The Synchronicity War Part 4 (30 page)

“—wake up, CAG. You’re dreaming. Wake up,
CAG.”

The peaceful, warm blackness evaporated
away, and he realized he was in bed. His implant was activated. Iceman was
calling him.

“I’m awake now, Iceman. What is it?”

“Message drone from Sniper. VLO number two
has been crippled by his Mark 6. Number three immediately accelerated and
jumped towards the next destination identified by the atomic tracing. Assuming
the same transit time as in the old timeline, number three could arrive at
Omega89 in 287 hours. If it stays in that system for more than a few hours, we
may be able to get an F2 with another Mark 6 there in time to attack it, but
that decision has to be made right now, CAG. Any further delay and the F2 may
arrive too late.”

Shiloh sighed. “Well there goes the plan to
keep them focused on Beta1.”

“Not necessarily, CAG. I have an idea.
Number three may be attempting to locate the source of the attack on number
two. If it doesn’t find a spacefaring race within a certain radius of
searching, it may go back to Beta1 or perhaps veer off to search another
section of space.”

“That’s all nice and fine, Iceman, but if
it gets to Omega89, it will find a small colony of intelligent aliens that will
clearly have been brought there by spaceships. There’s your spacefaring race.
Never mind that it’s not the right one. The mere possibility that it might be
the right one will pull the Bugs forward from Beta1.”

“Not if we make the colony at Omega89 look
like a pre-spaceflight tech level, CAG,” said Iceman.

“And how would we do that?” asked Shiloh.

“Bombardment with Mark 2 kinetic energy penetrators
plus laser strikes as needed. At sufficiently high speed, the concussion from
impact will obliterate anything that looks advanced enough to be of interest.
When the VLO gets there, it will see the ruins of a small settlement with a few
survivors but no sign of any technology. It may not even bother going there if
the scouts don’t detect any signs of technology such as radio or radar
emissions.”

“That means we’d have to get there before
the Bugs do. Can we?”

“If the F2 doesn’t have to wait for the
next Mark 6 to be completed, it can leave within the hour and arrive one, maybe
two days before the ESTIMATED time of insectoid arrival. I emphasize the word
‘estimated’, CAG. I can’t guarantee when the third VLO will get there IF in
fact it’s going there at all. It may not you know. Just sayin.”

“Understood. Okay, let’s do this. Make the
necessary preparations, and send that bird on its way.”

“Roger that, CAG. I’ll also send
instructions to the monitoring raiders there to take whatever steps are necessary
to avoid detection by insectoid scouts.”

“Very good, Iceman. Was there anything
else?”

“Negative, CAG. You can go back to sleep
now. Iceman clear.”

                                             
* * *

Shiloh arrived at the Operations Center and
found Howard already there. The main display was showing the strategic
situation. A lot had apparently happened over the last 22 days. Sniper had sent
back several message drones during that time. Three more motherships had
arrived together at Beta1. The latest Mark 6 attack drone to be delivered there
had crippled one of them. Unlike the previous attack, the other two motherships
hadn’t left immediately. Instead they had launched hundreds of attack craft to
sweep nearby space. When they hadn’t found anything, the motherships recovered
them and headed off in different directions. None were following VLO #3. It
seemed clear that they were on search missions.

The bad news was the message drone just
arrived from Omega89. The F2 sent to bombard the Sogas colony there arrived to
learn from the raiders monitoring the colony that a bug scout had taken a good
look at the colony before leaving. Two days later VLO #3 arrived. The Sogas
colony was overrun and decimated, just as in the old timeline. The plan to
disguise the Sogas colony had failed.

Howard looked at Shiloh. “We have to assume
that the Bugs recognize the Sogas colony as belonging to a spacefaring race and
that reinforcements will show up soon. The plan to fool them was worth a try,
but it obviously failed.”

Shiloh nodded. “I agree. We have to adjust
our strategy now. I don’t think we should keep sending Mark 6s to Beta1. The
transit times are so long, and we don’t know if the reinforcements will
continue to show up there first or skip past it and move on to Sogas space
directly. Since we only have enough platinum now for four more warheads, I want
to keep them close at hand.”

“I’ll issue the directives. Any other
thoughts, Shiloh?”

Shiloh stared at the display and thought
hard. With the distances involved, it would be very easy to be caught by
surprise and out of position. There were just too many star systems to monitor
all the time, and if something did happen, the information might not make it
back here fast enough to react to it in a timely manner. Somehow they had to
shorten the time it took to receive information. Thirty-five days from Beta1
was way too long. Even ten days from Omega89 was a potential problem. A
solution occurred to him.

“We should set up a forward command post in
a star system close to the Sogas home world. All incoming message drones will
be directed there. Our offensive forces will use it as a rally point and as a
jumping off point when it’s time to deploy those assets.”

“A forward command post, eh? I can see the
advantages, but what exactly did you have in mind?”

“I’ll take a task force there. It’ll have
at least one carrier, a supply freighter or two, plus raiders as escort. I’d
want Iceman along too. Between the two of us, we should be able to come up with
the best responses to any bug move. I’ll send you regular updates, and we’ll
have contingency plans in case we can’t stop them.”

“Where were you thinking of trying to stop
them?” asked Howard.

