Lens of Time: Book 05 - Star Rover-The Worst of Time (30 page)

Dat looked at Gresha, “I suspect Belwen is planning to use them for something.” Dat looked at his panel, “I have to decide how to use the battleships with the Rovers we have remaining.” Gresha started rocking in her chair and Dat asked, “What’s bothering you?”

“I hate having to skip away every time we hit the initial group of pursuers. The second group is always larger.”

Dat thought a few moments and said, “Stein, how many main battleships do we have?”

“Three million.”

“Loree, have you been able to determine how many ships are used to chase the Rover Wings when they attack?”

“The first group usually has twenty to thirty ships. The follow ups usually have a hundred or more.”

Gresha stopped rocking, “What are you thinking?”

“If we try to kill their ships by these small attacks, we won’t keep up with their building replacements. We have to take them out in large numbers. Stein, how many attacks can fleet orchestrate at any given moment?”

“We could have an individual target for every Rover here; why do you ask?”

“I want to have them all assigned a target and after firing, I want all of them to skip to the same coordinate before they skip away.”

“You know they’ll probably have more than twenty million ships pursue them.”

“Which leads to my next question; Loree, can you place the battleships around that coordinate in such a way as to have a clear field of fire from all sides?”

“Do you mean you don’t want to be unable to hit a ship that arrives inside the ranks of the ships already there?”

“Wow, that’s a good use of double negative; but yes. We need to be able to hit them as quickly as they emerge into normal space.”

“You know how fast those computerized beams can start firing.”

“I do but the penetrators have a much longer effective range. They can reach out and touch them from outside those beams’ effective range.”

“I don’t think what you’re asking for will work.”

“Why not?”

“They’ll emerge into normal space and their beams will be immediately operational.”

“No, there is a slight delay.”

“Yes, but from the range you want to fire, they will be active before the penetrators arrive.”

“I didn’t think about that.”

Cyanna said, “Why wait to fire on them?”

Dat said, “What do you mean?”

“The penetrators were designed to be self-guided. They emit a locator beam and launch at whatever target that beam designates. If a beam has already designated a target, that target will be ignored by other penetrators. It was this feature that made them so deadly in last war.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“Just fill the space around the coordinates with the proper number of active penetrators.”

“What happens when ten million Rovers jump in?”

“The penetrators will ignore them due to their transponders; however, you’ll have to clear an area for their arrival. The Rovers can see normal space before they emerge and they should be able to avoid hitting each other. The command system will have them jumping in at just the right spot and time it such that there won’t be any collisions.”

“Get it set up and let me know when the Rovers have their assignments.”

“Will do. It is my opinion that a sphere is the best formation for the Juke Boxes to assume at the site of the attack.”

• • •

“Gibbs, are you glad you transferred to the heavies?”

“I am, Kune. This is going to be the direction the Union is going to be moving in the future.”

“I just thought you’d miss flying alone; you know, just you against the universe.”

“That might have been the case but I now have a great Weapon’s Officer.”

“Is she there?”

“Yes, but she’s in the armory checking on the launch tubes.”

“Be honest, Gibbs; you did this because you wanted to be with Lydia.”

“More than you know. However, this battle we’re about to have confirms what I believe; the Rovers have to hit and run away. The Juke Box Class of battleships will do the real fighting. That’s where I want to be.”

“How many ships do you command?”

“One and a half million; I have three good Rear Admirals that really make things happen. Just take care of our lads and get them out of here before the pursuit arrives.”

“I’ll do the best I can. Just don’t let them overwhelm your fleet, Gibbs.”

“We’ve been ordered by the Old Man to keep our drives hot.”

“I’ll let you know how it goes. Good luck.”

“Same to you, Kune.”

• • •

“Loree, have you had any success on that task I gave you?”

“I have and you don’t need to worry at the moment.”

“Good; let me know if anything changes.”

“I will.”

