章節 117: Beyond Effective Range
Everyone had their fingers crossed. We were watching sensor data windows as if we were watching our favorite sports team in a championship match. If the enemy probe came close enough, or its sensors were perfectly aligned to detect our ships' emissions somehow, we were done for. That little menace (its dimensions no bigger than a small rover) could notify the hivemind of our presence and we would have an unfair fight in our hands.
Mei whispered to me as if she was trying to not be heard by the probe that's thousands of kilometers away.
"I've got the probe on telescope view." she said. "Looks like this AI keeps improving its designs."
"Let me look." I whispered back.
On the screen, there was a blurry gray ball with spikes, instrument packs and tiny engines all around it.
"I think it is powered by ion thrusters." Mei said. "They might be low thrust, but they are incredibly efficient, which allows the probe to travel long distances."
"I know what an ion thruster is." I said. "How do we get rid of this thing?"
"I'm trying to think."
"I actually may have an idea, alas not a good one." I continued.
"Like what?"
"Ion thrusters provide quite stable acceleration rates, so if we can calculate the probe's trajectory, we might be able to launch a few projectiles and take it out instantly, before it can report that it came under attack."
"Very risky." Mei said. "If we miss, we might give the fleet's position away. And even if we don't miss, the probe might detect the heat from our weapons before the bullets themselves can even reach the probe."
"Do you think we could shoot it from a few thousand kilometers?" I asked.
"No. At that distance, pretty much all weapons suffer from inaccuracies; except maybe lasers, but they suffer from dissipation. If our target was bigger, we could launch missiles, but for obvious reasons that is not the case here."
"I see." I said. "Well, maybe we could alter our orbit and try to hide behind Makemake."
"That was an even worse idea." Mei said. "The moment we activate our engines to alter our orbit, we will be found. Besides, we would also lose the sight of the probe."
"Ugh." I said. "I hate being cornered like this."
"Who doesn't?"
I started walking in circles, anxiously.
"The probe keeps closing up."
"How close will it's closest approach be?" I asked. "Can you calculate?"
"I've been trying to do that for the last 15 minutes." Mei said. "A rough estimate says 150 kilometers."
"That's WAY too close." I said. "I bet I could see our giant fleet with naked eye from 150 kilometers."
"Yes, I know that's too close." Mei said. "What do we do?"
Suddenly, the communications console lit up.
"Oh no." I said. "I told these guys to shut down comms, they are going to have us killed!"
I got closer to shut down the channel, but when I saw the message, I immediately changed my mind.
'---NEW REPUBLIC NAVAL FORCES---
URGENT: Missile Cruiser Polygon to Torpedoboat Lodos III
Our fleet has been detected by the enemy probe, which is now changing course for a direct approach.
All ships have been notified. Cancelling minimum emission procedures. Awaiting your orders.
---END OF DECRYPTED PACKAGE---'
"Damn it!" I said, raising my voice. "Fleet-wide ALCON 1! Engineering, set power plant to 100% output!"
"Roger that."
All warships has been switched to combat configurations - power plants working at full power, with weapons activated.
At that time, I started hearing clanking noises from Lodos' hull.
"What the hell is going on?"
"We are switching armor angles for best deflection, sir." said George and Omer from main engineering, at the same time.
"This ship can do that!?"
"Looks like we are going to see some interesting tricks." Mei laughed.
"Seems like it." I said. "Okay... Fleet; target the probe and try to blind it with laser fire!"
The warships acknowledged my command and fired up their laser beams. We were not close enough to the probe to do any actual damage yet, but we could oversaturate its sensors with focused light.
"Gunships, break formation and intercept the probe. Ignore effective range and rain bullets on that thing!"
Two ships left the fleet formation and created a deadly stream of mixed tungsten and steel bullets towards the target. Eventually, two of those bullets hit and penetrated the probe, destroying it completely.
"Sir, The Council." Mei said. "They are asking for instructions."
"Tell them to get everything underground and stay hidden." I said. "Our fleet has been found, but they might still not have been detected, and it better stay that way."
"Sir, new contact - new contacts!"
Lodos' proximity alerts activated unexpectedly, and shortly afterwards, the ship was hit by a large chunk of metal. Our outermost armor layer has been bent by a collision, accompanied by loud irritating sounds. The force from the collision sent me to the bridge's floor, and Mei hit her face to the computer console, painting it blood red. She quickly recovered, however, and gave me a report after trying to clean the screen with his hand.
"Collision. Looks like a large chunk of debris hit us."
"Debris?" I asked. "From where!?"
"One of our warships has been destroyed." she said. "Beamship Sirius V was right next to us when it got hit."
"Who is shooting at us?"
"I see two vessels at about two thousand kilometers." said Mei. "They are launching hypervelocity projecti- wait... They are now launching drones! How did we not see them approaching!?"
This was one of the rare times someone as cold-blooded as Mei was in such a panic.
"The AI hivemind caught us by surprise. There is no way we can counter a surprise attack, and on top of that, they are engaging from far beyond our effective range. Notify the fleet, we are fleeing."
"Oh, the usual." Mei said. "Engaging main drives."
"The fleet must launch flak missiles to keep the drone swarms away. If they get close, they will rip each of us apart."
A wall of fragments and explosions were shielding us from the enemy probes as we were trying to distance ourselves from enemy capital ships.
"Where are we headed?" Mei asked. "Are we just running into empty space?"
"Set course to Neptune." I said. "I think I know how to even the playing ground a bit."
"Sir, not all of our cargo ships have enough propellant reserves to change course to Neptune." Mei said.
"These ships must either transfer their load to nearby ships, or those with excess propellant must refuel those in need." I said. "Otherwise, we will just have to abandon them."
"Alright..."
"Notify Tachibana." I said. "If we manage to pull all the enemy's attention on us, he must arrange an evacuation of Makemake and take over the protection of The Order - assuming his fleet won't share a similar fate to ours."
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