Operation Hammerhead - 4. Transit of Exercises

First Officer Chris Harrison

Personal Log

Raymond T. Burke

2573.05.12 19:12UT

When I first saw course projections for the convoy, I wondered why the fleet was spending so much time between jumps. Capella is only a couple of days out of Sol, but two extra days were penciled in to the mission itinerary.

As soon as we emerged from our first jump, the fleet was hailed by the heavy command cruiser Kursk and her battle group of 3 heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, twelve destroyers and assorted support ships. They took their place on the picket of the convoy raising the number of ships participating to one hundred and twelve.

After following fleet communications over TacCom during my watch today, it was clear that the fleet is performing a variety of activities. First, apparently a number of ships in the convoy are brand new and are undergoing a shakedown of sorts en route. Second, commutations chatter suggests that new equipment and systems are being tested. Finally, the carrier air groups are breaking in new fighters, tactics and ordinance is being tested.

There are several classes of destroyers and light cruisers that are brand new and just entering fleet service. The batch 73a Campbell class heavy fleet destroyer, batch 73b Shepherd class escort destroyer and the Agano class light cruiser are brand new this year. Their designs are based on painful lessons learned during the early years of the war. While these ships are small, they pack almost three times the firepower of comparable ships built before the war. They seem to easily fit into the "new" Alliance Fleet design philosophy: small, fast and deadly.

In the twenty hours between our first and second jumps, Tanaka's fighter wings flying off the carriers ran a series of fleet defense and strike exercises. This was a little unnerving as the transports were the primary target. It was fascinating, if unnerving, to watch TacCom coordinate the defense of the fleet.

At 1100 Tanaka's air groups ran the biggest exercise of the day. The aggressor, or "red" squadron, of 120 strike fighters launched a massive wave of missiles at the fleet from a range of 800 km. 480 missiles were inbound with a time to impact of just under 4 minutes. Blue squadron, the fleet's defending interceptors, were the first to engage the inbound drones, but they were merely at CAP strength (Combat Air Patrol) and were only able to tag about 70 inbounds. Then the picket destroyers and light cruisers opened up on the inbounds. Three destroyers and a light cruiser in the outer picket were administratively "hit" and judged to be total losses. The missile wave was stopped by the fleet's inner ring with the concentrated firepower of the battleships and heavy cruisers. The exercise was graded a success. Had it been real, the fleet would have lost eight destroyers, two light cruisers and one heavy cruiser. It was a sobering exercise for all concerned.

All in all, it looks like the fleet is shaping up nicely. You wouldn't know it listening to Bassett. He gave an ass chewing of epic proportions to the ships of the screen and picket after their performance during Tanaka's exercise. When the Captain of one of the ships "destroyed" during the exercise spoke up, Bassett told him, and I quote, "Dead people have no appeal."

The "R" series battleships are quite impressive. Repulse, Reliant, Republic and Resolution will be a nasty surprise for our enemy. They are apparently still calibrating their main fire control systems. At 1300, they signaled the fleet their intention of executing a live fire exercises. They ran a series of five exercises using their main Gauss rifle batteries. They blew a number of designated target asteroids into a dust cloud at a range of 250,000 km.

At 1600 hours fleet notified us that they were relieving us of a pair of cargo containers. Shortly thereafter a cargo handling lighter arrived and took containers sitting in the number 37 and 42 slots. Anderson ran another cargo balance calculation and decided that we were OK to continue without shuffling any containers around.

I am beginning to really appreciate having Ensign Rivers aboard. It has been enlightening to listen to someone who is both a line officer and fresh from the Fleet Academy. I've learned more in a few days of talking to him than I have learned the entire war.

According to Rivers, BurXSci or the Alliance Bureau of XenoSciences has more or less confirmed that the enemy is indeed primarily robotic. This has been the rumor for some time, but this was only recently confirmed when the Marines recaptured the Iota Geminon system and were able to examine some enemy equipment relatively intact.

