Scout Force (21 page)

      
“I can see why the CFW was so excited.
 
That was some pretty fancy flying.
 
Were you two doing that on purpose or were you just screwing around?”

      
Angie spoke up.
 
“Sir, I challenged Kelly to stay in formation with me.
 
Then I proceeded to try as hard as I could to shake him off.
 
He stayed with me through all the maneuvers.”

      
“All right, you two are dismissed.
 
Tomorrow, CPT Willis, I want you to concentrate on four ship formation flying.”

      
Angie and Kelly headed off to change out of their flight suits and get cleaned up.

      
CPT Willis turned to LTC Matthews and asked, “Do you have any idea why the CFW would be so interested in those two, sir?”

      
“No, Captain, but I’m sure we will find out soon enough.”

* * * * *

      
A jet-black hole in space was watching and listening 100,000 kilometers in-spiral from the fleet’s position.
 
The K’Rang scout ship D’Rella was monitoring the Fleet activity, its sensors in full receive mode.

      
“Shadow Warrior K’Tella, the human fleet is conducting training drills only.
 
I detect no indications of any preparations for movement against the Empire.”

      
Slightly bristling at his technician’s presumption, the Shadow Warrior shot back,
 
“Shadow Technician M’Drek, our mission is to collect.
 
Let us leave analysis to those better able to make such judgments.
 
Remember, we only see a small piece of the total picture.
 
Concentrate on making sure that we collect all that there is to collect.
 
The Imperial Analysis Cabal will draw its own conclusions from our data.”

      
Recoiling from the rebuke, his ears flat on his head, the technician responded, “I understand, Shadow Warrior.
 
Forgive my impertinence.
 
I will double my efforts to gather as much data as I can.
 
We are gaining valuable information on their new interceptor ships.
 
They turn tighter and fly faster than our best ships.
 
I will emphasize collection on these ships.
 
I detect no new capabilities in their escort class ships.
 
Their capital ships appear to have some new weaponry, but they have not conducted any gunnery exercises that I have been able to detect.”

      
“Shadow Technician, we are coming up on our communications window.
 
Prepare all you have collected in this period for transmission.”

      
The technician spooled up all his data, encrypted it, compressed it and prepared to transmit.
 
At the push of a button, a turret on the top of the ship rose and rotated an antenna to face in-spiral, to an awaiting relay satellite just over the frontier.
 
As the timer counted down, he watched the compression indicator light go from orange to pale red to bright red.
 
As it reached bright red the light blinked.

      
“Shadow Warrior, the data is ready to transmit on your order.”

      
“Send it.”

      
The technician pushed the button next to the compression indicator light.
 
A green light came on.
 
As the data streamed out the light grew dimmer and dimmer until it blinked and went out.

      
“Shadow Warrior, the data has been sent and acknowledged.”

      
“Continue our monitoring mission.
 
I will rest now.”

      
Shadow Technician M’Drek turned back to his scopes and gauges and concentrated on his mission.

* * * * *

      
CPT Willis pulled Angie and Kelly out of the breakfast line before they’d had a chance to pick up a tray.
 
“Come with me,” was all she said.
 
Kelly wondered what trouble they had gotten into now.

      
The two followed her down the passageway and to the upper decks near flag country.
 
LTC Matthews met them in the hallway and the four of them proceeded past the Marine guard at the entry to the flag office spaces.
 
LTC Matthews knocked on a door.
 
The door was opened by the CFW.

      
“Come in, all of you.”

      
They proceeded into a dimly lit, large room, with a double height ceiling.
 
As Kelly’s eyes adjusted to the light, he saw the CFW, two Fleet Commanders, a Fighter Force captain that Kelly didn’t recognize, General Bugarov, and Admiral Haddock-Halloway.
 
He looked over to Angie and got a “What have we gotten ourselves into now?” look.

      
Admiral Haddock-Halloway said, “Now that we are all here, please be seated.
 
CFW, would you begin?”

      
“Thank you, sir.
 
As you all know, the Bolivar has been here close to the frontier for a week now, conducting fighter training and fleet formation drills.
 
About four days ago, the frigate Tenacious picked up an echo on its sensors.
 
At least, that is what they thought at first.
 
After a day monitoring this echo, they noticed some inconsistencies.
 
Echoes normally maintain a constant bearing and distance from the ship that detects them.
 
This echo, however, shifted around.
 
It was subtle and took all day to sort it out, but the Tenacious thinks we have a K’Rang Shadow Scout ship monitoring our fleet operations from our side of the frontier.
 
It’s about 100,000 km away and in-spiral of us.
 
Admiral?”

      
Admiral Haddock-Halloway stood up and moved over to the tank.
 
The tank was a large holographic projector used for fleet battle management and took up most of the room.
 
The room lights dimmed further and a representation of the space around the fleet appeared in mid-room.
 
The admiral stood within the projection.

      
“The fleet is arrayed here in the center.
 
The echo is represented by this green dot.
 
