I loaded up a display of our lances, displaying the entire missile, from sensors to stern, on the front board. Minutes later, the other two came in and took seats, loading up their own displays of the missile and opening their preferred notetaking interfaces.
“Why do we use lances?”
I waited for a minute, letting them mull it over before calling on one.
“Daren? Got any ideas?”
“Well, we use them to damage or destroy the enemy from outside the range of our other weapons.”
“Obviously, but why lances? Why not kinetics, particles beams, or lasers?” I leaned back against the wall, letting him think for a moment.
“Because those require more space?” He guessed, shrugging.
“True, but that’s more of a question about the lancers themselves, not the lances. Lances, also known as directs nuclear explosions, are used because they vaporize all matter in the armor. The directed energy makes a smaller, but much deeper hole, allowing our weapons to penetrate to critical systems.”
“Can’t particle beams and kinetics do that too?”
“Sure, if their armor doesn’t have Whipple shielding or dense metal lining. Atomics with proper standoff distances can completely ignore Whipple shields and cut through dense metal like butter.”
Daren nodded thinking. “Also, the lances can adjust their course, at least a little, allowing them to be dropped at appropriate times during orthogonal intercepts.”
“Most certainly. Under ideal circumstances, we get deployed by a separate carrier along an orthogonal path to the main fleet and have minimal exposure to enemy point defenses as we strike with our fast and deadly lances.” I stood and tapped the display, directing the screen to explode out the lance, zooming in on the warhead. “Study our weapon. One day you may need to use it in an unconventional manner, and you’ll need to know everything about it so that you can maximize your effectiveness in combat.”
We went over the details and specifications of the missiles, double and triple covering everything about it until I was certain they’d be mumbling weapon statistics in their sleep. I dismissed them for the day and went to catch some rack time.
I checked my notifications and noticed a small gain. ‘Completed training mission with team successfully: +25XP’
Life outside the experience had been dull and boring. The tedium of daily life driving me into deeper and deeper depression. When this was announced, I had felt a deep stirring, finally something worth doing. Even if it was only a fictional experience, it was still more meaningful than everything I had done up until that day. I smiled at the job well done from the day, drifting off to sleep.
--
“Wake up pilot!”
I groaned and opened my eyes. “Yes?”
“New mission. Briefing in ten.” A pad dropped on my chest. “Get ready and read this.”
I rolled out bed and started to get into my flight suit, letting the pad scroll through the mission briefing. During the past few days, we had continued training readying our skills for the next fight.
Operation Pillowfight
Situation
Enemy taskforce of three battlecruisers, five destroyers, and two dreadnoughts are on intercept with the main fleet. Placement of the main fleet of ours and enemy make this approaching taskforce a significant problem.
Mission
To hamper the enemy and reduce their fighting force such that they no longer are a significant threat to the main fleet. This will be accomplished using lancer wings launched in stealth on an orthogonal trajectory. The lancers allow the force projection to cause large scale damage to the larger vessels in the taskforce making them effective tools at threat reduction.
Communication
After the briefing lancer wings will be set to launch in coordinated wings with designated targets and will communicate with each other using tight beam laser communications to prevent interception.
Support
A barrage of kinetic projectiles will support lancers to disrupt point defenses and allow them to close with the taskforce sustaining minimal casualties on approach.
Risks
Active sensors might detect our lancers prematurely causing this operation to be terminated prematurely. Additionally, kinetic barrage might be insufficient to cover our lancers on approach.
I finished dressing and headed to the ready room to get briefed. This mission seemed like a shit show, but what else was new? It’s not like any plan survives contact with the enemy.
Several wings were all gathered for this briefing, and from the front display, each wing had its own target. My blood went cold as I realized my wing was tasked with disabling one of the dreadnoughts. We’re only three pilots, why do we get one of the behemoth ships?
We all rose quickly as Commander Vikas came into the room. “At ease.” He ordered, walking to the front of the room. “I hope you’re all versed in the mission now, we don’t have a lot of time. This taskforce was running cold until an hour ago. With light delays and sensor fields, it took us half an hour to confirm their existence and the numbers and tonnage were confirmed just a few minutes ago.”
