“Let’s think about this. The focused primary only made it thru three of the five screens at 300 miles. We had to close to 100 miles to make it thru all five, right.” Anita looked at the data and nodded. “We know what the energy of the primary is at 100 miles which made it thru all five screens but even though it is a focused beam, it’s still more than 1,500 feet wide. I wonder what would the energy would be if we condensed a full primary beam to a beam two feet wide.” Cade said. Both of them grabbed their calculators and began punching numbers.
“Two hundred and sixty miles,” they both said simultaneously.
“Ok, Ok, let’s not get excited yet. What good would a two foot beam do?”
Anita thought for a moment and said, “What if it is set to hit and move thirty feet before it ends?”
They both jumped up and went back to the video and stopped one of the ships and began measuring the distance between missile ports. Cade looked at the engineer and said, “Between forty and fifty feet,” Cade said
“Give or take a few feet; how much range would we give up on the beam to be able to move it 70 feet before it played out?” Anita asked.
“Well, we would have to go to a three foot beam to make it cut that far, and the energy would be the same at,” he paused while he calculated, “228 miles.”
Cade thought for a moment and then asked, “How fast is this new missile? It caught our ships when they were 100 miles out.”
Anita looked at the video and measured the velocity of the missile and then said, “It looks like it is faster than our top speed but it runs out of energy after 300 miles. Those three engines have a huge power to weight ratio but they can only sustain that speed for a limited distance due to their limited energy supply; it’s too small to carry multiple reactors. You also have to factor in that the Plants fired their missiles when our ships were 300 miles out and they didn’t start hitting our ships until they were 100 miles out.”
“Are you saying that if we attack them from further out than 200 miles they won’t catch our ships?”
“You’re looking at the same data I am. Some of Admiral Smiths ships were destroyed right at the 300 mile mark but forty% of those missiles had stopped and run out of energy at 280 miles. I think that we have their top speed in these videos so with a 100 mile head start, they won’t catch our fleet.”
Cade looked at the video again and said, “What’s to prevent them from firing their missiles at our ships as soon as they get within 300 miles; that way in order for us to get to 200 miles to attack, their missiles will be less than 100 miles from our ships when they reach firing range? They could also have the missiles flying 100 miles in front of their formations.”
“That’s true but remember that they only have a finite amount of fuel and if they use it flying in front of the main fleet, then they reduce the distance they can fly at full speed to chase our ships. It’s a tradeoff. We also need to look at our penetrators; they are slower than the new missiles.”
Both of them continued to look at the video and then Cade said, “We’re using the wrong type of ship for this new plant fleet.” Anita looked at him and shrugged and Cade continued, “Let’s look at what we know. First, hornets are not needed to destroy the new ships, all we need do is hit its surface on a missile port or beam port. Second, our penetrators are slower than their anti-matter missiles and are not faster than their new ships. Third, we have to use millions of armaments to kill their ships sometimes using 100 for a single ship. And lastly, our screens cannot handle multiple anti-matter hits. Is that about right?”
“Those are the most obvious problems,” she said.
“Cade smiled at her and said, “Well that shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” and they both laughed and called in their team.
After all twenty engineers on Cade’s developmental force arrived; he explained what he thought they should do.
The engineers pondered a moment and one said, “How do we target them and what will we need to do to make the current cells operate with the smaller beam?”
Cade rubbed his forehead and then said, “We make it happen automatically. The cells will use its leakage to sense any ship that doesn’t have a Coronado screen and when it gets inside 228 miles the cells will target it and fire the condensed beam that will then move seventy feet along the target’s surface.”
“Will every cell on the surface of the hull target and fire at the same target?”
“You keep asking me tough questions,” Cade answered.
“What about this,” the Anita said. “We program every cell on the hull with a number designation from one to fifty. All cells designated as number one will fire together after each of them designate a target, then number two will fire and they will be programmed to ignore the targets designated by number one; then three will fire ignoring number two’s target and so forth until it gets back to one; while this is happening all the cells not being fired can be used for the primaries, screens, or sensors.”
“How many cells will be needed to produce the beam you’re talking about?” one of the junior engineers asked.
“Our calculations indicate that fifteen could do it. There are seventy five cells along the length of the mega ships arranged in ten rows around the hull. That would make 50 beams available for firing. They could be fired for up to three seconds and recharged every two seconds.” Cade answered.
Anita looked at the video again and said, “I notice that the missiles do not have a screen to protect them. What is the top speed of our new hornets?”
John Nichlos who had designed the new hornets said, “They are twice as fast as the penetrators.”
Cade and John went to the video and measured the speed of the new plant missiles. Cade said, “It looks like our hornets are slightly faster than the new missile.”
“They can also maneuver faster than the missile because of less mass to change direction,” John said. “They would be effective as an anti-missile weapon. They don’t have long range capability but could protect our ships if the new missile gets closer than a hundred miles.”
Cade looked at the clock and said, “It’s going to be a long night, call the entire team in and let’s get this moving. Dorg’s command team wants an answer is five days and I want to have this on a ship for trial in four days. Get moving, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The Algean Fleet Leader watched his display at the elements of his fleet as they sorted themselves out into their squadrons. An explorer had discovered a high technology planet and had sent its coordinates to fleet command. His fleet had the new ships and missiles and any discovery of a world with advanced technology meant that he was the one chosen to investigate. The explorer had remained at the null band so as not to get trapped inside by one of the stranger’s ships since there were no frequency vessels to prevent them from jumping to attack. So far nothing had happened and the fleet began moving uneventfully toward the planet after setting up the frequency generating ships.
“Fleet Leader, there is a battle going on at the planet.” The sensor tool paused and said, “I do not recognize any of the ship types involved in the conflict.”
“How many ships are there involved?”
‘Sensors indicate more than 50,000. There are also ground installations firing at the ships in orbit. It appears the planetary forces are losing this battle and the attacker’s ships heavily outnumber the other. They appear to be using conventional laser and projectile weapons.”
The Fleet Leader smiled; the planet was lush and green with huge land masses. The Common was suffering due to the loss of the harvested food sources from the planet the strangers had defended and here was a possible replacement for it. Then he had an idea. “The ships that are attacking the planet are to be allowed to escape. Have tracking ships at the null band to follow them back to their source. Maybe we can get two food sources from this.”