The frontier is in-spiral of us and is represented by these two curtain-like bands.
 
The red band is their side of the frontier.
 
The blue one is ours.
 
As you can see, the distance from us to the echo is greater than the distance of the echo to the frontier.
 
We could not turn the fleet or launch fighters and catch them before they could cross the frontier on maximum burn.
 
We are going to need to be pretty slick to catch these guys.
 
We are going to have to find a way to trick them.
 
That will not be easy, because their ship is just one big sensor pod.”

      
“The CFW and I have wrestled with this problem for a couple of days now.
 
He came to me yesterday and told me the last piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.
 
As you all know, we have very strict orders dealing with any engagements with the K’Rang.
 
We have to have a significant tactical or numerical advantage to take on the K’Rang.
 
We think we have that.”

      
“We are going to try and draw the Shadow Ship further into our space.
 
To do this, we are going to move the fleet further out-spiral and conduct gunnery exercises.
 
This will undoubtedly cause the scout ship to follow us.
 
We are going to leave two fighters behind for the scout ship to pass by.
 
These two ships will become the hammer.
 
A four-ship flight will drop off behind the fleet, hide and become the anvil.
 
Once we have the Scout between our two fighter groups, we will spring the trap.”

“Lieutenants Shappelle and Blake, you two will be the hammer.”

      
Angie and Kelly exchanged matching stunned looks.

      
“When we move the fleet forward, we will parallel this asteroid belt, shown here in brown.
 
The K’Rang will most likely assume we are going to use the asteroids as gunnery targets.
 
We will drop you two off to hide in the asteroid field.
 
We think we can do it in such a way that even the most sensitive sensors on the scout won’t detect.
 
I’m calling a fleet captains' conference.
 
The captains’ skiffs from all the fleets’ ships will converge on the flagship.
 
After a reasonable amount of time all the skiffs will return to their ships.
 
LTs Shappelle and Blake will accompany the Tenacious’ skiff back to the frigate.
 
You will magnetically attach your fighters to the exterior of the Tenacious.
 
The Tenacious will move closer to the asteroid field, allowing its shields to move some of the bigger rocks.
 
You will detach yourself and hide in amongst the rocks.
 
We have analyzed them and found a large amount of iron, nickel, and lodestone in them.
 
Your fighters will blend right in.”

      
“The fleet will keep moving off.
 
At an appropriate distance, CPT Chang here, from the 34th Fighter Squadron, will move and hide his flight in the asteroid belt.
 
He will employ a similar technique with the Transcendent.
 
Our expectation is that the scout ship will follow behind the fleet at about the same distance it is now.
 
It will move forward cautiously.
 
Our estimate is that it will take about five to ten hours to pass your location, LTs Shappelle and Blake.
 
Once the scout has moved to 200,000 km from the border, we move.
 
Lieutenants, your mission will be to drive the scout toward the fleet and CPT Chang’s waiting flight.
 
While you six are chasing the scout around, we are going to FTL the frigates Tenacious and Transcendent into space between the frontier and him, locking him in.”

      
“CPT Chang, 1LT Shappelle, and 2LT Blake, your orders are to capture the scout, if possible.
 
We want you to chase these guys around space until they figure out they can’t get away and give up.
 
Just keep them from turning back toward the frontier.
 
We want to study this ship.
 
Of course, there is the strong chance that they won’t surrender.
 
If that is the case, you will request authorization to fire on and destroy the scout.”

      
“LTs Shappelle and Blake, when you two did your pas de deux yesterday, the CFW found the lead and wing man combination we were looking for.
 
We needed a pair that could keep up with a K’Rang Scout ship and not get separated.
 
If they can split you up, they can take you out one at a time, but if you stick together they have to keep running.
 
That’s what we want.
 
We want them to keep running thinking they can find a way to get away.
 
We will execute this operation in ten hours.
 
Any questions?
 
LTs Shappelle and Blake, you deploy first.
 
Report to your squadron ready room.”

      
Angie asked, “Sir, is it all right if we go get breakfast first?
 
We were brought here before we made it through the chow line.”

      
“I think that would be okay, but speak to no one of this.
 
LTC Matthews and CPT Willis, you haven’t had breakfast yet either, I presume.
 
Why don’t you join them?”

      
“Aye aye, sir,” said the squadron commander.
 
“Come on, you three.”

* * * * *

      
“Shadow Warrior, there is an increase of activity in the human fleet.
 
The fighters have all landed and small craft from each ship have converged on the carrier.
 
I believe they are preparing for some new activity, possibly departure or gunnery drill.
 
There is an asteroid field along their current trajectory that could be used as targets.”

      
“Shadow Technician, continue to monitor their activity.
 
Inform me of any further changes in their actions.”

      
“As you command.
 
Their screening ships have moved closer to the asteroid field.
 
I detect that they are scanning the asteroid field.
 
Indications are strong that they will conduct gunnery training soon.
 
I recommend we move closer to record their weapon emissions and effects.”