Plague Wars 06: Comes the Destroyer (36 page)

An enormous number of red pinpoints sprang up in a concave arc between the solar system and the Destroyer, a crescent whose inner curve aimed at the inner planets and the sun. “These represent approximately nine thousand three hundred objects incoming at about one quarter lightspeed, also about forty hours out, give or take. Our stealth drones tell us that the enemy gestated Meme fusion engine packages much like we used to accelerate our space program nine years ago, slapped them onto chunks of rock, and sent them at us in a relatively coordinated manner.”

Johnstone quickly queried for a 4D future look simulation of the inbounds and brought it up on his own desk screen. This mirrored Absen’s next slide.

“As you can see by these plots, some of these things are aimed at nonmaneuverable targets – Ceres, moons where we have bases such as Callisto and Luna, or Mars. The majority are aimed at Earth. A few would impact some of the larger asteroids, but we are already moving those enough to make them miss, and will keep doing so in case they are able to perform terminal guidance.”

Now a swath of blue icons appeared, filling the solar system, and the view swelled to put the orbit of Jupiter near the edge, allowing for more detail. “Here are our fixed defense installations, on repositioned asteroids and moons, mostly. These mount a variety of directed energy weapons as well as railguns and missile launchers. Consider these the pillboxes of our defenses, with similar strengths and weaknesses. They are nearly immobile, at least in tactical terms, but they are fortified and have heavy weapons that should be particularly useful against the rocks.”

Absen’s face turned grim. “They are also targets. Many are automated, but some are not, and one of their jobs is to soak up the enemy’s firepower. I salute in advance all of those brave men and women who will undoubtedly die out there, doing their duties. For those of you on such installations viewing this remotely, I pledge that your families will be taken care of and your sacrifices will not be in vain.” He paused for a moment of silence. “Next slide please.”

Yellow icons appeared showing the major bases on Ceres, Callisto, and Hiera. Ceres’ current location showed one quarter orbit clockwise from the direction of attack, while Callisto and Jupiter resided only slightly out of line. Hiera, of course, orbited Earth. Absen continued, “Ceres is being temporarily evacuated and its Pseudo-Von-Neumanns shut down, the workers to remain aboard a passenger ship hiding behind it. We hope its distance will mean the rocks we see aimed at it constitute the entire threat. Because PVNs are distributed across its entire surface, many will survive and will then rebuild more PVNs. My main concern is the personnel, and as long as they face only rocks, they should survive by moving behind its mass.”

Now Callisto flashed once as the Admiral pointed. “Grissom Base is nearly in the way, and is an obvious target. It is also the most difficult for us to defend. Until General Yeager’s fleet bought us an additional year, the plan was to evacuate and abandon the facility. However, the extra time has allowed us to dig in. Once they’d finished building the surface facilities, all that engineering and construction equipment and personnel was turned to digging in. High-energy, high-risk construction techniques, such as fusion borers and bombs, have allowed us to do two things. Slide.”

The display abruptly changed to show the layout of Grissom Base. Beginning as a top view, it rotated in three dimensions to show a subsurface diagram like an ant farm. “First, we now have slanting tunnels to these eight shelters and command centers more than two kilometers down and a similar distance off to the sides. Second, we were able to install an array of heavy weapons in a ring around it. We hope they will attack the base, because they will want to take out those weapons.”

Absen held up his hand to still the conversation that began. “Again, it was the extra year that allowed us to fortify the base, but the purpose of the weapons is not so much to defend as to damage the enemy when he attacks. Every effort on his part, every resource he expends to assault EarthFleet facilities in space, is a resource he does not have to hit Earth itself. Next.”

The screen changed again, back to the solar system view. “And of course, Hiera is at Earth, and its base will control the weapons placed on over two hundred captured asteroids in orbit there. Next slide.”

Now the display showed ten green icons in a short line between the Mars and Earth orbits, as if to block the inbound rocks and enemy ship.

