Read Online The Synchronicity War Part 2 by Dietmar Wehr - Free Book Online

Iceman’s
instructions! Weapons! When you get targeting instructions from
Iceman, go ahead and fire! Understood?”

    “Yes, Sir!”

    “Any further information we should know about,
Iceman?”

    “Yes…this will be close.” was all he said.
Shiloh looked at the tactical display’s elapsed time since enemy
arrival and was shocked (again!) to see that there was now just
over a minute left before impacts on the planet. Things were
happening fast on the display. A lot more drones had been launched
and were trying to use their high acceleration to intercept the
much faster bogeys. Shiloh suddenly realized that some of the recon
drones were attempting interceptions too. Well why not. He
thought to himself. The same tactic had worked for him in their
first encounter. He berated himself for not giving explicit orders
to do that and then thanked God that Iceman had instructed the
other fighters to do it on his own initiative. The combat frigates
had fired drones too in addition to their laser weapons. Shiloh
watched as one of those drones reached a bogey, which then
disappeared from the screen. Clearly Sobrist had heard his plea to
use Mark 1s and had complied. More and more of the bogeys were
getting hit and stopped decelerating. Then Shiloh noticed that some
of the recon drones were disappearing too. The bogeys were firing
their lasers at the source of the radar emissions but too late to
try to escape detection. Each bogey now had at least one kinetic
energy warhead drone tracking it with low powered range finding
laser. The display pinged for attention. Iceman’s hand-picked team
had just fired their Mark 1s. At almost the same time, several
fighter icons merged with enemy ship icons causing both to
disappear from the display.

    “We’re firing all our Mark 2s and lasers!”
yelled the Weapons Officer. With seconds left before planet impact,
red bogey icons started disappearing fast now. Shiloh watched
Defiant’s Mark 2s spread out over multiple targets but one target
in particular caught his eye. It had already been hit by a Mark 2
at least once since it wasn’t decelerating anymore and radar data
showed the hull to be tumbling. Two of Defiant’s Mark 2s were
streaking after it but Shiloh couldn’t tell if they’d reach it
before impact. A quick glance at the rest of the screen showed that
all of the other red icons were gone now. This one was the only one
left. The target icon flashed gold for a split second. That meant
it had been hit by laser fire.

    “She’s breaking up.” said the WO in a not quite
so loud voice. Shiloh held his breath as the time to impact seemed
to hit zero at the same time as both attack drones hit the target.
The red icon broke up into multiple small blips.

    “Iceman, what happened there?” asked Shiloh. The
response was immediate.

    “The target was intercepted just as it hit the
atmosphere. Impact must have weakened its internal structure
because radar data shows it breaking apart. No nuclear detonations
of any kind. I think we got lucky, CAG.”

    “What about the falling debris? Did any of it
hit the colonists?”

    “No, CAG. While the planet was hit by debris
from multiple destroyed bogeys, most of it burned up in the
atmosphere and none of the larger pieces hit anywhere close to
inhabited areas.” Shiloh let his body relax and his breathing slow
down.

    “Very good, Iceman. What’s the final total?”

    “25 bogeys destroyed by fission warheads, 11 of
those launched from fighters, the rest from frigates. 10 bogeys
destroyed from multiple kinetic energy drone hits. 6 destroyed from
ramming by fighters.” As usual, Iceman’s electronically modulated
voice betrayed no emotion even if the quantum brain behind that
voice felt any. Shiloh felt a dark cloud descend over his soul.

    “Who did we lose, Iceman?”

    “Cyrano, Skywalker, Blue Max, Terminator,
Thunderbird and Amazon, CAG.” Shiloh sighed. All six were from
Defiant’s fighter group. In consultation with