Retribution: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 2 (10 page)

It won’t take long for the Verm Navy to rush reinforcements to supply
depots and shipping centers.  If the Sweetwater Fleet wants soft targets,
they will have to strike while the iron is hot.

At the next target there are 12 warships patrolling the space around a
Supply Depot.  There are no other valuable assets inside of the
system.  There is a small Space Station, used for commercial trade. 
The planet appears to make its money by supplying food.  Admiral Meyers
decides to spare those assets.

The Fleet emerges, as before, and the Verm warships are quickly
surrounded.  This time Admiral Meyers had instructed her Fleet to capture
warships if that is possible.  3 of the Verm warships surrender and the
crewmembers are delivered to the system’s Space Station.  The other Verm
warships are destroyed in battle.

As in the previous raid, the Supply Depot is instructed to complete the
loading of the 3 freighters.  When the loaded freighters have been removed
from the area and the personnel have been evacuated to the Space Station, the
Supply Depot is destroyed.

When her ducks are in a row, Admiral Meyers orders the Fleet into FTL
space.  Then they make another FTL jump to hide their trail, and establish
another stash in that location.  They don’t have crews for the 3 captured
warships, but they repair them to the point where they are Battle Capable, and
leave them in the stash. 

***

Supply Depot #3, 4 and 5

Sweetwater Fleet hits two more Supply Depot systems with similar
results.  Damage to the Fleet is relatively minor and 2 more stashes of
supplies and captured warships are established.

Admiral Meyers knows that the
gravy train
wouldn’t last very
long.  When they scout the 5
^th
Supply Depot, it is protected by
35 Verm warships.

The Sweetwater Fleet could defeat the Verm Navy security team, but there
is likelihood that some of Sweetwater Fleet’s warships and personnel will be
destroyed in the process.  Against 15 Verm warships, the Sweetwater Fleet
has overwhelming force.  Against a fleet of 35 Verm warships - which are
on high alert - the Fleet’s
overwhelming force advantage
is gone. 
Admiral Meyers cancels the raid and the Darinx Fleet melts away into deep
space.

But the mission’s objective has been accomplished.  Shipping has
been disrupted, and the Verm Navy will now have to double the size of the
security force for each of its supply depots and shipping hubs.

***

Admiral Meyers dispatches a warship to the stash where
Shiela
is to return, when
finished with her baby making adventure.  There is still no sign of the
wandering AI.

***

In Deep Space

Infrastructure
Improvements

 
Attacking military targets
is next on Fleet Admiral
Kinseat’s
list of things
to do, but Admiral Meyers wants to take care of some infrastructure
improvements first.

The Admiral wants a better communications system for ships, when they are
away from the main Fleet.  She shouldn’t need to send scout ships to see
if
Shiela
is waiting
for them. 
Shiela
should be able to send them a message. 
Shiela
had reported that the Augmented Human Navy solves that problem by using a
series of relay probes. 

As she understands it, the AH Navy has a number of Probe Station
locations in space, where information probes are stationed.  When another
information probe emerges in the vicinity of that Probe Station, the Probe
Station copies the information from the incoming probe, and loads the
information onto an outgoing probe.  That outgoing probe will enter FTL
space bound for the next Probe Station, before its destination coordinates can
be copied, by the incoming probe.

The Admiral wants to implement that kind of secure communications
system for the Sweetwater Fleet.  She assigns the task of developing that
system to Chief Scientist Barnard, who quickly develops a Probe Relay System
for the Sweetwater Fleet. 

***

After the Science Officer has finished the Communications System project,
The Admiral gives him another task.  Every Sweetwater vessel knows the
coordinates of every stash location.  That information needs to be encoded
and password protected. 

***

And there is one more major problem to solve.  What happens if a
scout ship is captured, or the scout ship’s destination coordinates are
copied?  In that case, the location of the Sweetwater Fleet will be
available to the enemy.  300 enemy warships could descend on the
Sweetwater Fleet in a surprise attack.