We all hissed in collective frustration as we looked at their course, realizing that this group must have been getting into position for the past two weeks to pull this off. That just make us even less eager to get into this fight, but our comrades in the main fleet needed us.
“I know this is a terrible situation, but you’re needed. That’s why we’re here on the fringes, to support the fleet and make the enemy pay for any surprises they want to send their way. Alpha, you’re taking the lead Dreadnought. I know you’re small after the last engagement, but we cooked up something special for your lancers. Unfortunately, due to limited supplies, we couldn’t give them to every wing, so you are getting the prototype. According to theories-”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“You mean you haven’t tested them yet!?” I was shocked. “What if they don’t even work?”
“As I was saying, according to theories, the new warheads should deal much more damage to the enemy ships. No, they haven’t been tested yet, but they’re a refinement of existing designs, not an entirely new design.” He looked at me with a hard gaze. “Your wing is one of the best at evading point defense. I need you to make that dreadnought suffer and you’re the only ones we can count on for this. Do you understand?”
“Oorah!” My wing shouted, accepting the praise and knowing the danger.
We moved down the hall to our Lancers, getting into our cockpits as they charged the outer panels of the craft with super chilled liquid hydrogen. The cold fluid would keep our craft nigh invisible until we almost upon them. I sat down and strapped in as the cockpit rose into the craft and plates moved to enclose me within.
“Alright team, this is going to be rough. We’re doing a Stealth launch in order to maximize the time before they open fire upon us. It’s going to be dicey and almost everything I told you about our weapons no longer applies. It’s going to be a long quiet flight, so you boys better get studying. It’s on us to ensure that they do not reach our fleet unscathed and we’re going to make it happen!”
Pulling open the weapon plans and performance data, I began to highlight the most notable parts of the weapon for my wing mates so that they could have an easier time getting acquainted with the weapons. I noted that, most importantly, the acceleration and mass were very different than the typical lances. These were somewhat slower on the acceleration but had a much larger mass.
The other substantial difference is how the payload operated. The three stage firing mechanism would first propel a metal plate out into the target, followed by an explosion propelling a small nuke, finishing with the nuke detonating inside the target. This would, ideally, overpressure the target, turning it into an exploded can of meat. If it worked as intended, the destruction should be positively delightful.
Slowly but surely, status indicators lit up green as various systems were fully loaded up: Weapons, Engines, Black out shielding, Coolant, Navigation, Comms, and Various subsystems that were less essential. I smiled, clicking through my side of the boot sequence, ensuring the computers were operating at peak efficiency. Preflight checks out of the way I opened the comm channel to my wing.
“Liven up boys and start the chatter. We’re going radio silent in a few minutes when we launch so let’s get all the questions and talk out now while we’re in the bays.”
Alpha two’s channel went green. “Roger that, Alpha one. So these new weapons… What are we doing with them?”
“Great question. We’re going to aim for tanks, air, large rooms, anything big enough to respond poorly to massive amounts of sudden pressure. I know, I know, you’ve been taught space is a vacuum and that nothing works like it does in atmo. Well throw that out the window for these puppies. They’re going to be detonating in atmo, albeit a well contained one, so let’s make the most of it shall we?”
“Most certainly. I look forward to taking those slimy bastards out with these new toys.”
“Cool your jets, Alpha three. I know you recently moved up in the wing, but let’s not get hasty here. It’s a long flight and a lot could happen in the meantime. I’d like nothing better than to sink their battleship, but nothing is assured.”
With the removal of most of my wing, Daren had taken the Alpha three spot and was anxious to prove himself in the first mission since his promotion. I didn’t blame him, but did not want him to get sloppy and prematurely spill his load. Timing was everything in this domain, and most of decisions had to be made with millisecond precision.
“Any other burning questions? We don’t have long before the launch tubes are ready for us and it’ll be a long ride out to the intercept.”
“Yeah, how are we preventing the enemy from picking us out of the sky before we get close? You’ve told us repeatedly that there ‘Ain’t no stealth in space’” It seemed Daren paid better attention than I had been giving him credit with. My mistake, won’t do that again.
