ones developing new weapons and tactics,” Admiral Soskice said, coldly.  “The Americans, the French, the Chinese ... they’re all working on developing new weapons they can use against the Tadpoles - or us!  We should not allow ourselves to become complacent!”

“We’re not becoming complacent,” Fitzwilliam said.  “The problem is introducing newer technology without causing major problems or accidentally creating new weaknesses in our ships and defences.  Like
Warspite’s
first cruise.”

John cursed under his breath as all eyes turned to him.  “
Warspite
lost power when she jumped through a tramline,” Fitzwilliam continued.  “How many other problems would be caused by a failure to anticipate the demands of real life?”

Admiral Soskice glowered.  “Captain Naiser, just what happened when
Warspite
lost power?”

Asshole
, John thought, crossly.  He’d known the admiralty was divided between those who wanted to experiment with newer weapons and those who wanted to rely on tried and tested technology, but he hadn't wanted to get caught in the middle. 
Is there an answer I can give that will satisfy both of you
?

“A problem developed that would have been caught, if there had been more time to test the drive,” he said, smoothly.  There was no point in going over the full details, not now.  One of the people responsible was dead and the other trapped on Pegasus.  “I don’t believe it proves or disproves either of your positions.”

Admiral Fitzwilliam’s eyes narrowed.  “Explain,” he ordered.

John winced, inwardly.  When would he learn to keep his mouth shut?

“
Warspite
should have had several weeks to run proving trials before leaving the Sol System,” he said.  “That would have given us the time to catch all of those problems, as well as testing the tactical systems under combat conditions.  We would have been able to integrate the newer systems into both the ship herself and the crew’s awareness of just what they can do.”

He took a breath, then went on.  “There’s nothing wrong with newer technology,” he added, slowly.  “But we need to test it thoroughly, to see how it works in combat and discover the flaws, before we can integrate it fully into our tactical planning.  In this case” - he waved a hand towards the holographic simulation, which had frozen just after the cruiser exploded - “the
first
encounter with plasma cannons was a nasty fright and the enemy scored a victory, but we adapted our tactics to compensate.  It would be unwise of us to rely solely on plasma weapons to defend our ships.”

“Indeed,” Admiral Fitzwilliam said.  “Do go on.”

John had the uneasy sense he was being allowed to gather rope to hang himself, but he pressed on regardless.  “Starfighters also do more than merely strike at other capital ships,” he continued.  “They do long-range recon, dog-fighting with other starfighters and a number of other tasks.  There is no reason to remove every starfighter from the fleet just because the rules of the game have changed.  They may change again tomorrow.”

“They will change again,” Admiral Soskice said.  “Change is the one constant in the universe.”

He nodded towards the simulation, sharply.  “As a starfighter pilot yourself,” he added, “how would you handle such a situation?”

“Keep moving randomly,” John said.  “Use decoys and drones, if I had them; spoofing software and ECM, just to make it harder for the enemy to target me.  All tactics that we used against the Tadpoles.”

“Thousands of starfighter pilots were killed,” Admiral Soskice said.

“They knew the risks,” Admiral Fitzwilliam said, cuttingly.  “We
all
know the risks.”

John grimaced as Admiral Soskice glared at his nemesis.  It was a non-too-subtle reminder that Admiral Soskice hadn't seen any real action, not outside simulators.  And simulators could be altered to tip the balance in favour of one side or the other, if someone was prepared to take the time to try.  God knew there were hundreds of trainees who enjoyed flying down the Death Star trench in the simulator, pretending to be Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader, even though it wasn't particularly realistic.

“Five years ago, we were taught that our technology was not the best in the universe,” Admiral Soskice said.  His voice was under tight control.  “Since then, we have struggled to catch up with an enemy who showed a remarkable skill in producing newer weapons and tactics at terrifying speed.  We dare not allow them to get past us again.”

“And I say, again, that we are not opposed to new technology,” Admiral Fitzwilliam said.  “We are just opposed to rewriting doctrine and decommissioning whole weapons systems because of the latest shiny thing.  And that is what you are planning to do.  You want us to stop building fleet carriers and starfighters and concentrate on small cruisers.  Which is all well and good, until we run into a threat that requires fleet carriers and starfighters to handle!”

They’re both right
, John thought.  Assuming the Tadpoles hadn't started building their superdreadnaught until they’d run into
Ark Royal
, they’d put a colossal starship into service in less than a year.  Given that it took humanity five years to build a fleet carrier from scratch, it was not a pleasant thought.  The Tadpoles might be quietly rebuilding their fleet and developing newer weapons even now. 
But neither of them will admit the other has a point
.

He listened as the argument raged backwards and forwards, neither Admiral conceding a point.  It was deeply frustrating, as well as worrying, that the tension had actually exploded into an argument in front of a small army of junior officers.  The First Space Lord had told him, before
Warspite
had left Earth for the first time, that the disagreement between the two sides was already affecting operational readiness, but he hadn’t really believed it was so bad.