The Admiral wants to use a smaller version of the Probe Relay System,
in order to remove the possibility that an enemy fleet can find the Sweetwater
Fleet, by capturing or following a scout ship.  Her thought is that, after
the scout ship deploys to its target, the whole Fleet will move, leaving behind
an information probe with the Fleets new location.  When the scout ship returns,
it will be given the coordinates of the Fleet’s new location, as long as the
information probe identifies the ship as a Sweetwater vessel, and as long as
the ship gives the proper password.

She gives the project to Science Officer Barnard and he has a working
prototype, within 2 days. 

The Admiral would give him a promotion, but he is as high as he can go,
as a scientist serving on a warship – and he doesn’t want to do anything
else.  She will have to think of a way.

***

Attacking Military Installations

  Attacking military installations is even more risky than attacking
supply depots with reinforced security forces.  The Admiral will need to
study some installations, until she has a clever idea about how to attack
them.  A conventional fleet –verses-fleet assault would be disastrous.

She knows the locations of some military facilities, because that
information is on the computers of the captured
verm
vessels.  

Admiral Meyers dispatches 5 scout ships to reconnoiter different military
installations.  She then moves the Sweetwater Fleet to a different deep
space location.  The returning scout ships, if they are recognized as
Sweetwater vessels and if they know the password, will be given the coordinates
to the Fleet.  This method of hiding the Fleet isn’t a foolproof system,
but it is an improvement. 

***

The scouts have returned with the expected results.  All of the Verm
military installations have fleets significantly larger than the Sweetwater
Fleet can handle.  But a quick strike is possible.  Or one critical
part of the instillation could be attacked.  Whatever it is, it has to be
quick.

She remembers how many vessels were parked in that installation where
they requisitioned those 15 warships.  None of those parked vessels had
their defensive system turned ON.   They would be sitting ducks.

“But how do you get in-and-out without taking fire from the Security
Forces?” the Admiral thinks.  “Sweetwater Fleet could take a lot of losses
on a venture like this.  If only we didn’t have to wait for our FTL drives
to cool.”

“Maybe we could use that old
hitch a ride on an asteroid
trick,”
she thinks.  “Or emerge behind some moon and wait until the FTL drives
have cooled, before attacking.”

“Ah,” she thinks.  “I know.  We will use the old
high
velocity charge in real space
trick.  We can come in along the axis
that is perpendicular to the planet’s orbits.  That direction is always
less well defended.  And if we get our velocity up to 20,000 klicks per
second, they could never stop us.  We’ll do a strafing run, using missiles
and rail guns controlled by the
AIs
. 
At those speeds, we can even take out the active Security Force, and take some
shots at Headquarters.”

She quickly summons her Chief Scientist, Officer Barnard, and explains
her plan.  She asks him to do a feasibility study and a reasonableness
study.  “Tell me,” she says, “is it possible, and is it a good idea?”

***

One hour later, Officer Barnard sends her a report saying that the plan
is both feasible and reasonable.  He says that there is no limit – except
the speed of light - to the velocity that the ships can achieve under a
constant
acceleration over time
.  The limiting factors will be the response
time of the weapons systems and the aiming capabilities of the Artificial
Intelligences.  He selects a velocity that the ships’ weapons systems and
AI’s can all accommodate, and calculates the parameters backward from there.

 All Sweetwater Fleet vessels are capable of a 100 meter/sec/sec
constant acceleration.  If the Sweetwater ships begin that acceleration at
a distance of 3,700,000 klicks from the military installation, the fleet will
have a velocity of 4,300 klicks per second, when it reaches the military
installation.  That trip will require a one day journey, from the starting
point.

At that velocity, the security forces will not have much time to
respond to the assault.  The only question is: how well will the
AIs
be able to target the
rail guns.  The missiles are not a problem, because they can adjust their
course.  But the rail gun projectiles are not guided, and aiming them at
such high relative velocities is an untested situation.

“Well,” thinks the Admiral.  “We’ll find out about that.  I
will bet on my
AIs
,
though.”

