“Lieutenants Shappelle and Blake, you two will be the hammer.”
Angie and Kelly exchanged matching stunned looks.
“When we move the fleet forward, we will parallel this asteroid belt, shown here in brown. The K’Rang will most likely assume we are going to use the asteroids as gunnery targets. We will drop you two off to hide in the asteroid field. We think we can do it in such a way that even the most sensitive sensors on the scout won’t detect. I’m calling a fleet captains' conference. The captains’ skiffs from all the fleets’ ships will converge on the flagship. After a reasonable amount of time all the skiffs will return to their ships. LTs Shappelle and Blake will accompany the Tenacious’ skiff back to the frigate. You will magnetically attach your fighters to the exterior of the Tenacious. The Tenacious will move closer to the asteroid field, allowing its shields to move some of the bigger rocks. You will detach yourself and hide in amongst the rocks. We have analyzed them and found a large amount of iron, nickel, and lodestone in them. Your fighters will blend right in.”
“The fleet will keep moving off. At an appropriate distance, CPT Chang here, from the 34th Fighter Squadron, will move and hide his flight in the asteroid belt. He will employ a similar technique with the Transcendent. Our expectation is that the scout ship will follow behind the fleet at about the same distance it is now. It will move forward cautiously. Our estimate is that it will take about five to ten hours to pass your location, LTs Shappelle and Blake. Once the scout has moved to 200,000 km from the border, we move. Lieutenants, your mission will be to drive the scout toward the fleet and CPT Chang’s waiting flight. While you six are chasing the scout around, we are going to FTL the frigates Tenacious and Transcendent into space between the frontier and him, locking him in.”
“CPT Chang, 1LT Shappelle, and 2LT Blake, your orders are to capture the scout, if possible. We want you to chase these guys around space until they figure out they can’t get away and give up. Just keep them from turning back toward the frontier. We want to study this ship. Of course, there is the strong chance that they won’t surrender. If that is the case, you will request authorization to fire on and destroy the scout.”
“LTs Shappelle and Blake, when you two did your pas de deux yesterday, the CFW found the lead and wing man combination we were looking for. We needed a pair that could keep up with a K’Rang Scout ship and not get separated. If they can split you up, they can take you out one at a time, but if you stick together they have to keep running. That’s what we want. We want them to keep running thinking they can find a way to get away. We will execute this operation in ten hours. Any questions? LTs Shappelle and Blake, you deploy first. Report to your squadron ready room.”
Angie asked, “Sir, is it all right if we go get breakfast first? We were brought here before we made it through the chow line.”
“I think that would be okay, but speak to no one of this. LTC Matthews and CPT Willis, you haven’t had breakfast yet either, I presume. Why don’t you join them?”
“Aye aye, sir,” said the squadron commander. “Come on, you three.”
“Shadow Warrior, there is an increase of activity in the human fleet. The fighters have all landed and small craft from each ship have converged on the carrier. I believe they are preparing for some new activity, possibly departure or gunnery drill. There is an asteroid field along their current trajectory that could be used as targets.”
“Shadow Technician, continue to monitor their activity. Inform me of any further changes in their actions.”
“As you command. Their screening ships have moved closer to the asteroid field. I detect that they are scanning the asteroid field. Indications are strong that they will conduct gunnery training soon. I recommend we move closer to record their weapon emissions and effects.”
“Continue to monitor. Scan the space between us and the human fleet to see if there is a path we can use that will provide us the least likelihood of being detected.”
“Scanning,” said the technician, dropping his head to his scope. “I see a way to cover our approach if we hug close to the asteroid field. It is heavy with high iron content asteroids. It should confuse their sensors and allow us to get within 50,000 km. At that range, we will be able to record the energy levels and effects of their weaponry. It will be a major coup for us, Shadow Warrior.”
Shadow Warrior K’Tella imagined himself promoted and honored for this action. “Plot your course and enter it into the flight computer, Shadow Technician.”
The technician lowered his head to his scope, ran his claws over the keyboard and replied, “It is done, Shadow Warrior. We must proceed cautiously. I will maintain a continuous scan ahead of us to detect any reaction from the human fleet.”
“Let us proceed.”
The K’Rang ship moved forward, slowly, stealthily, cautiously, alert to any reaction from the fleet.
LTs Shappelle and Blake left the dining facility for the squadron briefing room, where they studied the specifications of every known K’Rang scout ship. They studied everything from the 100-meter long bulbous planetary exploration ships with crews of up to 70 to small two-man ships that looked remarkably like mosquitoes. They headed to the hanger deck where their ships were prepared for the mission. As they came onto the hangar deck, they did not see their ships. A Marine guard at the base of the stairs stopped them, inspected their ID, and waved another guard over to escort the LTs. He led them through a personnel hatch in the blast shield at the end of the hangar deck, leading to a small area between the blast door and the outer atmospheric door. Their two ships were waiting for them. At least, they assumed they were their two ships.
The fighters had been fitted with some sort of cover that hid the sleek lines of the fighters and made them look more like rocks. Kelly walked over to the officer in charge and asked, “What the hell is that, sir?” pointing at the covering on his fighter.
“That, Lieutenant, is called camouflage. If the K’Rang ship is to pass you by without noticing and flaming your ass, you will need to look more like a harmless rock and less like a sleek deadly Fighter Force F-53 waiting to snatch them up. The camouflage cover is kinetically identical to your bare fighter. It won’t slow you down. It won’t throw you off balance. Other than a slight decrease in vision to the rear, you won’t even know it’s there. If it does become a problem there are explosive bolts to blow the cover. Now come over here to your cockpit and let me show you something.”
Angie and Kelly walked over with the squadron maintenance officer to the open cockpit of LT Shappelle’s fighter.
“If you look here on the panel you will see a slightly different throttle than you are used to. We replaced the standard throttle with an experimental model that electronically increases thrust to your engines. It will give you an additional 25 percent thrust. There is a stop on the throttle that engages at full military power. Push this button on the throttle to gain the additional thrust. Come back here to the rear.”
They followed him around to the rear of the ship.
“We modified your thrusters to help hide the exhaust. I recommend that once you break the magnetic lock from the Tenacious, you run your engines just to get you pointed toward the asteroid field. Then coast until you get within the field and use your retro thrusters to bring you to a stop and position you in among the rocks. Other than that, we did a major tune up and inspection of both ships. If anything was more than two percent out of spec we replaced it. Your ships are better than when they rolled off the factory floor.”
The squadron commander entered the space and came over to them.
“Are you two ready?”
The two came to attention and saluted. The squadron commander returned their salute and told them to be at ease.