Synchronicity War Part 1, The (15 page)

The arrival at Zebra 7 was, as expected, uneventful. Having
emerged in the outer edges of the system, the Task Force had to proceed under
normal space drive to the gas giant. The recon drone left in orbit around the
gas giant to monitor enemy activity had downloaded sensor data that showed no
discernible activity, enemy or friendly, during the time since the last visit
here. That didn’t concern Shiloh very much. Mbutu had ordered the Task Force to
accelerate prior to jumping, which meant that they could easily have arrived
first, having passed the tankers somewhere in hyperspace. Once in orbit around
the gas giant, the Task Force spent a nervous 14 hours until a signal from the
tankers confirmed their arrival insystem. As soon as the tankers entered orbit,
they began the task of refueling the Task Force. Since that task would take
almost 33 hours to complete, any frigate not being refueled at any given point
in time was in a higher orbit, actively scanning for enemy ships.

On a hunch, Shiloh ordered his squadron to also scan the
surfaces of the 13 moons orbiting the gas giant. After multiple passes, one of
those moons finally revealed its secret. An alien device that was too small to
be anything other than a passive detection device was spotted from its very
tiny radar reflection. Given that no ship had been detected deploying the
device after the recon drone was deployed in orbit, it was clear that the
ground unit had been placed there before the raid was even contemplated.
Perhaps even before Yakamura’s reconnaissance mission! If that were the case,
then the aliens would have a rough idea from which part of the sky Space Force
ships were coming. When Shiloh had notified Mbutu about the alien device and
his concerns about leading the enemy back towards Human Space, Mbutu concurred
and said that when the Task Force was ready to leave, it would take a detour in
the wrong direction before resuming its journey back home. The two of them
debated whether to leave the device alone and pretend they hadn’t noticed it,
or destroy it now. Shiloh was in favor of leaving it intact in order to
preserve the options of some kind of strategic deception operation in the
future. Mbutu disagreed, and in his capacity as Task Force Leader, he ordered
Shiloh’s squadron to destroy the device immediately. Shiloh decided that the
344 would do the task. One well-aimed laser shot turned the device into a slag
pile of melted metal.

 At last the entire Task Force was refueled, and the tankers
were topped up as well. Mbutu ordered the Task Force to retrace its inward path
in order to confuse the enemy, just in case there was another detection device
watching them. When the Task Force was almost a light hour from the gas giant,
TF79 turned back towards their real destination, which was Zebra 3, bypassing 4,
5 and 6 altogether. The recon drones left to monitor Zebra 3’s two gas giants
didn’t reveal any sign of enemy activity, and the ships of the squadron took a
very close look at the moons of both of them without finding any alien devices.
With that refueling going off without a hitch, and the task force back in
hyperspace on its way to one more refueling stop before arriving back at SFB
Bradley, Shiloh and the rest of his crew began to relax. The arrival back at
Bradley was anticlimactic. Since all Space Force bases were close enough to
each other to be reached with one full load of fuel, TF79’s frigate squadrons
were no longer dependent on their tankers, which were detached as per orders
that were waiting for them. TF79 arrived back in Earth orbit almost two months
after heading out on the attack mission. No sooner had the task force settled
down into its parking orbit than orders arrived from the Chief of Operations
for all COs and XOs to report to HQ asap. Shiloh had a feeling Admiral Howard
would not be happy.

It was night and raining when the shuttle, carrying Shiloh,
Chenko and the other COs and XOs from his squadron, landed at the spaceport
outside Geneva. Space Force vans were waiting to take them to Headquarters. Some
of the other squadrons had already landed their officers. When they arrived at
HQ, they were shown into the same large auditorium where Howard had briefed
everyone on the first encounter. Since not everyone was there yet, those
officers who had arrived were allowed to walk around and chat with others.
Mbutu’s squadron, what was left of it, had already landed its officers, but
Mbutu himself was not in sight. Shiloh overheard one of his officers say that
Mbutu was in a private debriefing with Admiral Howard himself. After a while,
more officers showed up, and soon after that one of Admiral Howard’s staff came
and asked everyone to take a seat. Shiloh and Chenko sat at the end of the
second row. Just as everyone was getting settled down, the staff officer shouted
out.

“Attention on deck!”

Everyone jumped to attention and stopped talking. Admiral
Howard entered the auditorium followed by Cmdr. Mbutu, who took the nearest
vacant seat. Howard strolled leisurely to the center of the stage, folded his
arms across his chest, and began.

“Well, here we are. Space Force has lost … one command ship,
eight tankers, 13 frigates ... and 987 officers and crew. I’ve just spent the
last hour with Acting Task Force Leader Mbutu going over his summary of what
happened, and I’ve skimmed the After-Action reports of the various squadron
leaders who transmitted their reports while en route to Near Earth Orbit. I
have a pretty good idea of how Operation Dropkick went down.”

