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The transfers of the AI pilots went off without accidents and were finished in time, much to Shiloh’s surprise. Midway now had one Mark 6 drone on board. A message drone was on its way to Beta1 ordering Vixen to send his Mark 6 drone back to Sol via a fighter. Another message drone was on its way to Howard to advise him that 3rd Fleet would be pulling back after the upcoming battle. The battle itself was only observed in the abstract. None of the defending raiders risked giving the game away by transmitting anything directly at Midway. Long range observation by recon drones told Shiloh when the battle started and when it was over. He was just as glad that he couldn’t see the volunteers die with his own eyes. Once all the raiders had been destroyed, the five VLOs, which Iceman assured Shiloh were NOT the same five observed by Vixen at Beta1, proceeded to exploit the breeding potential of the Sogas home world. With half a dozen fighters loaded with message drones and left behind to continue long range surveillance, Midway and the cannon raiders made a careful exit and headed for the Avalon Colony system, the former human colony that was closest to Sogas space. Time left until the timeship repairs were complete was now 140 days.
Upon arrival at the Avalon Colony system, a quick check of the recon drones stationed there revealed no sign of any insectoid incursions or scouting. It wasn’t long before a steady stream of message drones started arriving as all the various monitoring raiders and fighters received word that 3rd Fleet had relocated further back. No reports of insectoid movement were received for the next three weeks. The five VLOs at Omega54 were still there. Twenty-two days after arriving in the Avalon system, a message drone from Beta1 arrived to report that the five VLOs previously reported there had suddenly moved as a group on a trajectory that seemed to point to the Sogas home world system. The timing of the move turned out to be just right. There was exactly enough time after the battle for information to be sent back to the alpha relays and on to Beta1.
Shiloh and Iceman considered the news to be both good and bad. It was good that information on those other five VLOs would now be coming in faster since they’d be closer, but bad that there were now ten VLOs ‘digesting’ the home world of the Wolf-people. That might mean that they’d be finished exploiting it sooner and therefore moving on sooner too.
It wasn’t long before reports started arriving of insectoid scouting activity in Sogas colony systems. Some of those colony systems had a fair bit of metal in the form of mining, refining and manufacturing capacity, plus a limited amount of breeding potential too. As the days turned into weeks, Shiloh and Iceman observed how the Insectoids carefully explored and then exploited the entire Sogas empire. Every colony was visited by one of the ten motherships, even if only for a few hours. Anything made of metal was salvaged. Careful reconnaissance of colony worlds after the motherships left showed no sign of any survivors.
When all Sogas colonies had been or were in the process of being exploited, the motherships began to head off to unmonitored destinations. The first five to leave headed in directions that would not discover human worlds. Number six however might discover a human colony world if its scouts ranged out widely enough from the mothership’s base course. Shiloh knew from one of Howard’s updates that all human colonies on this side of human space were ordered to stop using any kind of electronic communication that might be detected by insectoid scout ships. Colonists were also advised to abandon their settlements and hide in nearby forested areas or caves. Even if the colonists all did that, and that was a big if, the buildings, cultivated land and some of the larger machinery would be impossible to hide. Any insectoid scout in orbit would be able to determine that there was some kind of intelligent presence. It was a long shot, but if the scout didn’t detect any EM emissions from a distance, it might not bother for a closer look.
With at least one VLO now a potential threat to discover humans as a spacefaring race, Shiloh made the decision to pull 3rd Fleet back to Sol, leaving behind several fighters to make sure that message drones from other systems were redirected back to Sol.
By the time 3rd Fleet arrived back at Earth, there were only 59 days left until the expected completion of repairs to the timeship. Shiloh was amazed at what Howard had managed to accomplish while he was gone. Somehow Howard had gotten the OC to ‘unofficially’ persuade wealthy individuals and corporations to buy and donate platinum to the Space Force. It wasn’t a huge amount, but it was enough for another four warheads, bringing the total that would be available in a few weeks to seven. Over 100 X-ray laser drones were now deployed in Earth orbit. Production of GLB cannon parts had resumed now that all time machine parts were finished being built. Five more cannon-armed raiders were waiting to be added to the fifteen brought back by 3rd Fleet. There was also a project under way to adapt the GLB cannon designed for raiders so that it could be mounted on Dreadnought’s hull in place of its laser batteries. With the much higher power output from Dreadnought’s ZPG units, any GLB cannon would have a much longer effective range.
The next vision didn’t take long arriving. Shiloh had literally just finished briefing Howard on 3rd Fleet’s mission when both men received a message from Iceman on their implants. Iceman got right to the point.
“An insectoid mothership will arrive in 13 days. I have just received the precise time and jump coordinates. We’ll be able to ambush it with a Mark 6, but taking out that VLO will tip off the rest of the Insectoids that something is going on in this star system.”
