Talosian Chronicles 2: Star Dancer (33 page)

Chloe nodded agreement, but it was Major Eischens that replied. “Yes, it would be far more efficient, Sir. When you get it built, we’ll be ready for it.”

“The newly launched carriers are heading for here. The two newer ones are heading straight for us, and the older model is heading for the planet,” one of the aides said from his console.

Ian nodded and looked at the three targets in the holo-tank. “Alert Ghost squadron for possible fighter suppression mission. I don’t want them to launch until that carrier drops her fighters. Let’s not send up a flare until we know for certain that’s what they’re doing.”

“Sir, if they are readying a ground assault force, it seems to me it’s pretty obvious what they’re doing, why play it safe?” One of the younger intel people asked.

“Simple, if that carrier was supposed to act as cover for the assault, they would have hung back and waited to escort the assault ships in. Since they didn’t, it appears to be a recon mission. It’s one thing for them to
think
we have a presence on the planet, it’s quite another to launch our fighters and remove all doubt.” Ian replied.

“Sorry Sir, he’s new,” Eischens replied, looking sternly at the man who had asked the question.

“Not a problem, Major. If he’s new, then it’s more important than ever for him to ask questions. Thankfully we have time to answer them right now. I’d rather those questions get asked,” Ian replied, nodding approval at the man.

“Thank you Sir,” the man answered, and got back to work.

Quietly, Ian leaned over to Eischens. “Please make sure he gets assigned to the bridge team. We’ll get him trained up into someone you’d be proud of!”

Major Eischens puffed up in pride. “He’s my son, Sir. I’ll make sure he gets assigned to your team.”

Ian grinned back at the man, but his eyes were pulled back to the holo-tank. ‘Shell Game’ was beginning to attack ships to the solar east of the Sun. The section had pulsed red to indicate action.

“East three-center is active, missiles have been fired. Laser and mass driver weapons are in acquisition!” the tech that sent out the orders announced. First impact in ten seconds! Carriers are launching fighters!”

“Chloe, let’s make sure we’re not sending Cobalt into a hot zone. Drop the tagged carriers from the Shell Game for the time being,” Ian said. “Although, it might be neat if we could integrate the attacks into the plan, it’s a little late to do that.”

“Something to remember for next time, Sir,” Chloe said but moved over to the Shell Game tech to give her the alterations.

“I just hope there won’t be a next time!” Ian said to himself. “Who’s flight leader for Ghost Squadron today?”

“Senior Lieutenant Corvis, Sir.” Another of Chloe’s aides replied after she looked up the information.

“Figures, I should have known he wouldn’t miss this.” Ian touched his communit and connected to Corvis.

“How are you doing, Elltee?” Ian asked.

“Pretty good Sir. It’s great to hear from you and all, but I have seven other people sitting in our birds awaiting release. What can I do for you?” Corvis said sounding busy.

“If the time comes for that, I will give you that command directly. There is a Caldarian carrier approaching Earth from a parabolic trajectory. Although it looks like the Super Nova is also getting ready to launch a ground assault, this carrier didn’t wait around for them.

“I don’t want you guys launching until we know for certain this is an attack, or simply a probe to see if we’ll react. Fighter attacks we can deal with, ground assaults we can deal with. One missile from that big ass ship and the entire state of New Mexico turns into molten glass,” Ian finished. “I wanted to make sure you understand exactly why my orders are what they are. This isn’t the time for bold actions.”

Somewhat subdued, the young pilot answered. “I appreciate that, Sir. I understand exactly what you are saying. Thank you for putting it into prospective for me, I’ll make damn sure my people know too.”

“I knew I could count on you, Corvis. I’ll keep you hanging on the line, but muted, so I can keep you updated on what’s happening above you,” Ian said.

“Thank you, Sir,” Corvis replied.

“No problem, it’ll be about a half hour before they get close enough to launch, so hang loose,” Ian replied, and muted the channel. He heard Corvis relaying what he was just told to the rest of his people, and smiled when he repeated, almost word for word, what Ian had said to him.

