Read Online Annihilation: The Power of a Queen by Saxon Andrew, Derek Chiodo - Free Book Online
Authors: Saxon Andrew, Derek Chiodo
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many they kill. The only reason the Glod are feared more is there are more of them. Admiral Dorg also says that we have got to kick the holy groad out of this fleet so the Glod will be suspicious of the Alliance.”
“Danielle, we’re not sure if we should use more ships which would give away that we have more than they suspect. The Problem is that obviously, 140 ships can’t take on four to six thousand. We still don’t want to give away our total but we’re going to have to decide how many to use. What would you guess would be an appropriate number?”
“Six hundred ships,” she answered.
Tag and Kosiev both looked at her with open mouths. “Why that many, Danielle,” Tag asked?
“If we’re successful this time, how many ships will they send next time no matter how many you use; do you know how many they’re sending this time?”
Kosiev looked at his console and said, “It appears between four thousand and five thousand.”
“So if you use only 200 and defeat them, how many will they send next time?”
Kosiev and Tag looked at each other and Kosiev said, “Twelve thousand or more.”
“If you use 200 or 600 they’re going to send 12,000 ships next time,” Danielle said while putting a handful of popcorn in her mouth.
Tag and Kosiev looked at each other again, munched some popcorn and both said at the same time, “900.” They laughed and Tag said, “Let’s break down how we want to deploy our forces. Do you think they might split their fleet and come from different jump points?”
“Probably, they know what happened last time. What might be a good idea is to have half the fleet here at Earth and move out from there to meet them on the way in. If they split their forces, we could let one of them come and try to crack open the clam while we handle the other; I doubt that they can break the shell of our asteroids. After we finish with the first we could surround the second with our other ships and finish it.”
“What about ships sent to record the battle?” Danielle asked.
Kosiev rubbed his temples and said, “I don’t know how we’re going to get them.”
Tag thought for a minute and said, “Let’s try this. We know they will have to be on Earth’s side of the sun; they can’t see anything unless they are. They’ll probably want to keep a safe distance from the battle and also stay outside the jump limit to escape to safety if attacked. What if we spread the other 6,000 ships half way out between the outer system and the star drive limit and wait for them to come to us instead of jumping in on them. The moment they see a star drive breaking normal space they will jump to a new location and keep recording.”
“But how do we get in range of them without them seeing us?” Kosiev asked.
“We’ll know the moment the fleet jumps to our system. Just as they jump we’ll have our ships at the star drive limit with half of them at one edge of the sun’s view and the other half at the other edge. We’ll put them in a pattern of squares with one side being 100,000 miles then just as the Alliance fleet jumps we’ll have both groups accelerate to full speed toward each other and then shut down their power to life support only. The chances are good that the recording ships will fall close to one of the ships in our pattern as we coast toward each other. Our ships will be coasting at thirty thousand miles per second so any recording ship that enters our pattern will only take two seconds for us to power up and attack them. That’s too quick for them to jump.”
“Do you know how many recording ships they’re going to use, Danielle asked?
Tag leaned back and said, “We’ve looked hard at their fleet organization and there are eight ships that have stayed together and have taken no part in the maneuvers. We think that they are the sensor ships.”
Kosiev thought and picked a kernel out of his front teeth and
“Danielle, we’re not sure if we should use more ships which would give away that we have more than they suspect. The Problem is that obviously, 140 ships can’t take on four to six thousand. We still don’t want to give away our total but we’re going to have to decide how many to use. What would you guess would be an appropriate number?”
“Six hundred ships,” she answered.
Tag and Kosiev both looked at her with open mouths. “Why that many, Danielle,” Tag asked?
“If we’re successful this time, how many ships will they send next time no matter how many you use; do you know how many they’re sending this time?”
Kosiev looked at his console and said, “It appears between four thousand and five thousand.”
“So if you use only 200 and defeat them, how many will they send next time?”
Kosiev and Tag looked at each other and Kosiev said, “Twelve thousand or more.”
“If you use 200 or 600 they’re going to send 12,000 ships next time,” Danielle said while putting a handful of popcorn in her mouth.
Tag and Kosiev looked at each other again, munched some popcorn and both said at the same time, “900.” They laughed and Tag said, “Let’s break down how we want to deploy our forces. Do you think they might split their fleet and come from different jump points?”
“Probably, they know what happened last time. What might be a good idea is to have half the fleet here at Earth and move out from there to meet them on the way in. If they split their forces, we could let one of them come and try to crack open the clam while we handle the other; I doubt that they can break the shell of our asteroids. After we finish with the first we could surround the second with our other ships and finish it.”
“What about ships sent to record the battle?” Danielle asked.
Kosiev rubbed his temples and said, “I don’t know how we’re going to get them.”
Tag thought for a minute and said, “Let’s try this. We know they will have to be on Earth’s side of the sun; they can’t see anything unless they are. They’ll probably want to keep a safe distance from the battle and also stay outside the jump limit to escape to safety if attacked. What if we spread the other 6,000 ships half way out between the outer system and the star drive limit and wait for them to come to us instead of jumping in on them. The moment they see a star drive breaking normal space they will jump to a new location and keep recording.”
“But how do we get in range of them without them seeing us?” Kosiev asked.
“We’ll know the moment the fleet jumps to our system. Just as they jump we’ll have our ships at the star drive limit with half of them at one edge of the sun’s view and the other half at the other edge. We’ll put them in a pattern of squares with one side being 100,000 miles then just as the Alliance fleet jumps we’ll have both groups accelerate to full speed toward each other and then shut down their power to life support only. The chances are good that the recording ships will fall close to one of the ships in our pattern as we coast toward each other. Our ships will be coasting at thirty thousand miles per second so any recording ship that enters our pattern will only take two seconds for us to power up and attack them. That’s too quick for them to jump.”
“Do you know how many recording ships they’re going to use, Danielle asked?
Tag leaned back and said, “We’ve looked hard at their fleet organization and there are eight ships that have stayed together and have taken no part in the maneuvers. We think that they are the sensor ships.”
Kosiev thought and picked a kernel out of his front teeth and
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