***

Admiral Meyers expects to only get one try, at this technique. 
The Verm Navy will quickly install deep space sensors to give an early warning
of an impending high velocity assault.

“One shot is all I need,” she thinks.  She has 4 captured Verm
battleships, with her best
AIs
at the controls.  Those 4 battleships will each lead a
high velocity
assault team
.  This will be Honesty’s first real challenge, but the
Admiral is confident that she can do the job.

Ships which don’t have
AIs
are out of this mission.  She divides the AI equipped vessels into 4
groups.  That yields 7 or 8 ships per unit.

And each unit is going to travel from place to place, and attack
different military installations as they go.  Ammunition will be the
limiting factor and according to the Science Officer, each unit should have
enough projectile munitions for 3 strikes.  That will be a total of 12
strikes, with an estimated 500 targets at each site.  In this series of
assaults, an estimated 6,000 Verm warships could be targeted.  “Wow,”
thinks the Admiral.  “If this works, it could set the Verm war effort back,
by years.”

Well, the fun part of having the idea is over.  Now, it’s on to
the tough parts - planning and implementation.

One thing is certain.  At these speeds, no one will be able to
render assistance if there is a malfunction, or if the engines are
damaged. 

Every ship is instructed that, in case of separation from the Fleet,
they are to enter FTL space and head to the most recent deep space stash
location – the ships without
AIs
will be positioned there.

If a ship is damaged and cannot enter FTL space, they are to launch a
probe to the Relay Probe System, giving the ship’s coordinates.  Someone
will come to help.

If the disabled ship is being overtaken by Verm warships, the captain
is to launch a probe to the Relay Probe System, and then abandon ship in the
shuttle craft.  They are to order the warship to self-destruct, after they
are away.  Then they should run-silent, until the Verm Navy leaves the
area.

***

High Velocity Assault

The 4 assault teams have been dispatched to their starting
points.  In one case that trip takes a week.  Everyone waits until
the appointed time to begin the assault.

At the appointed time, all 4 groups begin their constant acceleration,
headed toward their target.  Admiral Meyers is aboard Retribution – her
Flagship – and Honesty, her AI, is a little anxious because she has never
handled anything of this complexity before.  The Admiral assures her that
she will “…. do fine.  I wouldn’t have given you the job if I didn’t think
that you could do it.”

***

They are approaching the solar system and the star appears to grow
right before their eyes.  Then they can see the planet.  And then, at
the very end, they can see the military installation.  By that time,
Honesty has already fired the rail gun projectiles and has launched the
missiles.

The missiles, which have accelerants to propel them even faster than
the ship that launched them, are running out in front of the ship.  The
rail gun projectiles are accelerated by electromagnetism when launched, so they
are also running out in front of the ship.

The Command Deck Crew watches as the munitions seek their
targets.  There are a lot of explosions, as the projectiles impact their
prey.  The velocity of the missiles would have caused anything solid to
shatter, even without the explosives.  It is over in a matter of seconds,
and then the Retribution is away from the system, in the blink of an eye. 
No Verm projectiles or ships can catch them.

***

 
Science Officer Barnard has instructed all ships to
decelerate, before entering FTL space.  No testing has been done for
entering FTL at these velocities.  It would probably be OK, but this is
not a good time to run an experiment.

After decelerating, Honesty takes the Retribution into FTL space for
the next launch point.  Now the teams are no longer synchronized. 

The time in FTL space, gives the Admiral opportunity to review the
results of the strike.  “See there Honesty.  I told you that you
could do it.”

“Yes you did,” Honesty replies.  “And it looks like we did a lot
of damage.  I think that the rail gun projectiles were moving so fast that
a lot of them just punched holes straight through the ships.  They only
caused explosions if they hit something solid.  And the missiles were
exploding after they had passed all of the way through, also. Fortunately, the
explosions were still close enough to destroy the ship.  We will need to
set the missiles for a faster detonation, in order to fix that problem.”