Ian noticed that the missiles fired by the remote platforms had made it to the carriers, about half had been lost to anti-missile fire, but the rest had made it through, and did a lot of damage. The enemy fighters had split up, and were headed for the missile launchers when the lasers and the mass drivers opened up on them.

Each Caldarian carrier, at least the old ones, carried two full squadrons, or sixteen fighters. This one had launched all of its fighters, and had lost almost half to the lasers and mass drivers. When the second carrier turned and began to ‘fire’ Ian saw the purpose for the newer system.

The fighters it launched left the launch tubes at full speed. Almost like a mass driver, the tiny fighters shot out of the forward facing tubes and rapidly closed the distance to where the missile launchers had been. They were so small and fast, that the lasers and mass driver drones had a very hard time getting a lock on them. Only two of the new fighters had been hit before the section was reset back to stand-by, and the drones all became invisible again.

Both of the new fighters were towed back to the enemy carrier, but Ian also saw that those small fighters only advantage was speed. They were slow to maneuver, and had a very high delta-v because of their speed. From the looks of them, the Caldarians still hadn’t mastered the inertial compensator, but even if they had, it would have been a real bear to get one of those small fighters under control.

Glancing around, Ian saw that the younger Eischens already had an image of the small fighter up on a display, while right beside it, he was using the computer to break down its performance profile. Another person was analyzing the damage done to the carriers, as well as the original, older model fighters.

Those fighters were still buzzing around, trying to find the weapons that had attacked them, but had little luck. That particular group had been seeded in a small asteroid field that had a high metal content. Once the power had been shut down, all the drone simply became one of the millions of rocks floating around in space. Chloe laughingly reported the loss of one of the lasers when a fighter accidentally hit it, damaging it enough for the unit to fail. It exploded and took the enemy fighter with it.

The carriers had pretty much stopped they’re sweep, and two other carriers had changed course to head in that direction, but nothing else was found by the enemy forces. They wasted two hours doing high power sensor sweeps, and flying all over that section. Which was the whole reason the Shell Game was created.

While they were doing that, forty-five minutes after the last shot was fired, another section did the same thing, with pretty much the same results. Although the enemy lost less fighters, one of the carriers was heavily damaged, and had to stop to make repairs. Again, the section of space was inspected very thoroughly.

It took almost twenty minutes for the Shadow fighters of Cobalt Squadron to make it to their starting point. When they jumped, it definitely got the enemies attention, as one set of carriers actually changed course for that location. Seconds later, two other jump points formed, near enemy carriers which immediately launched fighters, expecting a big ship to attack. They were confused when nothing appeared on their sensors.

Ian watched closely as the shadows simply flew right past the enemy fighters, and hit the carriers hard. Cobalt ‘Alpha’ got lucky and hit a soft spot on the new carrier’s armor, punching through, and hitting the reactor. The carrier exploded in a brilliant fireball. The older carrier, took a bit more damage before it too exploded.

The fighters were totally confused, but showed proof that Caldarian sensor technology had not been totally stagnant, when some of the enemy fighters began trying to engage the Shadow fighters. The attempt was poor in that shots fired missed either forward or aft of the ships, but proved that the Caldarians could indeed detect the Shadow fighters, if they were in the right scanning mode, and the fighters were close enough. Targeting proved to be a different matter entirely. Ian thought it would be only a matter time for them to figure out how to hit the fighters they were shooting at.

If they do figure it out, the Shadow and Wasp fighters would still have a big advantage over their adversaries. Their armor. Caldarian fighters carried missiles that relied on heat and or mass detection to get a lock. Neither of which they could get from a fighter equipped with the new armor. The only other weapons they used were energy weapons, primarily lasers. Which would only serve to give the Shadow and Wasp fighters more power, that is, what didn’t get reflected away. Granted, there was a limit to how much power could be absorbed, but it should reduce the number of single shot kills by the enemy.

All in all the strikes by the Shadow fighters of Cobalt Squadron were a complete success. They hit their targets, causing massive damage to the enemy, then simply disappeared.

The problem came when they had finished and were ready to return to base. Ian had to delay them because the Caldarian carriers had arrived at the moon.