Gresha looked at Dat, “What are you talking about?”

“I’ll let you know later; we need to drop some penetrators in the kill zone.”

Gresha nodded, “Stein, where do you want our penetrators dropped?”

“I’ll handle it.”

Dat said, “Loree, let me know when everything is in place.”

“We should be ready in about two hours.”

“H
ave the Humans responded to our invasions?”

“We have not seen any of their ships in Alliance Territory or in our galaxy, Your Majesty.”

“Have you initiated plans to invade their space?”

“We’re ready but have waited for them to respond first.”

“What if they don’t?”

“Then we’ll continue to invade as many planets as possible before they act.”

“Are you sure we’ll be safe here?”

“We moved you to the safest site in our galaxy. We’ve also disrupted space around your planet. That was a cleaver technique they used and it is effective to delay any attacks.”

“Then continue with the invasions and get those planets organized to start construction of ships.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

• • •

“Admiral Anders, what have you determined the Grillen are doing about attacking us?”

“They have millions of ships that are in formation at the edge of their galaxy but they have not made a move to attack us or participate in the invasion.”

Kat thought a moment and leaned forward, “Do you think they’re waiting for us to respond before they attack?”

“I believe that’s what they’re doing, sir. They know that time is on their side if they can invade and take enough planets in the Red Sector. They’ll convert their production facilities to ship building factories and in just a few years they’ll be able to take us on as well as the civilizations in M87. They really don’t need to take us on now.”

“But the longer we wait to respond, the more planets they’ll take.”

“They outnumber us now. Their new ships also match up with the Rovers in technology. We’ll have to come up with something to counter their edge if we intend to start the fight now.”

Kat stared at her display and said, “What would you do, Jon?”

“We’re over extended, Sir. We can’t just focus on one enemy at the moment and we’re outnumbered by both. We should send most of the Rovers to assist Admiral Arvolo but we can’t run the risk of leaving our planets open to attack. If we pull our forces out of the Master’s galaxy, they’ll rebuild and we’ll lose whatever ground we made against them. If I had to decided, I’d just leave things as they are for the moment and see which enemy forces us to react.”

“That’s what I’ve determined as well. Keep me informed on what’s going on.”

“Yes Sir.”

• • •

Dat looked at Gibbs on his display. Gibbs said, “How long are we planning to do this, Sir?”

“We’re going to keep hitting them until they manage to get outside of the kill zone. As long as we can keep them pinned inside our formations, we’ll keep fighting.”

“Yes Sir.”

• • •

Dat pressed his panel, “Kune, it’s time to start this show. All of your ships have their targets so let’s begin your attacks in ten minutes. Make sure your pilots know to get out of here immediately.”

“They know the consequences, Sir.”

Make sure their skips are done so that they arrive at their designated arrival time.”

“Those skips have been programed by Fleet’s main computer. They will all arrive within a tenth of a second of each other.”

Dat smiled, “Good luck and good shooting, Admiral.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

Gresha came over and sat down in Dat’s lap. He looked at her, smiled, and said, “Is there something you need to be doing?”

“With four computers running everything? I don’t think so.” Dat kissed her and after a moment they heard, “Dat, I think Newton has developed a fourth force field.”

Dat and Gresha broke the kiss and looked startled. Gresha said, “What have you done, Newton?”

“I routed the eight reactors that aren’t being used to the force field emitters. If the outside force field fails, I use them to energize a field inside the remaining two and expand them to the original distance. I can continue to do that indefinitely.”

“What if two collapse?”

“Then we’ll have two until I can reenergize the other two. It’s really not that hard to keep three active at all times.”

“Get this information out to the other battleships. I hope they can learn how to do this in time.”

Loree said, “I’ve sent it to the weapon computers on every ship. Some of them are already running trials on it.”

Dat said, “Newton, wouldn’t it be more effective to use those reactors to strengthen the three force fields instead of using four?”