I am especially glad to see how well Rivers and Sokolsky have hit it off. They work very well together. I worry about Danny sometimes. He's 10 years younger than most of the crew and I can tell that he feels pretty isolated sometimes. I know that he is conflicted. Argos recruited Danny a year before the war broke out fresh out of school. When the war broke out he was stuck here when the Alliance nationalized everything. I'm glad to have him. He's smart, and he works hard, but I know he would rather be with the fleet. I've tried to tell him that it's a lot safer to be where he is, in the rear with the gear as it were, but he says that nobody remembers the names of the transports.

There is much speculation among the crew as to the nature of our cargo. In fact, I hear there is a pool. The even money is on munitions. Other guesses are that we've got cargo pods full of Marines in cold sleep, new EMP (electromagnetic pulse) weapons or some other exotic theories. Ordinarily I would discourage such speculation, but the guys are anxious, and it gives them something to do. I've got 40 credits on H-bombs myself.

Apparently, our most interesting cargo is in pods 24 and 32. Anderson says that Carter hasn't taken his eyes off the monitor for longer than a few minutes since he came on board. Well, if we are sitting on top of a cargo of nukes, at least we know where they are.

Update: the fleet did something interesting about an hour and a half before our next jump. At 1830, an all stop went out to the fleet over TacCom. The carrier Intrepid opened a wormhole and sent a large fighter or a small ship through with the call sign "Raven-two-one". Once Raven-two-one was off, the wormhole collapsed and the fleet was ordered to hold station.

TacCom started the jump countdown at 1900 hours. At 19:30 Intrepid opened another wormhole and Raven-two-one's "all clear" signal reached the fleet. At 20:00 the fleet jumped as scheduled without incident.

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As soon as the jump was successfully completed, TacCom signaled a new course and speed for the fleet. With the jump completed and the fleet now underway, the crew began to relax. Much to everyone's relief, Admiral Bassett came over TacCom and announced an eight-hour stand down from exercises.

Schmit ordered, "Mr. Harrison, match the fleet course and speed. Mr. Sokolsky, please take a StarFix before you hit your rack. I am taking the mid-watch."

Harrison and Sokolsky acknowledged their commands with an, "Aye sir" and went about their assigned tasks. Not just any Captain would voluntarily take the night shift, but his officers knew that Schmit was smart. By rotating the duty schedule, he kept his officers sharp.

On their way off the bridge Rivers asked, "Danny, could I join you? I want to take a look at your navigational suite."

Sokolsky replied noncommittally, "It's nothing special, but you're welcome to join me. Let's run by the galley first and have a little coffee."

Rivers nodded, and the two junior officers made their way to the officers' mess chatting amiably about the similarities and differences in the military Grumman-Mitsubishi Mark V and the commercial DSI model 2500 navigational avionics suites.

When they arrived in the officer's mess the Engineer Mr. Chan and the Cargo master Mr. Anderson were sharing a pizza. Anderson looked up grumbling, "Cripes Lew, it looks like we're starting a frat house. So, where is the keg and the sorority sisters guys? "

Rivers blushed and Danny grumbled, "I wish. I'll have to work on my tan before I put on a toga."

Chan chortled, "Oh come now Jake. You know we would be lost without Danny. Literally lost. He's our navigator."

Anderson smirked, "God help us. Now don't you college boys try driving this tub drunk."

As Danny poured a couple of cups of coffee, he replied, "Not a chance Jake. I wouldn't dare rattle any of your containers."

Chan asked, "You off-duty Danny?"

"I'm going to get a fix on our position and call it a night."

Anderson asked, "Isn't the fleet calling all the shots?"

Danny handed Rivers a cup and replied, "You know the Captain. He's a stickler for the book. We shoot a fix before and after every jump. It's just good practice."

Chan said grinning, "It would never do to try to jump through the gravity well of a black hole or a pulsar."

Rivers said dryly, "Especially with the biggest task force we've put together since the war started."

Sokolsky caught it that time. It's a task force rather than convoy. There was a big difference in the two, a troubling difference in Sokolsky's mind. Danny spooned a little cream into his coffee and watched it swirl around like a little galaxy.

Danny took a belt of the wretched stuff and said, "Come on Tom. Let's get it done."

Anderson said, "Night guys. Try not to break any of the Admiral's fine china."

Rivers replied curtly, "Wouldn't think of it sir." Sokolsky lead the way down a spiral staircase to the ship's chart room.