At seventy-five thousand kilometers, the new carriers fired out their fighters, which sped ahead of the carrier like projectiles, heading straight for Earth’s moon. Once again Ian was amazed at the speed of the fighters, but was even more impressed when they didn’t slow down, but instead dropped very close to the surface, and began to come around the satellite on a course that would take them right over the hologram of the crashed Talosian Cruiser. Ian noted that it was a good thing he had moved the ship, otherwise the fighters would have ran right into the hull as they pulled up to go over the site.

The Operations team reported heavy scans of the area being conducted as the fighters shot past. Normally, they would have been moving far too quickly to get a good reading, but there were enough of them that they got a clear high resolution scan of the area without slowing down.

They had been launched in such a way that they would be orbiting the moon while the carriers were passing it, thus when the fighters came around the other side, they would be behind their carriers. Ian was tempted to blow them out of the sky, but instead held his breath as the fighters, then the carriers flew by, giving no more attention to the crashed ship, or the huge base under the hologram.

As soon as they were clear of the moon, the two carriers split up, heading out to the areas where carriers had been destroyed.

On Earth, the Caldarian carrier assumed orbit, scanning the planet. They did not launch fighters. Ian came to the conclusion that they were searching for something, as if not entirely sure Ian and his people were actually there or not. After making two passes over Talos, the carrier took up a parking position over the North Pole. It was waiting.

While it had been orbiting the planet, the assault carriers had been launched, and headed for the planet far faster than the fighter carrier had flown. These guys would be in orbit in ten minutes.

“Computer, get me Ty Anders, now!” Ian said.

“This is Ty, What up Sir?”

“Get everyone underground now. You about to get hit by a battalion sized combat team with at least a squadron of fighters for support. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t have bombers in there as well. Time to earn all the big money we’ve been paying you!” Ian said.

“I’m getting paid?” Ty asked. “Understood Sir, I’ll get everyone moving. Any idea where they’ll be coming from?”

“Not really, the fighter carrier is parked over the North Pole, but I imagine the assault ships will be coming straight in,” Ian replied.

“Okay, Anything else?” Ty asked.

“Nope, Ops will feed you all the intel we have for you. Keep our people safe, Ty,” Ian said.

“I’ll do my best Sir. You be safe up there as well. Anders out.”

Ian unmuted a channel he had been holding open. “Are you still there and awake, Corvis?”

“Yes Sir, we’ve been listening into the ops channel. Top-side is gonna get hit then?” Corvis asked.

“That’s what it looks like. Make sure your people are awake, and frosty. It’s about to get dangerous down there,” Ian told him.

“Sir, if we’re going to be fighting these mothers in the atmosphere, what do you think the government’s going to do when they see it?” Corvis asked. “The last thing we need are slow moving ‘friendlies’ up there, but you know as well as I do that we’re going to have them.”

“Fuck, you’re right, there’s nothing we can really do about it either. They have no idea what they’ll be getting into, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try,” Ian replied.

“I thought as much, I instructed my people to include all Terran IFF signals into our targeting computers so
we
shouldn’t be shooting any of them down by accident,” Corvis replied.

“North Pole is launching! I count eight Shrika medium fighters and four Gointa bombers. Course...” the man said, waiting for his computer to catch up. “Their heading for Talos, Sir! ETA eleven minutes!”

“That should put them on station just as the assault force hits the ground,” Eischens said. “I was hoping they would leave Talos out of this.”

“Ghost Squadron, this is Dark Palace actual, launch when ready. Hostile targets are entering your airspace. Search and destroy all enemy targets. I repeat launch when ready!” Ian said to Corvis over the comm.

“We’ll do you proud Sir. Ghost Squadron, we’re hot and pissed! Tally ho!” Corvis said to his people. His voice was slurred slightly as he was hurtled down his own launch tube and into the bright, clear, New Mexico sky.

S
kyRAD Command Bunker

Cheyenne Mountain

Colorado Springs, Colorado.

––––––––

“A
ttention all stations, this is a SkyRAD alert! We are tracking twelve targets on a hyper-sonic, polar reentry vector. Targets are currently over Canadian airspace and have refused hails.”