Tammy pulled Kelly along. “You’ve got to see my new quarters. They are so spacious compared to my old one.”
Kelly was impressed. Tammy had done well. She had upgraded from a room and bath to a full suite, consisting of a kitchenette near the entry, a large sitting room, a full bath, and a bedroom. Tammy invited him into her bedroom, but he had to disappoint her. He had duty tonight and could not stay.
Kelly rode back to the Vigilant. Once there, he changed back into his coveralls and supervised the quarterdeck watch. As it was a quiet night, he spent it studying the firing circuits for the missile system. The system was tied directly into the ship’s sensors. The 20 missiles were constantly updated on targets around the ship and all that was required was to designate which target and launch. The missiles would fire clear of the launcher, move toward the last known target location, acquire the target, close within 3000 km and then, terminally active, home into the target. If it lost track, it would search for the target until it found it or timed out and self-destructed. It was a very effective system. The missiles were resistant to decoys and jamming. They could reach speeds up to power 7 FTL during the terminal homing phase. They had a range of up to 100,000 km. The warhead was an antimatter/matter explosive that could take out any ship up to and including a fleet carrier.
Kelly looked at the schematics and saw where the data circuits ran alongside other ship circuits and, more importantly, where they ran singly. He also looked for where redundant circuits existed, making sure that none passed through the same cable raceway. Kelly made notes to trace the circuit paths throughout the ship. He wanted to make sure that not any single bit of damage to the ship could disable the system.
The engineers had done their job. Kelly eventually assured himself that the system had been intelligently integrated into the ship. He went off duty with a good feeling about the missile system.
The Vigilant would be a very formidable warship in the enemy’s rear areas. She would be hard to detect and would carry very lethal armament.
Kelly turned in for a few hours sleep.
Kelly allowed himself to sleep in the next morning. When he awoke, the captain had been summoned to a commanders’ call. Kelly spent the rest of the morning physically tracing the missile system wiring throughout the ship. By noon, he had put his hand on every critical missile firing node in the ship.
Timmons came back just after noon and called Kelly and Chiefs Watson and Miller into his cabin. He had Cookie make a sandwich run to the base dining facility, so they could get right to work on what the captain had picked up at the commander’s call.
“Guys, there’s been a slight change of plans. Kelly, the admiral liked your idea of using asteroids to lull the K’Rang into a sense of complacency so much that he is integrating it into the operation. He is changing how we will infiltrate into K’Rang space. We were going to infiltrate singly, but now the admiral wants to divide the ten ships into two groups of five and penetrate en masse along two avenues of approach. I will command one flotilla, Task Force 121, and Ron Davis of the Vehement will command the other, Task Force 122. You may now refer to me as Commodore.”
“Admiral Craddock has improved slightly upon your idea, Kelly. The old cruiser Agamemnon will be moved into an area near the Scutum sector asteroid field. It will be allowed to go into reactor overload and explode. The explosion will provide cover for all the asteroids crashing through the frontier. The K’Rang will pick up on the explosion and the news reporting. Each flotilla will send several asteroids through the frontier. We will each concentrate enough of the asteroids to force two holes big enough for five scout ships in tight formation to run through. We go through in two bunches, through two large rips in the frontier and peel off to our individual patrol sectors once we get inside.”
Kelly sat up, “I like it, sir. It’s simple and explains where the asteroids came from. I hadn’t thought about that part of it.”
“That’s why the admiral gets paid the big credits.”
“We will be positioned here close to Scutum and Vehement’s flotilla will be over here, closer to Sagittarius. All we have to do is chunk some rocks through the frontier in several places before we push the big bunch through and follow them in. We should be in and through before the K’Rang realize what is happening.”
“TF 121 will consist of us, the Valiant, Voracious, Victorious, and Virulent. Ron will have the Vicious, Vindicator, Vanguard, and Vengeful with his Vehement. The flotillas disband once we breach the frontier and move to our assigned sectors.”
“Chief M, I want you to check out the tractor gear. I want it to be in top shape when we leave. Kelly, coordinate with the other four TF 121 COs to set up practice for the helmsmen in formation flying. It’s not something we teach in piloting school. You have more experience than any of us in this. We’ll be leaving in three days. So get moving.”
“How tight do you want the formation, Cap..errr…Commodore?”
“I want less than a ship's width between ships.”
“That’s doable. It will be easier if you let me adjust the ships’ navigation computers. I can program them to maintain a set distance from each other. The captains may need some convincing, though.”
“You’re my expert at this. If the COs give you any trouble, tell them to see me.”
“Aye aye, Commodore.”
Two days later the helmsmen were practiced and competent in close formation flying in the simulator. Kelly had programmed the ships’ computers to maintain the set distance, but the helmsmen were good enough that it probably wouldn’t be needed.
On midnight of the second day, the two flotillas lifted off, well in advance of their scheduled 0600 liftoff. Admiral Craddock felt it gave them a security advantage to leave earlier than officially scheduled. Once in dark space, Commodore Timmons gave the order for the five ships to close up for close formation flying. Practice in the simulator was good. Practice in real flight was better. They flew an hour with the computers helping and an hour with just the helmsman in control. Then they switched helmsmen and did it again and again, until all three helmsmen on each ship had a turn.
The commodore chose an “X” formation with the Vigilant in the center. It would be the tightest formation. They would be crossing through the frontier without their navigation shields on, so the K’Rang wouldn’t be alerted to their presence. They would need to stay in a tight formation to be able to squeeze through the hole they were going to punch in the frontier.
On the third day, the two flotillas split up and moved to their assembly areas to await the Agamemnon's demise. Each ship had picked several large asteroids and moved them into position in preparation. As a safeguard, the commodore had each ship move into position on the back side of their asteroids from the direction of the impending explosion.
Two of the five ships were positioned at a distance from the other three, with their sensors at full sensitivity. They scanned deep into K’Rang space for the presence of any K’Rang patrol ships. Nothing was found. As intel had suspected, the K’Rang were leaving their attack route into the Scutum sector empty so as not to telegraph their invasion plans. This would make infiltration that much easier.
The time for the Agamemnon's reactor overload had arrived. There was no blinding flash, only a brief electromagnetic pulse that passed over the flotilla to signal the end of a proud old ship. The flagship of Admiral Okasan at the Battle of Taurus in the first K’Rang War was now a diversionary tactic and the first action in the latest K’Rang War.
The flotilla sprang into action immediately, sending the first small asteroids into the frontier. They accomplished the intended effect. Several small holes were punched through the sensor and mine fields. Kelly watched the sensor readout on his monitor and watched several self-propelled mines activate and impact on the asteroids. The resulting shattered pieces took out even more mines.