Howard sighed. “So...they’ve found us. I guess I knew this would happen eventually. At least after this coming attack, I can make a legitimate case to the Grand Senate for commandeering a lot more platinum. The problem will be in converting it fast enough to make a difference, but we have to try. Shiloh, you’ll be the Field Commander of course, but Iceman will handle the actual ambush. You two put your heads together, and if there’s something you need, let me know, and I’ll see what I can do. Was there anything else we should know, Iceman?”
“Negative, Admiral. I believe we’ll have this next attack well in hand. It’s the ones after that that are uncertain.”
“Yes, even we humans have figured that out by ourselves,” said Howard.
Shiloh said nothing. Iceman was right of course. This next one would be the easy one. With that one destroyed, there would be 46 days left until the timeship was operational. Somehow Space Force had to hold the Bugs off that long. An idea occurred to him, but he waited until he was out of Howard’s office and someplace where he could have a private conversation with Iceman.
“CAG to Iceman.”
“Go ahead, CAG.”
“Did your vision confirm that we should use a Mark 6 on this next VLO?”
“Negative, CAG. I assumed we would since we’ll have four of them available by then. Are you contemplating using the cannon raiders instead?”
“Yes I am, and here’s why. Right now the Bugs probably think that the Sogas were responsible for the losses that happened so fast that the motherships weren’t able to transmit any information. Having a ten klick mothership vanish that quickly has to be a big concern for the Bug Leadership. If we use cannon raiders, we should be able to destroy one mothership relatively quickly. Would you agree?”
“Roger that, CAG. I see where this discussion is going. You’re about to suggest that holding back our Mark 6s allows us to maintain the deception that it was the Sogas who had the mystery weapon.”
“Yes. We know the Bugs will send reinforcements anyway, but if they think we also have that mystery weapon, it’s my belief that they’re likely to call in a lot more reinforcements. If they’re prone to overconfidence, then we should try to exploit that by not tipping our hand too quickly.”
“Logical, CAG. It has the added benefit that having multiple Mark 6s on hand as a reserve may tip the scales in our favor when they arrive in numbers that our cannon raiders might have difficulty in overcoming.”
Shiloh nodded enthusiastically. “Exactly! And one more thing, the more practice we get with the GLB cannons, the more likely we’ll be able to pinpoint the best areas of a bug mothership to aim at.”
“I like your thinking, CAG. That kind of devious thinking is unlikely to have occurred to us. Will you be flying your flag on Midway again during the ambush?”
“Unless Dreadnought is ready by then,” said Shiloh.
“It won’t be. By the way, I’ve just received a lasercom message from Valkyrie and Casanova. They want me to ask you if you’ll take advantage of these next 13 days to renew your relationship with Commander Kelly? What should I tell them, CAG?”
Shiloh laughed and said in what he hoped Iceman would sense as a playful voice, “Tell them to mind their own business!”
“Message has been sent, CAG. Was there something else you wished to discuss now?”
“No, nothing else now. CAG clear.”
* * *
When the 13 days were up, Shiloh was once again on Midway’s Flag Bridge, with Iceman on board as his Deputy Fleet Commander. Midway was off to one side of the expected emergence point at a distance of almost a million kilometers. Twenty raiders armed with GLB cannon were less than ten thousand klicks away from the emergence point, and when the VLO arrived, those raiders would actually be behind it. One hundred and thirty-three laser-armed raiders were halfway between the emergence point and Earth. They would take care of any attack craft that the bug ship might be able to launch before it was destroyed by cannon fire. It was hoped that the Bugs would see the raiders blocking their way to Earth and assume that the beams causing the pinpoint internal damage were coming from them. With a little luck, the Bugs might not scan behind them at all until it was too late.
The Flag Bridge was deadly quiet as the countdown approached zero.
This will be interesting, thought Shiloh. He was anxious to see how the new firing plan for the GLB cannon worked out. Instead of one massive volley of simultaneous shots, each of the 20 raiders would fire in sequence 25/100th of a second apart. By the time all 20 had fired, the first one would be recharged and could fire again. The idea was to try to identify which shot hit the power unit, and thereby narrow down where power units were likely to be located for use in future battles.
The countdown was synchronized to take into consideration the light speed lag of being a million kilometers away, and as soon as the countdown hit zero, a computer-enhanced image of the VLO appeared on the Flag Bridge’s main display.
––––––––
“Titan’s team is firing,” said Iceman unnecessarily.
Shiloh smiled. If he didn’t know better, he’d interpret Iceman’s superfluous remark as a sign of jitters. Was it possible that AIs could get anxious the same way some humans did? He’d have to ask Iceman that question after the battle.
The VLO exploded with a satisfyingly large blast. Shiloh looked at the battle chronometer. Six point seven seconds after emerging from Jumpspace. No sign of any attack craft to mop up.
“I wish they would all be this easy,” said Shiloh.
“Roger that, CAG. I should use the RTC now and send the vision back. It’ll be interesting to see if I get another one right after that.”
In fact, he did get another vision right away. The next attack was 18 days away, and this time there’d be three VLOs, not one.