Right now the home planet occupied a position about one eighth of a revolution counterclockwise from a line drawn between the Destroyer and the sun, and Mars was another one eighth along. Unless the Destroyer maneuvered widely, the red planet would play no part in the action, and Johnstone knew the facilities there were limited.

“These are our linebackers, the new
Calgary
-class light cruisers.” Johnstone had heard that these were a surprise development, an adjustment to strategy after information from the first engagement had been digested.

Absen went on, “As the Yeager action taught us, our swarm-of-Aardvarks technique has some weaknesses. They dodge hypers easily but die quickly to fusors.”

The view zoomed in on the line of ten. Of course, what looked like a line was actually more like a disc in space, or a shield. “We needed a mobile defensive force to play back, to catch rocks the other defenses miss, to pick off hypers fired at Earth or its facilities, and to charge in for the kill if an opportunity presents itself, and frankly, to force the enemy to expend hypers, and thus materials and energy. These ships were built with that in mind. They are fast and they have heavier weaponry but very light armor. To make up for that, we’ve clad them in asteroids.”

Now the display zoomed in to show one long cylindrical ship and an asteroid next to it. “We’ve cored out some rocks so that a ship can be inserted in the end, like a pen into a potato.”

Chuckles broke out around the room as the screen showed a corresponding image. The ship’s back end still protruded about half way. “Our engineers drilled ports for the main weapon, which consists of a high-capacity railgun along its central axis. All secondary weapons are mounted on its back part, along with maneuvering thrusters. I know it’s ugly, but simulations show it will work. The asteroid portion can take a pounding, and as soon as it is ablated or broken away, the underlying cruiser itself can still fight normally, with an enormous increase in speed. If necessary, the rock can be blown off with breakaway charges from inside.”

When Absen waved, the view reverted to the line across. “A squadron of forty Aardvarks will accompany each cruiser. This way, the two ship types will cover each others’ weaknesses.”

“We hope!” came an unknown voice from somewhere, loud enough to be heard.

“That’s right,” Absen responded with a grim smile. “This plan gives me great hope, and confidence that EarthFleet will do what it has to.” He lifted his hand from the podium to rub the back of his neck, an unconscious indication of how tired he was. “And finally, the front line. The hounds, if you will.”

A crescent of yellow dots, almost a mirror of the inbound enemy rocks, lit up across the Destroyer’s path, its concave side pointed at the enemy. “This represents about sixty thousand Aardvarks, including what came back from the Yeager fleet. We could have built more, but instead we diverted production output to build the cruisers and fortify all the rocks. Now, instead of only one strategy – the mass of small ships – we have a defense in depth that is more likely to succeed.”

“What about
Orion
and
Artemis
?” another voice called.

Absen’s expression did not change, but he swiveled his head to scan the crowd as if gauging his people’s temper and holding his own. “Everyone knows we had to make a decision between upgrading two big old ships, or making more modern ones.
Artemis
does not even have the decade-old weapons and armor
Orion
does, and so she has already lifted from Callisto and will remain out of sight behind the moon. When the battle is over, she will be ready to provide immediate assistance.”

Gripping the podium tighter the admiral continued, “Similarly,
Orion
’s combat capabilities are outdated, but she is filled with command and control systems and personnel duplicated nowhere else. We have retrofitted engines to allow her to stand off as far as necessary, well inside Earth’s solar orbit, to coordinate the defense. Ladies and gentlemen, it galls me to lead from the rear, but I’m not a sub captain anymore, and most of you are not ship commanders either. We all have jobs to do in this wartime headquarters. Let’s do them the best we can.”

With one more look around, Absen signaled Major General Zolen to come up on stage. “Now, the J2 will give you a more detailed intelligence update, and after that the J3 will brief ops. After that we’ll hear from the rest of the J-staff in turn. At the end of this briefing, we go on surge watches.” He nodded to his intelligence chief, then sat down in a chair at the edge of the stage to listen to the latest.