“There still isn’t. We’re pulling a bit of a fast one here. Our craft have been outfitted with special panels that absorb light extremely effectively. These panels are in turn cooled with very cold liquid hydrogen, keeping our infrared signature below detection thresholds until we’re quite close. As it heats up, we’ll be using the slightly warmed hydrogen as propellant, accelerating us gradually as we close.”
“I see. So we’re just trying to appear like the background for long enough that it’s ‘too late’ to do much about us when we finally are detectable?” Gwayne had been apparently working on his military strategy over the past few weeks. Good to see my lessons inspiring him to go above and beyond.
“That’s exactly the plan. To be perfectly honest, I think this plan is complete madness. That said, the admiral is brilliant, and if he designed this plan, I have full confidence in it being accomplishable.” Alright, that was overstating my confidence level, but Admiral Terrorfloof was the first admiral of the fleet and had risen to that rank through force of will and brilliant victories time and again.
“Good enough for me. Seems like we’re up. See you on the other side, wing leader.”
“See you on the other side, wing” I shut down the comms, resting back in my seat as the fighter was sent to the back of the carrier and slid into an acceleration sled. A dull metal clang could be heard as it latched onto my fighter and prepared to accelerate me to the enemy vessels.
A sudden pressure shoved me into my seat, my stomach creeping up my chest as a mammoth sat on me. The sudden, potent acceleration hurtled me out of the carrier like a kinetic warhead, making me a little sick as it let go, the pressure suddenly gone. I checked my velocity, sighed at the terribly long travel time, and relaxed, pressing play on my playlist.
I sat in a conference room for Deep Space, llc, the newest company in immersion VR systems. Their project The System had generated quite a stir and I wanted in. I hated my job and was unsatisfied with my life. The room was spartan, a plant in the corner, a cupboard with multimedia hardware opposite. Large flat screens were the main feature of one wall, and a frosted glass window made up the adjacent wall. The large table dominating the middle of the room was cheap particle board, covered with an enamel with the appearance of granite. The entire room gave off a sterile corporate feel, just like my job.
I leaned back in the uncomfortable office chair and sighed, completed paperwork before me. I ruffled through the papers again, but all the forms were complete. It’s not like there was anything there to spin in any direction. They wanted medical history, psych history, job history, emergency contacts, all the things a job with strict requirements would want. Next should be an interview if I read the situation correctly.
A pair of men came into the room. One wore business casual, blue shirt, black slacks, with neatly trimmed hair and a shaven face. The other appeared to be an eccentric with yellow tinted glasses, a hawaiian shirt, and cargo pants, with wild hair and a five day shadow. I stood to shake their hands, putting on my best smile as I did.
“Dwayne?” The formal man asked, putting his hand out.
“Yes that’s me.” I shook his hand firmly.
“Glad to meet you. I’m Dustin, and this is Scott.”
I shook Scott’s hand and we all took seats. I took a second look at them both, noticing smaller details this time around. Dustin had a pin on his collar from an eccentric space fairing game from a decade ago. Scott had crocheted glasses straps attached to his glasses.
“Big fan of the Space Reconnitors?” I asked, gesturing at the pin on Dustin’s shirt.
“Oh is he!” Scott said enthusiastically. “He’s huge into the modding community and the OSR dev boards. They’re pushing the limits of what it was intended to be and adding new modules all the time.”
“Very cool. I sunk a few hundred hours into it back when it was new, but didn’t know about the Open dev community picking it up.”
“Yes, well, we’re small, but we’re dedicated. To be honest, I’m surprised you recognized it. Most players don’t even know this emblem. It was a rather difficult to locate faction.”
“Are you kidding? The Blazers were the most interesting group in that game.”
Dustin beamed at me and Scott jotted down some notes on his clipboard, which had escaped my notice until now. From there the interview proceeded to cover all kinds of topics, from upbringing to troubleshooting. I left feeling a new sense of hope and looked forward to hearing from them soon.
I woke up from my dream and wiped my face clean. Apparently I had fallen asleep again, which seemed to be an effective way of passing the time before and after missions. Whatever works, I suppose. I checked my displays as I sipped on some water, noting that we were getting close to within a light second of our targets. It was almost showtime.