Chapter 6 Part 2

Blake reintegrated into the module and again found himself surrounded by the virtual reality cockpit of the Wildcard and his crew.

"Trouble?" Roulette asked.

"No," Blackjack answered as he resumed command of the ship. "Spectre just wanted to review strategy. We are going to split the two primary targets."

"Let me guess," Roulette mumbled irritably. "We get the more difficult of the two."

"Give that man a cookie," Blackjack teased in an effort to raise his gunner's spirits. "That is what you get for being the best gunner in the squadron."

"Is that what the nuke is for?" Lady Luck asked.

"Absolutely," Blackjack confirmed. "We get to barrel our way through the blazing cannons of the Syndicate gun ships with a thermonuclear warhead in our weapons bay. If we make it through the barrage, we have the honor of launching one of the only two nukes to be used in combat in over a hundred years."

I guess the defense command is not worried about what will happen to the Terran Life Form treaty if we use atomic weaponry," Longshot yawned.

"By using that meteor gun, the Syndicate opened themselves up for nuclear strikes. The TLF treaty allows the use of atomic devices to prevent collisions of celestial bodies with populated areas."

"Meteor gun?"

Blackjack shrugged, though he knew that the motion would not be reproduced in the VR cockpit that his crew saw. "What else would you call it?"

"How about an astronomical projectile cannon?" Longshot asked.

"How about you getting a life," Lady Luck countered.

"Children," Blackjack headed off the verbal attacks before they became distracting. "We have a mission to fly."

Right on cue, Spectre's voice came over the com. "Ghost flight this is lead. Maintain cell formation and configure for silent running."

Blackjack acknowledged and then guided the Wildcard into a line directly behind the Wraith with about five seconds of separation between them. Lady Luck's proximity scan showed that the other VRADs and the comm shuttle had done likewise. By doing this, they presented a minimum profile to any enemy scans coming from ahead. When the formation had been established, all active scans and external emissions were shut down except for the directional tight beam data link between the VRADs and their shuttle relay and the Andromeda. Their scanning systems were operating passively. They were running silent.

Several hours later, Shiloh's voice sounded over the com. "Dixie to lead, we are breaking off with the comm shuttle and setting up the relay point."
"Roger Dixie," Spectre answered. "All elements switch telemetry to relay mode and check responses."
Longshot switched the command datalink to the Wildcard into the relay mode. Instead of directly controlling the VRAD from the Andromeda, the crew would control it via a relayed signal through the comm shuttle. This allowed the VRADs to operate beyond the one light minute range limitation that the quantum second oscillator telemetry system operated on.

"We are in relay mode," Longshot announced. And each member of the crew went through his console checks to verify that everything was operating normally.
The visual scan of the aft cameras showed the comm shuttle and the Dixie falling behind very rapidly. Without a functioning quantum second ocillator unit, the Dixie could only be operated by normal radio transmissions. For that reason it had to stay within close proximity to the command shuttle.

While the Dixie fell behind with the comm shuttle, the rest of the flight tightened their formation. They cruised for several long hours more passing the time as best they could.
When at last Spectre announced thier arrival at the PCTAP, everyone was overly anxious for some activity to begin. The positive control turn around point, was the boundry seperating exercise from the real thing. The PCTAP was the final defense against unauthorized warfare. Should the base fail to give the proper attack orders, the squadron would abort the mission. It was imperative that the order to attack be given prior to the PCTAP. Beyond that point, they could not retreat quickly enough to escape enemy fire.

"Haunted House, this is Ghost Squadron," Spectre called the carrier. "We are approaching the PCTAP."

"Ghost Squadron, this is Haunted House. You are cleared to proceed. Your authorization code is Echo Six Four."

Spectre acknowledged their orders and notified the squadron. "Ghost lead to cell, we are going in. Stick to your stations and watch for the sensor lock."

The four remaining VRADs spent another three hours flying in tight formation without even a sign that the enemy was anywhere near. Then in the fourth hour, faintly at first, the passive sensors began to register a search beam sweeping through space at regular intervals.

"Lead to cell, we have a search beacon at zero mark five degrees, range indeterminable."

"I have it as well," Lady Luck agreed. "It is still too soon to determine their range, but if they are using a standard deep space search routine, I would guess they are about half an hour away."

"They expect something, but not this soon," Longshot recalled from the intelligence briefing.

"The Syndicate views VRADs as a novel but ineffective weapon system. I doubt they even considered that we would be used in this fight, much less that we would deliver the first strike." Roulette's analysis generally proved to be right, and Blackjack hoped that this was not an exception.

"If that is the case, we are going to have a major advantage," he remarked.

"I am also picking up some low power scans," Lady Luck interrupted. "It is the kind consistent with a standard fighter patrol."

"Is there any chance that we have been spotted?"

Lady Luck reassured her commander. "Not at this time. Their power levels are too low to pick up anything smaller than a destroyer at our range."

"I thought we didn't know the range," Longshot reminded her.

"We do have a lower limit on the range," Lady Luck explained. "We know that they are no closer than twenty minutes at our present velocity. They could be further away, but no closer than twenty minutes."

"If we accelerated, we could get closer faster," Longshot suggested.

"That would require increasing the reactor and firing the thrusters," Lady Luck pointed out. "That would make us about fifteen times easier for their scans to pick up. As we are, we resemble nothing more than a small meteor cluster."

"How ironic," Roulette interrupted. "It was a weapon disguised as a meteor that started this whole skirmish, and now we are attacking under the same guise."

Blackjack paused and reflected on his gunner's observation. His thoughts were disrupted when Lady Luck became excited. "They have increased their output in the scanners and have narrowed the search pattern."

"They know something is out here," Blackjack translated. "Stand by to bring the reactor up to combat power."

"Standing by," Longshot responded.

For several long moments they flew in silence awaiting the dread event which would indicate their discovery. When it came, Spectre's voice was the one broke the news even as a warning alarm sounded from Lady Luck's console.

"Lead to cell, we read a locked scan. Launch decoy!"

"Trail to Lead," the commander of the Bandit replied. "Decoy away and singing."

On Lady Luck's sensors, as well as on Roulette's attack scanner and the main viewer, the Quail 7 decoy emitted a signature so strong that it would cover their own and render them practically unseen. "I am picking up acquisition signals on the decoy," Lady Luck informed them.


The view screen showed the decoy speeding away and to the left of their flight path for several long moments when suddenly the blackness of space took on a brilliant violet hue. A beam of light sliced through the darkness and disintegrated the Quail instantly.
The display on the viewer was for the crew's benefit. The actual beam of the particle cannon was colorless and millions of kilometers away.

"Lead to cell, go to full thrust and accelerate to attack profile." Spectre's voice betrayed his excitement. At last the VRADs were going to be tested in real combat. "Lead to three and four, break formation at your discretion."

"There is no reason to run silent now," Lady Luck declared, and brought her ECM gear and defensive scanners on line.

Roulette did the same with his attack sensors. "Fire control is ready."

"Reactor is running at ninety-five percent," Longshot reported. "Shields coming up."
As the shields were activated, a powerful electromagnetic field was generated across the VRADs exposed areas. The field was strong enough to defelct any charged particle not striking within thirty degrees of perpendicular.

With weapons and defenses ready, the quartet of attack drones leaped to their date with the enemy.