Chapter 9

A.D. 2016-2017

President Oskar Caprio, along with the assembled heads of most of the nations on earth, watched the wall of monitors as the last squadron of armed shuttles lifted from their base in Australia. The launches were timed with the orbit of the alien ships such that each group of ten launched from the side of the Earth opposite the position of the alien fleet. One hundred forty nine out of the planned hundred fifty shuttles had launched successfully. Of the group scheduled for launch from the Israel-Syria base, one had malfunctioned and aborted. It was an incredible feat of engineering, and President Caprio felt a sense of pride as he watched the monitors.

The Himalayan launch, completed only a few minutes before, was just maneuvering into its orbital track, which would eventually join the other thirteen squadrons already in orbit, trailing the alien fleet around the globe. A couple of hours from now, the Australian squadron would catch up to them, and then the attack would begin.

The plan was relatively simple, but the execution was tricky. Half the fleet would accelerate to overtake the aliens, approaching from a higher orbit, thanks to their greater velocity. However, since that higher orbit increased the distance they had to travel to catch the aliens, that squadron would have to expend a great deal of fuel, not only on acceleration and deceleration, but on counteracting their angular momentum so that they didn't continue climbing away from Earth.

The remainder of the fleet would decelerate, slowing to allow the enemy ships to overtake them. This created for them the inverse of the problem faced by their sister squadron. To slow enough, but not drop back into Earth's atmosphere, they would have to expend a great deal of fuel creating simulated angular momentum. Because of their slower speed, by the time the enemy was engaged, the second Earth fleet would be in a lower orbit.

With the extra fuel they carried, this plan should allow the two halves of the Earth fleet to englobe the enemy with some pre-programmed maneuvering, assuming the aliens didn't come up with a way to thwart them.

It was a risky plan, to say the least, since they had no idea of the aliens' detection and defense capabilities, but with Earth's current level of available space technology, it was the best chance they had to inflict damage upon the invaders, and, hopefully, destroy them.

The assembled leaders watched tensely as, hour after hour, the ships completed their maneuvers. Finally, almost thirty-six hours after the first mid-Pacific launch, the lead elements of both halves of the UEDL fleet spotted the enemy ships within seconds of each other, their on-board video cameras relaying the images in real-time to the command center high in the Austrian Alps.

"Yuee Bravo flight, this is Yuee leader. Commence englobement maneuver on my mark, in three, two, one, mark!"

The commanders of both flights touched a button on their keypads and the guidance computers for every shuttle in the fleet began a series of preprogrammed maneuvering burns. Surprisingly, the software, even with last-minute adjustments for the missing spacecraft, did its job flawlessly. The alien commander seemed unaware of or unconcerned about the fact that his fleet was about to be surrounded.

Three hours later the maneuver completed.

"Yuee Bravo flight this is Yuee leader. All ships, open weapon bay doors and commence roll maneuver."

One hundred forty nine pairs of doors swung open as attitude jets fired on every ship in the UE fleet, rolling the shuttles so that the open bay doors faced the enemy fleet. One hundred forty-nine tubes unfolded from within those bays, each consisting of a set of aluminum alloy guide rails surrounded at regular intervals by a series of toroidal coils of copper wire. Hinged midway down its length, each tube was straightened by pneumatics until the entire hundred foot length was locked into a single huge shotgun pointed straight at the enemy fleet.

One by one, confirmation came of successful deployment of mass drivers until one hundred forty-seven reported green lights across the board.

"Ah, Yuee Leader, this is Alpha Three Niner. We have a mechanical malfunction. Tube is not locked. I say again, tube is not locked. Will attempt manual repair, but don't want to hold up the party, mate, so why don't you go on without us?"

"Roger Alpha Three Niner. Report success only."

"Roger Yuee Leader. Will report when tube is locked and loaded. Good hunting, mate!"

"Bravo Two Seven, what's your status?"

"Yuee leader, this is Bravo Two Seven. Tube is locked and loaded but fire control has blown a fuse. We tried replacing it but the new one blew too. It would seem that we will have to sit this one out, Yuee Leader."

"Roger Bravo Two Seven. No point getting caught in the crossfire. Back off until time for boarding. Yuee fleet, this is Alpha leader, all ships, saturation fire, mixed loads, on my mark. Three, two, one, mark!"

Magnetic fields pulsed down the length of every mass driver in the fleet, sending its 'bucket' of steel balls mixed with explosive charges hurtling down the length of the guide rails, never quite touching them. Each driver imparted a very slow spin to its bucket as it flew down the tube. When the bucket reached the end of the tube, it slammed to a stop as its load continued forward. The loads of steel balls and explosive charges, given angular momentum by the spin placed on the bucket, spread out as they flew toward the alien craft, until each load saturated about a square mile of space that moved toward the enemy at thousands of miles per hour.

Even at those great speeds, it took several minutes for the loads to reach the enemy vessels, during which time, the ships reloaded and fired another salvo. Here and there, a tiny puff of vapor showed where a pellet or a charge had managed to penetrate the hull of one of the craft, but the vast majority simply stopped a few inches from the hulls of the alien vessels.

Vacuum-suited figures in the bays of each shuttle worked feverishly to ready the second and third loads for the mass drivers, manipulating the controls to run the bucket back to the starting position. To load the bucket, they carefully placed the open end of a tube containing the required ammunition into the bucket, then shoved the 'piston' - a flat plate with a protruding rod - through the tube, ramming the load home, then holding the piston in place while the tube was removed, to ensure that none of the lethal contents escaped. The piston remained in the bucket until only seconds remained before the next launch to prevent 'flyaways.'

As the countdown for the launch reached 'three' each piston was removed, and the crew pulled themselves away by their lifelines, to watch from the corners of the bay as the magnetic fields propelled the bucket down the rails.

The third salvo was well on its way by the time the first stray pellets, having passed through the alien fleet, found their way to the Earth ships opposite the point from which they were fired. Only a very tiny fraction of pellets made it through, but that was enough to destroy or seriously damage about ten percent of the Earth ships.

Suddenly, alien craft swarmed from the vicinity of the larger ships, attacking the Earth fleet with some sort of beam weapon.

"Evasive maneuvers! Evasive maneuvers! All ships break off and rendezvous at designated orbit!" Alpha Leader's voice was tense but still controlled.

Pilots of each of the shuttles started the slow process of stowing the mass drivers and maneuvering their ships, within the constraints of their automatic collision avoidance programs, to try to escape the swarming enemy fighters. Stray pellets from the second salvo ripped through their ranks, rupturing fuel and oxygen tanks, damaging doors or mass drivers too badly to allow them to be re-stowed, and, in some cases, causing explosions that destroyed the shuttle and endangered others nearby.