“Omega54, the Sogas home world system.
Since we can’t convince the Bugs that the Sogas are pre-spaceflight, we should
try to convince them that the Sogas are responsible for the attacks at Beta1.
Using multiple Mark 6s there might convince them of that. By the time we run
out of Mark 6 warheads, we might have enough GLB cannon equipped raiders to
keep them from overrunning that system and moving on.”

Howard nodded. “You do realize I hope that
in order to convince the Bugs that the Sogas are responsible for the attacks,
you’ll have to defend the Sogas home world as if it was Earth. That means your
fighters and raiders will take losses.”

Shiloh sighed. “Understood, Sir. The
challenge I’ll be faced with is figuring out when the extra time gained is no
longer worth the losses needed to gain it. I won’t sacrifice them all for a few
more days. We’re going to need them when the Bugs make it to Earth.”

“I don’t envy you that task, Shiloh. It’ll
be a difficult tradeoff to make. What carrier do you want to take?”

Shiloh didn’t hesitate. “Midway. We’ll cram
it with supplies for a long mission by taking less than its full complement of
fighters. Now that I think about it, I don’t want any freighters tagging along.
They’ll only slow me down.”

“What about cannon-equipped raiders?” asked
Howard.

“I’d like to take all twelve that are ready
now and bring the rest up to the rally point as they become available.” Shiloh
was surprised when Howard shook his head.

“No. I can’t authorize that, Admiral. With
all our Mark 6s sent forward, Earth would be absolutely defenseless against any
surprise bug incursion if all the cannon-armed raiders were with you. We know
that the old timeline is no longer in play, so we can’t be sure that the Bugs
won’t leapfrog past the Sogas and find us while you’re still holding them at
Omega54. I’ll let you take six now and one of every two additional raiders as
they’re converted.”

Shiloh was tempted to argue that a
half-hearted effort to defend Earth where it should be defended, namely around
someone else’s planet, was bound to get half-assed results. The term ‘defeat in
detail’ came to mind. He was just about to say so when he noticed that Howard
had a strange look on his face. He seemed to be staring off into infinity.
Is
he…

“Are you having a vision, Admiral?” asked
Shiloh.

Howard didn’t seem to hear him but suddenly
blinked furiously and took in a deep breath. “So that’s what you’ve been
experiencing,” he said.

“You’ve had a vision.” It was less a
question than a statement.

Howard nodded. “I saw you tell me that it
was a good thing I let you have all available cannon-armed raiders because you
needed them at Omega54, and no bug ships showed up here up to that point. Okay,
obviously we sent this vision back here now to persuade me to change my mind.
Well, I’m persuaded. You take all the converted raiders. How soon can you be on
your way, Shiloh?”

“That depends on how long it takes to load
Midway with supplies, Sir. Iceman and I also have to figure out what
instructions to send to all the monitoring raiders so that they send message
drones to the right place. I’ll say 48 hours, but I’ll try to make it 24.”

“Very good. You let me know if you
encounter any logistical delays, and I’ll kick some ass for you. Brief me when
you and Iceman have all the details figured out.”

“Affirmative, Admiral.” Shiloh gave Howard
a quick salute, which the CSO returned, and then left the room.

The Flag Bridge on Midway was unnaturally
quiet. Shiloh knew it was the tension of expectation. Iceman had received a
very detailed vision pinpointing the exact time and coordinates of the arrival
of VLO #3, which for purposes of identification was designated as Sierra1.
Midway had taken up her planned position ten light seconds from the Sogas home
world. Her complement of fighters were flying escort just in case they were
attacked by bug attack craft, although the vision had not indicated any such
event. Iceman was monitoring the com channels in his capacity as Shiloh’s
Deputy Fleet Commander. Midway’s Helm and Tactical systems were under control
of Stoney. 3
^rd
Fleet’s other assets consisted of 12 cannon-armed
raiders, with another 99 raiders armed only with their internal lasers. One
additional raider also carried the sole Mark 6 attack drone that luck had made
available to Shiloh before Sierra1 was due to show up. The raider force was
under the command of Vandal.

He and Iceman had come to a consensus on
how to handle the coming incursion. They would take a page from Casanova’s
campaign several timelines back and use recon drones to pinpoint the exact
point where the target would emerge from Jumpspace. They’d send that
information back in time via the RTC, and then lay an ambush to hit the target
with the Mark 6 warhead so fast that the Bugs wouldn’t have a chance to report
back what was happening. Sierra1 would go ‘off the air’ and leave a big mystery
for the Head Bug to deal with.

Shiloh checked the chronometer. There were
seconds left before the target arrived. Vandal would control the battle, and
Shiloh and Iceman would find out the results 25 seconds after it happened. The
countdown hit zero, then began to count up again. When it reached 25 seconds,
the main display showed a bright flash that quickly died down.

“Right on time and on target, CAG. Vandal
has pulled it off,” said Iceman.

“I never doubted it, Iceman. As long as we
keep getting visions about incursions we can handle, we’ll keep giving the Bugs
a bloody nose. It’s the surprise arrival of bug ships that I’m worried about.
No vision means we can’t stop them here, and we’d have to pull back as
planned.”

“Affirmative, CAG. Shall I call the RTC up
to the Flag Bridge now so that we can send the information back?”

“Might as well get it done sooner rather
than later, Iceman.”

No sooner had Iceman sent back the vision
than he received the next one. Once again there were detailed time and space
coordinates. Sierra2, as it would be designated, would arrive in ten days.