“We have been fortunate, and your leadership has been excellent,” Two said with no trace of obsequiousness.

“Yes, One. Your plans have been instrumental in our rise.” Three’s words, on the other hand, dripped sycophancy.

One knew that Three’s mood could change easily, but he appreciated Two’s steadiness under pressure.
I could have a worse trium.

“We have an abundance of fuel,” Three crowed, stating the obvious.

The fact that One was about to say the same thing annoyed him. “We are well aware of our fuel state, Three. Keep your eye on your systems. We must maintain them at full readiness. The Humans are clever. It would be irony indeed to destroy their ability to resist, but for us to die in the doing, don’t you think?”

“Of course, One. I hear and obey.”

Two flung a few molecules at One that carried a combination of exasperation and condescension for Three’s flightiness. One slowly blinked his eyeball in acknowledgement.

“Because we have so little to do, we will follow the Close Combat trium readying their Pureling troops,” One said. Such magnanimity should pay off later, especially if Three whined about any hardship.

On their screens, Second Forward Fusor trium watched as Close Combat mustered rank upon rank of insect-like Purelings, fearsome monsters carrying simple energy weapons and cutting hand tools little different from those used to harvest plants on a planet. This combination had served them for millennia, and as unimaginative and specialized as Purelings were, simple weapons were always better.

Beside the groups of soldier bugs squatted the landing craft, hybrid Purelings with mechanical turrets grafted onto them. These would carry the close combat troops to their destinations, and support them with their heavier weapons.

“What about aerospace escort?” Three asked.

Two accessed another feed. “One grouping of stingships will accompany the assault.”

“Only one grouping?”

“Our resources are not infinite,” Two replied with more patience than One would have displayed. “It appears all of the enemy small craft have departed the moon’s base and wait for us up ahead.”

“They would have been wiser to use some to defend their valuable facilities,” Three opined.

“I believe you are correct,” One interjected. “Under my leadership, you seem to finally begin to grasp the basics of military operations. I commend you.”
One Above All, could it be true? Could Three finally be gestating a mature mind beneath his stupid integument?

“We will crush them utterly,” Three continued. “They cannot win.”

“Of course not,” One replied, exchanging glances with Two again.

Everything came down to this next six hours.

Time and speed.

One quarter light did not sound like so much, unless he put it in standard terminology: seventy-five thousand kilometers per second. Fast enough to go from the Earth to the moon
and back
in eleven seconds.

Apollo 11 had taken almost a day each way.

Trying to intercept something going that fast presented an enormous technical challenge. Directed energy weapons were the most reliable as they aimed quickly and struck at the speed of light, but packed the least punch. Get enough of them on target and a rock or iceball might fall apart, but it might take minutes or hours to destroy just one, and they had to expect the Meme guidance packages would try to keep them on course, so a simple early deflection would not work.

Missiles had to maneuver directly in front of the objects and hope they did not miss, the equivalent of steering a biplane to crash into a jet fighter as it approached at full Mach. Then there was the detonation timing issue, where a nanosecond’s deviation caused orders of magnitude variations in how the fusion blast and the rock intersected.

This left Admiral Absen’s Fuzzy Wuzzy principle – overwhelming numbers, in this case of railgun shot. The enormous Dahlgren Behemoth linear accelerator cannon deployed on every possible platform, every mobile asteroid and orbital facility, on every moon that might interdict the enemy, bulged fat with trillions of one-kilo steel spheres the size of racquetballs. The energy released by even one impact on a rock at one quarter lightspeed approached the lower end of prompt atomic yield, the equivalent of hundreds of tons of TNT.

Time and speed. The problem was, if only one large asteroid got through unscathed and struck the Earth, it would cause a cataclysm to make nuclear war look tame. Humanity might not die, but the devastation could set it back decades.