He paused to look around at his audience. The room was dead
silent. Howard started to pace slowly across the front of the stage, from side
to side and back again, speaking as he went.

“In the days and weeks to come, those who weren’t there will
look at the results, including the fact that none of the alien infrastructure
facilities in Zebra 9 were damaged or destroyed, and they’ll conclude that
Operation Dropkick was a disaster, a major defeat for the Space Force. That is
not my view of the operation, and it shouldn’t be yours. Granted, you did not
inflict any damage on the alien mining operations, but their destruction was
never expected to be more than an inconvenience to the aliens. The raid was
primarily intended to give the participating squadrons some combat experience,
along with experience in working with a larger formation, as well as obtaining
additional insight and intel on alien capabilities, tactics and operating
procedures. From THAT perspective, the mission was at least partially
successful. Let’s also not forget that the enemy took some losses too! Only
five enemy ships were confirmed as destroyed outright, but another seven
suffered obvious damage, and we can reasonably expect them to be out of action
for a while. Given that they clearly have the ability to detect ships emerging
from hyperspace, and were therefore able to catch TF79 by surprise, I’m
actually impressed that our losses weren’t higher. Now that we know about their
detection capabilities AND the fact that they’ve planted automated detection
stations beyond their actual sphere of operation, we can adjust our plans
accordingly. I consider getting that intel back to us here to be a major
accomplishment. So while it’s perfectly acceptable to mourn our lost
comrades-in-arms, you should also feel that their sacrifice was NOT in vain!

“So what do we do now? Well, frankly not very much. The loss
of those tankers is going to effectively curtail any possibility of conducting
offensive operations in strength, much beyond the support range of our forward
bases. In the near term, that means that Space Force will have to remain on the
defensive while we rebuild our tanker capability. So, no more raids for at
least six months. That does not mean, however, that we’ll be sitting on our
hands. Once my staff works out the details, we will deploy our frigates in a
way that hopefully will allow us to detect any enemy incursion into star
systems that would put them within striking distance of those forward bases
closest to them. While that is going on, our shipyard capacity will continue to
expand, and we’ll start to see new ship designs becoming operational. Here’s
what you can look forward to.”

He motioned to his aid, who manipulated a device, and the
large view screen behind Howard came to life. It showed two ships. Howard
continued.

”I’m sure you recognize the design at the bottom as the
exploration frigate that all of you have come to know and love.”

Howard’s playful sarcasm generated a ripple of chuckles from
the audience.

“The FE class of frigates are 245 meters long, 44 meters
wide, mass approximately 22,000 metric tons, carry up to six drones externally
and are armed with two laser turrets, one on top and the other below. The other
ship will be the new FA class of armored combat frigates. Don’t be misled by
its shorter length. It’s actually a much larger ship massing almost 50,000 tons.
It doesn’t seem larger because you’re looking at it from the side. Here is a
better view from above.”

The image changed and Shiloh heard whistles of appreciation.

“As you can see, the combat frigate is much wider and looks
like an arrowhead that has had its point chopped off. However, unlike the FE
class, the combat frigate will be highly streamlined and will have the
capability to skim gas giants to refuel itself without the need to refuel from
tankers. It will be armed with three double laser turrets! That’s six laser
cannon! All three turrets can be retracted during gas giant skimming. It will
also be able to carry up to 20 drones internally.”

The picture changed again to show a much smaller vehicle
beside the two frigates.

“This is the new AFP. The first AFP prototype is nearing
completion and is scheduled to begin its test phase within the next two weeks.
It will be a modular design that can be configured several ways, including a
standoff strike version that will carry four VERY fast attack drones … like
this.”

The picture changed again to show the wedge-shaped vehicle
with a detachable middle section, which contained four cone-shaped objects.

“Now when I say that these attack drones are fast, I mean
REALLY fast. The FE class frigate can accelerate at a maximum of one point
three kilometers per second squared which is equivalent to about 133 gravities.
Our standard drones can just about double that rate of acceleration, as will
the new combat frigate. The AFPs will be able to triple that rate to about 400
gravities. These new attack drones will be designed to accelerate at almost 800
gravities and the techies are sure they can eventually double that again! But
the problem is that these attack drones won’t be able to maintain that
acceleration for very long, which is why the AFPs will be carrying them instead
of the frigates themselves. The AFPs will have to carry them in close enough
that the velocity of the AFP, combined with the acceleration of the attack
drone, can reach the target before the attack drone runs out of power and can’t
conduct terminal maneuvers to guarantee a hit. The effective range of these
attack drones will depend on how fast the AFPs are going when the drones are
launched. I should point out here that standoff strike AFPs carried by combat
frigates will only be able to attack once. This is because externally mounted
AFPs can’t be reloaded until the frigate reaches a base where the AFPs can
transfer, too. The long range answer to that problem will be the AFP Carrier,
and as soon as we get the bugs worked out of the AFP prototypes and accumulate
some operational experience with them, we’ll start designing the carriers for
them. We estimate it will take at least a year just to build a carrier, so
don’t hold your breath waiting for them.”

