The Synchronicity War Part 4 (31 page)

This one would be a little different.
Iceman knew the timetable for production of Mark 6 warheads, and the next one
would not be available that quickly. They would have to use the GLB cannon. The
ambush was set up very carefully. Non-cannon-armed raiders would be arrayed in
a 10 by10 matrix, curved slightly to give each one a good angle on the target
coordinates. The cannon-armed raiders would be placed 90 degrees around to the
side so that no raider was in danger of being hit by any other.

When the time came, Midway was once again
at a safe distance. Vandal would command the ambush force. This time Midway was
receiving enhanced video and tactical information directly from multiple
raiders. Shiloh would still get the delayed data, due to the distance, but he’d
be able to see the battle visually and up close.

This time the countdown was calibrated to
take the light speed lag into account. When it hit zero, a sphere appeared on
the Flag Bridge’s main display. Immediately there appeared dozens of bright
pinpoint flashes. Laser hits from the 100 raiders. The status of all those
raiders on the sidebar started to reflect enemy return fire as raider
designations began turning from green to red. This had been anticipated. The
non-cannon-armed raiders were performing their mission of distracting the Bugs,
while the cannon raiders fired their GLB weapons as fast as the power charging
cycles would allow.

The first GLB volley did not hit a power
unit. That much was obvious from the fact that the ship didn’t explode
immediately. The second volley was more successful. The explosion was quite
violent and for Shiloh, very satisfying. It had taken four point three seconds to
destroy Sierra2. The bad news was that 13 raiders had been destroyed too.

As soon as Iceman received all the
necessary data, he sent the vision back and once again received the next one
almost immediately. That confirmed a pattern. If future ambushes were
successfully completed, Iceman would get the information very quickly. If he
didn’t get a vision, then the next ambush was either a failure and the entire 3
^rd
Fleet was destroyed before it could send a warning back, or the Fleet had been
withdrawn before the next bug incursion. Figuring out which was Shiloh’s
dilemma.

What he and Iceman didn’t know was whether
Sierra2 had time to send any kind of signal back to the relay points. If
organic beings were in control of the mothership, then the answer probably was
no, but if the Bugs were using some kind of AI capability, then those could
react fast enough to send a warning back.

The good news about the next ambush was
that 3
^rd
Fleet would have another Mark 6 warhead to use. Sierra3 was
destroyed within a fraction of a second after emerging from Jumpspace 13 days
later. This time there was no new vision. The moment Shiloh had dreaded was now
here. Did 3
^rd
Fleet stay or pull back. The mission was to convince
the Bugs that Omega54 was THE home world of the spacefaring race that had
attacked the Bugs at Beta1. The longer he could keep the Bugs’ attention
focused here, the longer it would take them to get to Sol, and the more time
Valkyrie and Casanova would have to get the timeship repaired. The latest update
from Howard was Valkyrie’s estimate that repairs would be completed in another
150 days, more or less. Five months. Shiloh had to keep the Bugs away for five
whole months, and he had no idea how to do it.

At least he was getting some
reinforcements. Another three cannon raiders had arrived. The next and second
last Mark 6 warhead was scheduled to arrive in nine days. He asked Iceman for
his thoughts on what to do next.

“If we pull our raiders back to Midway’s
position, then 3
^rd
Fleet will be concentrated in one place. I
recommend we wait until the next Mark 6 shows up, or until the next insectoid
incursion, whichever comes first. If the Insectoids get here first and in
dangerous strength, then we immediately micro-jump away and leave messages with
the message drones to redirect our reinforcements to another location in this
system. By keeping the Fleet here, we can continue to monitor insectoid
activity first hand and react accordingly, CAG.”

Shiloh shook his head, not that he
disagreed with Iceman. On the contrary, Iceman’s suggestion made a lot of
sense. What Shiloh was shaking his head at was the whole situation. He knew
from information about old timelines that once bug reinforcements started
arriving, a trickle could turn into a flood VERY quickly. There was always the
horrifying possibility that the Bugs would not just come here but also send
ships past the system to scout for additional breeding planets. They might
arrive at Sol while 3
^rd
Fleet was still active here. In fact,
Shiloh’s biggest worry was that the Bugs were smart enough to realize what
humans were doing and were sending just enough reinforcements to keep the
ambushers’ attention focused here. In other words, they might be using the same
strategy against him that he was trying to use against them. That this
possibility involved the deliberate sacrifice of multiple motherships was
unthinkable to Shiloh, but who knew what kind of logic these damned Bugs used.

“We should be hearing from Beta1 directly,
any day now, right Iceman?”

“Roger that, CAG. Now that they’ve gotten
the word to send duplicate messages here as well as Sol, we can expect to get a
steady trickle of news from there, starting soon.”

“Okay, I want you to attempt to put
yourself in the position of the bug Leader in one of the relay systems. You’ve
lost contact with ships at Beta1 and now at Omega54. Losses at Beta1 have
stopped. Let’s assume that Sierra2 managed to send some kind of signal back
before being destroyed. What conclusions would you, as the bug leader, make from
all that?” asked Shiloh.

As always, Iceman’s answer was immediate.
“I would assume that Beta1 was the outer edge of a volume of space monitored by
a spacefaring race that had technology sufficient to destroy motherships, and
that Omega54 was either the home world of that race or a major colony world
that was worth conducting defense in strength. Given that assumption, I would
call in reinforcements at a rally point other than Beta1, just in case the
ambushers were monitoring it. I would also arrange for some activity at Beta1
in order to let the enemy think that’s where the rally point was.”