“Not really. Remember, Dark Matter Fields have holes in them no matter how much you strengthen them. This additional field makes it much stronger than just adding more power to the other three.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I am.”

Dat looked at Gresha, “Newton knows fields, Dat.”

Loree said, “Most of the ships are now using the field generation technique.”

Dat nodded, “Four minutes to attack. Get the penetrators in the tubes and the follow ups in the channels.”

Cyanna said, “I did that an hour ago.”

Dat looked at Gresha, “You’re right; with four computers, there’s not much for us to do.”

Gresha smiled, “Then where were we?” Dat laughed and kissed Gresha again.

• • •

Kune watched his panel and the countdown hit zero. Normal space disappeared and a moment later he found himself rushing in on a giant Masters’ Battleship that was spinning. He knew he had no chance to hit it before being acquired by the ships main beams so he fired at a distance and went vertical away from the giant ship. The beams on the Master’s ships acquired Kune’s Rover and fired a barrage at him but his sudden move away from the ship caused six of the beams to miss. One hit the rear of Kune’s ship but one was not enough to get through his force field. By the time the others had reacquired the small ship, it was out of range and moving away. The eight Master Battleships turned and gave chase. Kune watched his panel and saw the second countdown hit zero and he skipped away. The eight huge battleships read his path and skipped after him. That brief moment needed to read his trajectory was going to prove fatal.

Gibbs was holding Lydia’s hand as they waited for the Rovers to return. Lydia said, “You know I love you.”

Gibbs smiled, “I’m not deserving of you…but I’m so thankful you do. I love…” Suddenly a huge white something appeared in normal space and rocketed away at an incredible speed. The Rovers began arriving by the millions and emerged from the same place in normal space. It looked like a giant six mile wide white wire emerging and disappearing in the distance. The ships were packed so closely together that they looked like an energy beam being fired from a point in space. Ten million Rovers blasted into normal space and in less than six seconds all of them had disappeared into the distance. Fifty thousand miles away the line seemed to explode on the front end as hundreds of thousands of Rovers skipped away from the long line in different directions. That’s when the first Master’s Battleships appeared.

The actual number of enemy ships that appeared was never known; it could only be estimated. Unlike the Rovers that were organized in their skips to avoid collisions, the Masters weren’t. Collisions were immediate and numerous. Though they were moving at high speed in their pursuit, they couldn’t match the speed of the thirty million medium penetrators scattered around the entry point. The penetrators began locking on battleships and the explosions from the collisions and impacts were unbelievable.

Dat hit the general frequency, “Target any ship that moves outside the kill zone. Save the penetrators on your ships until those penetrators in the zone are depleted!”

• • •

The Fifty received a message that a major enemy force was attacking the pursuit ships. They immediately ordered all available ships to join the attack. The coordinates were sent out and millions of ships began jumping out to support their fleets.

Dat watched his display and was stunned by the violence in the kill zone. The thirty million penetrators were going fast. The collisions and the impacts of the millions of penetrators had ignited the wrecks of ships into a giant nuclear fire. Master’s Battleships roared into normal space and were vaporized by the gigantic fire burning in their path. The follow up fleets saw the huge fire and changed their route to outside the kill zone. They emerged and began using their thrusters to come back at the huge globe of white ships surrounding the immense fire burning in space. Dat saw the millions of ships appearing outside his formation and started to order his ships to skip out but stopped an instant before he pushed the button. That Kune was amazing.

• • •

Kune looked at his display and said, “Speedy, are those ships still spinning?”

“No, they had to stop spinning in order to use their thrusters to come back into the fight.”

“Start sending targets to the Rovers.”

The millions of Master Battleships had begun turning to come back into the fight and found millions of the small white ships appearing in their thruster lines firing at their ships. They began exploding in massive numbers.

• • •

Dat watched his display and yelled, “That’s all of the pursuers. Reduce the radius of the globe and fire at any ships approaching us from outside our formations.”