[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Unlike the ships the gunboats had targeted so far, superdreadnoughts were so heavily armored that it was difficult for the gunboats to inflict enough damage to destroy them quickly.But picking off their weapons and sensor blisters would cripple them, leaving their commanders forced to choose between withdrawing or becoming little more than sitting ducks for the human cruisers.Markus diverted part of his attention to check the overall exercise feed.The simulated superdreadnoughts were suffering, but not enough, not yet.Their point defence was doing well too.A pair of gunboats had been blasted out of space in a moment of carelessness – one pilot was going to get chewed out when they got back to base – and another had narrowly avoided a burst of plasma fire that would have scorched the hull, if it had been real.Markus twisted his gunboat into an evasive pattern as they slashed closer to the lead superdreadnought, before pulling up and slipping into a new formation.The Hegemony had, so far, been content to ignore gunboats that were heading away from their targets, but it wouldn't be long before they realised that gunboat pilots had a tendency to fly predicable vectors while they were leaving and started programming their point defence to pick them off.Another gunboat died in a burst of simulated energy and Markus made a mental note to remind his pilots not to get cocky.A superdreadnought could soak up one hell of a lot of damage before exploding, but a gunboat could be wiped from existence by a single shot.Still, the superdreadnoughts were starting to stagger under the weight of the gunboat attack.The rear superdreadnoughts started to drift closer to the lead ships, linking their point defence through the datanet into one entity.After what had happened at Hammerfall, the Hegemony would have plenty of incentive to tighten up their datanets and coordinate their fire against incoming ships.The point defence fire thickened until it seemed impossible that anything could survive, even something as small and nimble as a gunboat.Grumble Squadron pressed the attack, closing in to point blank range…Markus cursed as his gunboat’s consoles flashed up a mocking message.He was dead.It rankled, even in a simulation.But it was preferable to being picked off in a real battle.In theory, gunboats were expendable compared to the heavier cruisers, yet the human race didn't have enough gunboats to swarm the entire Hegemony Navy.They’d have to hope that the new weapons and tactics that were already being rushed into development would even the odds.One gunboat – just one – survived the final assault.“Well,” Markus said, as the exercise came to an end.“I hope we've all learned something from this…”His radio buzzed.“Grumble Lead, this is System Command,” an unfamiliar voice said.“Long-range sensor platforms are picking up cloaking turbulence near your location.Request that you go active and ID the bandits.”“Understood, System Command,” Markus said.The first order of business, once Garston’s high orbitals had been secure, had been to seed the system with stealthed sensor platforms, ones that were capable of picking up a quantum gate several light-days from the planet.Their passive sensors were remarkably capable – and they were almost undetectable unless someone happened to literally stumble across one of them.“We’re on our way.”He switched back to the gunboat command channel.“All Grumbles, go active; I say again, go active.The exercise is terminated.”Carola looked up from her console.“It’s a very minor contact,” she said.“It might be nothing more than a frigate trying to spy on us.”“Or the sensor platform might just have picked up the tailing edge of an entire assault fleet,” Markus added.The Galactics had produced an impressive cloaking system for their starships, one that – as far as he knew – humanity hadn't managed to surpass.But a moving starship produced very faint turbulence that could be detected by a watching sensor platform, allowing the cloaked ships to be tracked to some degree.One way or another, they had to find out before the unknown ships got any closer to the planet.An attack fleet that managed to get into firing range was going to do a great deal of damage before it was destroyed.“Are you picking up anything on our own sensors?”“No,” Carola admitted.The gunboat sensors were nowhere near as capable as the systems on the sensor platform.“But they have to know that we've seen them.”Markus nodded.A squadron of gunboats flying directly towards the oncoming ship – or ships – would be hard to miss.He tossed possibilities around in his head as the distance closed, wondering just what was out there, trying to sneak in on Garston
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]