The navigation suite was called the chart room but the charts and sextants of the past were replaced by banks of computers networked to a sophisticated array of sensors. Sokolsky jumped into the chair behind the master console and logged in.

Sokolsky explained as he started the StarFix program, "The DSI navigation system uses the same triangulation methodology as the Mitsubishi-Grumman system that the fleet uses, but it differs significantly in that our system is designed for a ship that operates independently. Our Nav systems are similar in precision to the navigational systems on the bigger fleet command vessels. There are six independent computer cores that crunch the jump and Star Fix equations and a master computer that cross-checks the numbers. If and only if all six agree, the jump solution or fix calculations are accepted."

"Since we're in the core systems, the Alliance NavStar beacons are good enough for most purposes, but the fleet is staying off the usual jump lanes. We have the jump equations the fleet sent out."

"Right now, I've got the system triangulating our position automatically on the NavStar beacon network. Since we're off of our usual jump lanes, I'm going to double-check the results with pulsar triangulation."

Rivers said quietly, "That's what I wanted to see."

Sokolsky smirked, "I thought so. Follow me."

Danny led Rivers through an airlock and down a short corridor to a hatch. He popped the seal and opened the hatch to the StarFix pod and slid down into one of the two seats. Rivers slid down into the second seat and sealed and dogged the hatch.

After they had both strapped in, Danny fired up the modules systems and put on a headset. When the module had fully booted up, he keyed his mike and said, "Conn this is Navigation. Request permission to deploy the StarFix pod."

Schmit's voice responded, "Navigation this is Conn. You are clear to deploy."

The Star Fix pod was a spherical bubble of a clear ceramic, containing seats for two navigators and computer hookup for the navigation systems. Once Sokolsky had made sure that the pod had been secured, he turned the switch on the ops panel from retract to deploy.

The pod's protective cover retracted, and slowly the mechanism pushed the StarFix module out into clear space fifteen meters off the bow of the huge transport. From the clear plastic bubble, the Sokolsky and Rivers had a near perfect panorama of the star fields.

Rivers quietly exclaimed, "What a view!"

"Best seats in the house. If it wasn't for cosmic rays and hard radiation, I'd stay here all the time." Danny said as he looked around and found a fluffy patch that was the Crab nebulae.

Funding pulsars is tricky work. Sure, there are thousands of them and each one has a unique pulse signature, but they are directional like an old style lighthouse. However, unlike a traditional lighthouse, you couldn't see the radio pulse unless you are lucky enough to be aligned with their beam.

Luckily, the ship's phased array of passive sensors picked up the Crab pulsar easily. Shortly thereafter, Danny was able to find the Vela Pulsar and PSRJ437-4715. Once he had the three pulsars located and identified by their pulse signatures, he set the Star Fix program to automatic. It would find four more pulsars and fix their position almost exactly.

After Danny had handed the task off to the computers, he sat back to enjoy the view. Afraid that he was boring his new friend to death, he asked, "Where are you from Rivers?"

No response. He looked over at Rivers and said, "Hey buddy, you still with me?"

Rivers started, "Oh sorry, I was kind of lost in all that." He made a motion with his hand toward the spectacular star field. "What did you say?"

"Where are you from Rivers?"

"Please, call me Tom. I'm from a dusty little settlement in the Southern Hemisphere of Vega Prime called Coolgardie. The nearest town of any size is 1000 km away. How about you Danny? Where are you from?"

Danny rolled his eyes, "Mars colony. You know better red than dead. Not much better but that's what they say."

"What's it like there?"

Danny sighed, "Mars is much more interesting in the old movies. Now that it's mined out, it's a tourist trap. I swear everything is covered with historical markers that say somebody famous took a dump here in 2100. Noah Forrest left a Twinkie wrapper here in 2102."

Tom giggled, "Sounds like Earth. Everywhere you look there are historic buildings or battlefields. If it's not five hundred years old nobody seems to care about it."

The computers finished their computations, and they sat in silence for a few minutes while Danny logged their position. When he was done, he looked up and Tom was lost in the star-scape again.

He asked, "Tom, what are you looking for out here?"

Tom answered softly, "Something better my friend. Something better."

They sat in the StarFix pod for about an hour doing nothing but enjoying the sights and thinking.