Task Force Hammerhead

1st Carrier Division

Fleet Carrier Saratoga

Two Weeks out of Epsilon Indi

The stress of two weeks navigating the great fleet through the galactic halo was taking its toll on Danny. They had managed to make great time. They had made a little over forty-five thousand light years in a series of long jumps and had managed to do it without losing a single ship. Even Admiral Bassett was impressed and had sent his compliments to the whole navigation staff.

Behind them the great glow of the Magellanic Clouds were receding in the distance. Ahead was the forbidding black void of intergalactic space with the vast spread of the Milky Ways spiral arms beneath. Few human eyes had ever seen the galaxy from this vantage point.

Thankfully Admiral Bassett had ordered the fleet to stand down for replenishment. Even now the big war ships of the fleet were filling their fuel bunkers from the tankers attached to the fleet. There was no rest for the wicked. It was just the break that Admiral Tanaka was looking for so his pilots and deck crews on the carriers could run exercises.

Now that the big task force had nothing but clear space ahead of it, the jumps would only get longer and the calculations more complex. Even with the great staff, banks of state of the art computers and all the coffee that he could drink, it was a heavy burden to bear.

Hundreds of ships, thousands of men and billions of Alliance citizens lives were riding on the success or failure of the fleet. It had to get through. It had to win. Though it had not been stated Danny surmised that this fleet were lost, it would take years to replace it and decades to replace the personnel.

With the stand down order in place, Danny ordered a trio of junior officers to stand watch and keep an eye on things. He took a couple of glances around the big, spacious flag bridge of the carrier and went off duty.

As he wandered off to the officers mess, Tom appeared at his elbow. Danny said, "Being the CAGs deputy, I figured you were about to get busy."

Tom said, "Even a CAG has got to eat."

The pair made their way through the cafeteria line and ended up quietly having a meal. As Danny looked around the room he could tell that everyone was exhausted.

Tom asked, "You as beat as you look?"

Danny simply nodded. "These jump evolutions are murder. All we have time to do is get a fix on our new position, and then plot the next jump. We're making great time but most of us are dead on our feet."

Tom said, "Same here. We've had our pilots in simulators constantly. The engineers and deck crews have been going balls to the wall. Everybody is dragging ass."

Danny said, "I just need some time in my rack."

Tom said, "Me too. Hey, you asked me once about the enemy."

"Yeah."

"Do you still want to know?"

"Of course."

Tom said, "Finish up. I've finally got something that I can show you."

When they finished eating, Danny followed Tom to his office in the Air Ops suite. Saratoga's Air Wing were nicknamed the Diamondbacks after a fast and mean snake from old Earth. On the main bulkhead was a stylized rattlesnake wrapped around a royal flush in diamonds. Tom and Danny passed dozens of pilots and deck crewmen in their rainbow-colored vests that announced their department. Red for ordnance, White for safety, Blue for avionics, Gold for propulsion and so on.

When the arrived, Tom closed the door and took a data crystal out of locked drawer in his desk. He put it in a reader and switched on a holographic display over his desktop.

Tom narrated the images that were appearing: "Five years ago when the enemy first appeared there were only a few models. They did not use missiles or fighters at all and had relatively short-ranged fusion based weapons. These are the eight models that appeared over Pacifica."

Eight strange-looking boxy shaped ships appeared in the display. They were all rendered to scale with the smallest just larger than a fighter up to big ugly titan sized monster that was a couple of kilometers long. They all had code names for flying creatures: Yellow Jacket, Wasp, Hornet, up to largest a Pterodactyl.

Tom clicked the control and two new beasts appeared. "After a few months of getting clobbered by our missiles and fighters, these bastards appeared."

The two new types were labeled Drone-A and Archer.

"The Drone-A was the enemies first answer to our fighters. There have been more since and every generation gets more capable. Our pilots can generally take them out at ratios up to four to one. They can fly and fight but they can't handle a good pilot with instincts."

"The Archer is a little slice of hell. It's a frigate sized ship that's completely sold out as a missile platform. It has jump capability and can carry twelve anti-ship missiles so a swarm of these things can be deadly. What the enemy likes to do with Archers is set ambushes. They'll park in a strategic position like on the outskirts of a system and just wait until you are inside their engagement envelope."

Tom went on to show the enemy had fielded at least thirty-two new models over the course of the war. Those that performed well appeared in increasing numbers. The ones that did not were destroyed and not replaced.

When Tom finished the presentation, he asked, "From what you have seen, what does that tell you about our enemy."

Danny said, "He's smart. He's adapting his available technology to the battlefield. I hesitate to say that he's evolving but from what I just saw that's exactly what it looks like."

Tom said, "It's funny you should use that particular word. It's the same word the scientests and line officers have been using about the enemy. He is evolving and getting more dangerous with every new generation of weapon system that he fields. That's why we're here. From what we've seen of this enemy, the clock is ticking. Either we handle him now or in a few years, we won't be able to handle him at all."