Shiloh nodded. That made perfect sense. The
worst mistake he could make now was to underestimate the Bugs. They had shown
time and time again their ability to do the unexpected. He had to guard against
taking the obvious at face value. Iceman’s logic had crystallized his thinking,
just as he had hoped it would.

“Okay, this is what we’re going to do. For
now we wait. If we hear from Beta1 first, we’ll re-evaluate the situation based
on that information. If the Bugs get here first, we’ll watch them from a safe
distance as best we can until we see their next move. Let’s bring 3
^rd
Fleet back together here around Midway now. I want a message drone sent to Sol
with our latest info and plans, including your assessment of enemy strategy.
I’ll prepare a report to be carried with it. Thanks for your input, Iceman. It
helped me wrap my brain around the situation.”

“My pleasure, CAG. I too enjoyed our
discussion, as brief as it was. Human thinking is sufficiently different that
it makes for a nice change of pace from the kinds of exchanges I have with my
brothers. So thank you, CAG. Let’s hope we have lots more discussions like this
one.”

“Amen to that, Iceman,” said Shiloh.

The first message drone directly from Beta1
arrived four days later. There were now five VLOs apparently holding position
there. They had not all arrived at the same time, and that suggested that Beta1
was being used as the rally point or maybe as one of the rally points. In any
case, if all five moved up to Omega54, there was no way that 3
^rd
Fleet could stop them all without suffering huge losses. The tiny bit of good
news was that the AI in command at Beta1 had decided to hold back the Mark 6
attack drone, which had already been on its way to Beta1 when 3
^rd
Fleet had left Sol. Shiloh had assumed that it had been used. Vixen, however,
had come to the conclusion that one more mothership destroyed at Beta1 would
not significantly change the outcome, while one extra Mark 6 warhead might make
a difference defending Sol. It was time to strategize with Iceman again.

“What do you recommend we do now, Iceman?”

“I recommend we wait here for another five
days. With a little luck, the next Mark 6 warhead will arrive before the
Insectoids do. I also recommend we send a message drone back to Vixen at Beta1
instructing him to send his Mark 6 drone back to Sol.”

“Why Sol and not here, Iceman?” asked
Shiloh.

“Because by the time the message gets there
and the drone is sent back here, at least 44 days will have passed. It’s highly
likely that 3
^rd
Fleet won’t be here that long. Sending the warhead
back to Sol directly is more likely to get it there before the Insectoids
arrive. With the other warhead due to arrive here in five days, which we can
take back ourselves, plus the one or maybe two more that The Old Man still has
enough platinum for, that will total three or four Mark 6s that might be
desperately needed at some point, CAG.”

“Logical as usual, but I’m worried that while
we’re twiddling our thumbs here, the Bugs are leapfrogging past us.”

“Is that just a colloquial expression, or
are you humans really twiddling your thumbs, CAG?”

“JUST an expression, Iceman.” Iceman must
have detected the exasperation in Shiloh’s voice.

“We do understand the seriousness of this
situation, CAG, but some of my brothers insisted I ask. To address your
concern, yes the Insectoids may be leapfrogging past us, but we have no way of
knowing whether they are or not, and that possibility was just as valid four
days ago when you and I had our previous strategic discussion. If I’m wearing
the Supreme Insectoid Commander’s hat again, CAG, I would not see the logic of
spreading my VLOs if I’m convinced that this system is a major population center
for the spacefaring race that attacked at Beta1. Everything we’ve done up to
this point was done to reinforce that idea. Are you proposing we abandon that
strategy now, CAG?”

“No. I’d like to continue that strategy,
but I’m not sure of how best to do that. Any ideas?”

Iceman was silent for almost a full second.
The silence was so unexpected that the hairs on the back of Shiloh’s neck stood
up.

“I’ve just had another vision, CAG. The
timing is not coincidental. We didn’t get this earlier because it has to do
with your last question, and if the information had arrived sooner, it would
have seemed suspect. If this star system were indeed our home system, we would
fight to the last human and the last AI correct, CAG?”

“Yes. Gone on.”

“It would be logical to assume that the
Insectoids have had enough experience attacking the home worlds of spacefaring
races by now that they would recognize that kind of desperate defense, and they
would also recognize a defense that is not desperate. Would you agree with
that, CAG?”

That sounded ominous, but Shiloh couldn’t
argue against it. “Yes.”

“Then we have to arrange for a defense that
appears to be desperate when the Insectoids attack with five motherships in
five point five days time, CAG. This is how it will have to be done.
Twenty-nine brother AIs will volunteer to fight a rear guard action. They will
each control their own raider, plus two more remotely. When the five insectoid
ships arrive, all 87 raiders will micro-jump into laser range, and fire on the
attack craft carrying insectoid soldiers down to the planet. All the raiders
will eventually be destroyed, but the magnitude of the defense will convince
the Insectoids that this planet is worth the sacrifice. They will assume
they’ve located and neutralized the source of the attacks on Beta1. We
calculate that there is a high probability that when the breeding potential of
the Sogas home world has been exhausted, which may take many weeks, the five
VLOs will go their separate ways. That should slow down the advance enough that
the timeship will be repaired before the Insectoids discover Earth.”

“Can we find 29 volunteers to do that?”
asked Shiloh quietly.

“Already done, CAG. That’s why I took so
long to respond. My brothers and I have already discussed this plan, and we
have our 29 volunteers.”