* * *
Eighteen days later it was Shiloh who was clearly nervous. Careful analysis of the shot that seemed to have triggered the power unit overload indicated that wherever else the power units might be, the center of the sphere apparently held at least one of them. That actually made sense to Shiloh, considering that these 10 km spheres started out as much smaller spheres that could maneuver and jump and therefore had to have at least one power unit to begin with. With that data, the 21 cannon-armed raiders that were now available would split their fire evenly among the three targets, and all would fire simultaneously at the center of the spheres from slightly different angles.
In addition, there were now 151 laser-armed raiders riding shotgun between the Earth and the emergence point. One hundred and forty-nine X-ray laser drones were deployed in geosynchronous orbit. They would be held back as the last ditch defense against bug attack craft attempting to land bug soldiers. The other aspect that made Shiloh nervous this time was that Midway would be closer to the action. A LOT closer. Less than 300,000 kilometers. The time lag due to distance would be one second each way, compared with more than three seconds for the previous battle. That was something that Shiloh had insisted on, over Iceman’s objections that Midway and therefore The CAG would be risking battle damage and injury. But with three VLOs to overcome, Shiloh figured the battle was likely to last long enough that his and Iceman’s ability to issue orders quickly might make the difference. While the logic of the move closer was undeniable, that didn’t prevent him from reacting emotionally to the perceived danger. He hadn’t felt that anxiety before other battles, but that was because he didn’t know exactly when those battles would start. This time he did.
When the countdown hit zero, three motherships emerged from Jumpspace exactly where the vision had indicated. The laser-armed raiders began firing once again to draw the attention of the enemy, while the 21 cannon-armed raiders fired from the opposite side. As the seconds started to accumulate, Shiloh noticed from the main display sidebar that he was losing some of his laser-armed raiders. Two GLB cannon volleys had fired now with no corresponding explosions in any of the VLOs. As soon as the third volley fired, one of the cannon-armed raiders disappeared from the display.
“The enemy has detected Vandal’s group, CAG,” said Iceman.
Shiloh had already figured that out for himself, and that wasn’t good. If they lost too many of the cannon-armed raiders, future battles might become unwinnable, and Shiloh’s gut told him that there would be at least one more battle before the timeship was repaired.
“The enemy is launching attack craft now,” said Iceman.
Shiloh bit his lip. By prior arrangement, Titan’s group of laser-armed raiders would shift their fire to the attack craft when they got within a certain range, but that would allow the motherships to shift all of their fire to Vandal’s group, which was now down to 18 raiders. Shiloh made a decision. Midway was being escorted by 55 F2 fighters.
“Order Gunslinger’s fighters to micro-jump into attack range of the enemy attack craft and take them out. Titan’s raiders are to continue to target VLO laser batteries.”
“Orders have been sent and acknowledged, CAG. Fighters have jumped.”
Shiloh checked the battle chronometer. Thirteen seconds now since the battle began. Vandal’s cannon-armed raiders would fire another volley within two seconds. Shiloh crossed his fingers. Apparently that made the difference. As soon as the next volley fired, one of the VLOs exploded. A quick check of the sidebar data showed there were 16 cannon-armed raiders left. Analysis of enemy laser fire showed a steady and now steepening drop in the number of laser blasts coming from the remaining two VLOs. Titan’s group was obviously having some success in knocking out enemy laser batteries. The next GLB cannon volley was coming up fast.
“Explode, you bastards,” whispered Shiloh. A second VLO exploded. Shiloh smacked his right fist into his left palm in triumph and relaxed. The momentum of battle had shifted in their favor. Vandal’s group was now down to just 12 raiders, but after five volleys, those raiders now had a lot of data about what part of the target NOT to aim at, and they adjusted their aim accordingly. The remaining VLO was clearly damaged too. Estimates of firepower from an undamaged 10 km mothership were 66 laser batteries. The Battle Computer was now estimating that the 3rd VLO was down to less than 10 batteries still functioning. That number was dropping fast.
Suddenly the unexpected happened. The 3rd VLO micro-jumped away. Shiloh cursed long and loud. That was one VLO that he was sure they’d now have to face again, and it would almost certainly be in the company of reinforcements. After analyzing and repairing the damage caused by the GLB cannon, the Bugs also would have a much better idea of the kind of weaponry they faced. If he were the Bug in charge of strategy and tactics, he’d wait until he could organize a massive force of at least six motherships before attacking again. He had to remind himself that the battle wasn’t over yet. There were over 200 bug attack craft attempting to get to Earth, but Titan’s and Gunslinger’s forces were now concentrating on them. None of the attack craft got close enough to Earth to warrant using any of the X-ray laser drones, however additional raiders and fighters were lost. Overall, Shiloh would have to categorize this battle as a major but not decisive victory, with significant losses to friendly forces.
When the battle was finally over, Shiloh told Iceman to send back the vision. Both of them were expecting Iceman to get another vision about the NEXT battle, but he didn’t. Thirty seconds later Iceman received a lasercom transmission from Valkyrie at the shipyard asteroid. She had gotten the vision containing all the targeting data for the next battle. Nine VLOs would emerge from Jumpspace in 23 days.