That brought forth more laughter. Howard nodded to his aide
and the view screen went dark.

“That’s just a peek at what’s coming down the pike. I’m
showing you this so that you’re aware we ARE making progress. Unfortunately it
also means that the lowly exploration frigate will have to carry the burden of
our defense for a while longer. So, here’s what’s going to happen now. The
102nd and 98th will each contribute two frigates towards filling the gaps in
the 51st, 144th and 153rd. Those three squadrons, along with the 77th, will be
redeployed after their crews stand down for a one week rest period. What
ultimately will become of the 102nd and 98th has not been decided yet. We may
disband those squadrons altogether, or rebuild them with new ships coming off
the shipyards, but that’s yet to be determined. Now, before I dismiss you so
that you can get your crews on the ground, it’s important that we have all
After-Action reports before you go on R&R. If you haven’t already filed
your AA report, you had better do so within the next 24 hours.”

Shiloh heard a few groans and wondered if Admiral Howard
heard them too. If he did, he gave no sign of it.

“Okay, that’s it! You’re dismissed!”

Shiloh turned to Chenko and said, “XO, I’ll leave it to you
to arrange the details for our crew to be brought down. When you decide where
you’re going to spend your R&R, make sure I know how to reach you if I need
to. I have a feeling that Admiral Howard isn’t finished with me just yet.”

Chenko nodded and said, “Yes, Sir.”

Shiloh looked back at the Admiral and saw that he was
whispering something to his aide, who nodded and looked around the room at the
departing officers, saw Shiloh, and quickly walked over to him.

“Commander Shiloh, the Admiral would like a word with you in
his office.”

“Certainly, Lieutenant.”

Before following the aide, Shiloh looked at Chenko and said,
“See what I mean?”

By this time, Howard had already left the auditorium. Even
though he knew the way, Shiloh let the aide lead him to the Admiral’s office.

When they arrived, Howard waved him in and said, “Have a
seat, Commander.”

Shiloh sat down in the indicated chair, with Howard facing
him from the other side of the desk.

“I wanted to speak with you in private because Commander Mbutu’s
After-Action report has raised some questions about your conduct, and I wanted
to hear your side.”

Shiloh’s surprise was clearly evident to Howard.

“I see that you didn’t know about Mbutu’s criticisms. Well
let me enlighten you. In your report, you say that you advised Commander Rolen
to jump his tankers away, without waiting to get orders from Mbutu, the Acting
TF Leader. Mbutu claims that you acted as the defacto Task Force Leader knowing
full well that he, Mbutu, was senior to you, and that he was in command of the
Task Force. Furthermore, you encouraged Rolen to ignore the proper chain of
command. I assume that you’d like to respond to that?”

“Absolutely, Sir. Rolen’s tankers were clearly being
targeted by the alien force, and with that concentration of fire, his tankers
wouldn’t have lasted very long. He himself told me that his instinct was to
order his squadron to jump away immediately, but he was hesitating to do so
because of lack of orders from Commander Mbutu. My advice to Rolen was from the
point of view of one Squadron Leader to another, to protect not only his
command, but also the whole Task Force as best he could under the
circumstances. At no time did I say or imply that Rolen should ignore orders
from Mbutu, Sir.”

“I see.”

Howard said nothing while he trimmed and lit a cigar. After
taking a puff, he said, “I presume that the audio recordings made at the time
will verify your explanation?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Well, that being the case, I’m inclined to accept you
weren’t trying to usurp Mbutu’s authority. Although I have to say, Commander
Shiloh, that you came pretty close to crossing that line. Now that I’ve heard
your side of the story, I’ll have another chat with Mbutu. I think I’ll be able
to convince him to let this issue go, but if he insists on pursuing it, that’s
his right, and there will have to be a formal Board of Inquiry at which point
your audio recordings will be presented as evidence. It’s unfortunate this
issue has raised its ugly head because that it tarnishes the credit you earned
by convincing Yakamura to refuel the Task Force before commencing the attack.
It’s clear to me that if you hadn’t done that, the command ship and tanker
squadron would have been caught without any support from the frigate squadrons.
They would have been too far away by then, and it’s highly likely that all the
tankers would have been destroyed, thereby stranding the rest of the Task Force
without the ability to return to friendly territory.”

He took another puff of the cigar and continued, “By the
way, congratulate Commander Chenko for me for having that flash of insight into
the aliens’ ability to detect ships leaving Jumpspace. The two of you make a
good team. You both seem to have some kind of sixth sense when it comes to
critical combat situations, and that’s something that should be recognized and
encouraged.”

Shiloh was very tempted to admit to his own visions but
decided not to. Having an inspired thought was one thing, having a full-blown
vision was quite another.

“Very well, Commander. Unless there’s something you wish to
ask or discuss with me, you’re free to go.”