Hello, my name is Jack.  It looked like we were going to win the war, or at least get some real breathing room, a few months into The War.  We had the Chinese and the Shang on the blocks, and were ready to take them out.  We were in the position of strength.  But then the Russians decided to step up and take sides.  I’ll never understand why they picked the losing side, but I suppose that is why we’ve always called them Crazy Ivans.  They’ve never made sense to us.

 

 

Crazy Ivan

 

The British fleet spread out around Jack’s Avenger starfighter, battleships and dreadnoughts making up the heart of the fleet.  Cruisers, destroyers, and corvettes deployed in a spherical formation around them, one hundred warships in all, less than four light seconds away from the Chinese world of Xin Yin in the Alpha Centauri binary star system.  Hundreds of fighters flew through and outside the fleet formation, preparing to protect the fleet against any threat.

Scores of other ships began to fill the Avenger’s displays at a point nearly two light seconds further out from Xin Yin, some still appearing to fill out the flanks of the massive fleet.  Hundreds of fighters boiled out of the warships, painting the plot a lurid red.  A Nemesis drone piloted by one of Betty’s clones approached the new arrivals, and the displays began to fill with information, ship classes flashing by almost faster than Jack could read.  Almost.

On top of his console, above the main displays, the twenty-centimeter tall holoforms of cybers lounged around on imaginary chairs, chatting away with each other.  Two of them, Jasmine and Drew, sat at the edge of the group, heads together as they had a private conversation.  The other seven cybers, all copies of Betty with modified personalities paused in their conversation as one of their number, pale-skinned Luna, stepped away in her long black dress.  She walked over to where Betty sat in her yellow sundress and sat down next to her sister or mother or whatever it was they called each other.

“You’re right.  The Russians are coming,” Luna said with a sad smile.

There were some things that Jack needed explaining.  But watching the information propagate across the displays, filling them with information about the entire Russian fleet, he knew this was one instance that he really didn’t need the help with.

“I rather gathered that,” he said in a wry tone.  “Do you have any other helpful information?”  He licked his lips then, really hoping they weren’t here to fight.  Of course this wasn’t really a good time for a vodka drinking game.  And then there was just the feeling he had that it was inevitable now.

Luna shared a glance with Betty.  “Well, it appears they’re blind.”

“Ah, yes.  Blind.” Jack returned.  The transition from hyperspace to normalspace tended to do Bad Things to improperly shielded electronics.  Or wide open organic eyeballs for that matter.  When he’d traveled to Luna as a child, he’d been curious enough to override the safety glass and watch them arrive.  Five hours later, he’d still been seeing reflections of…whatever it was that a ship went through.  That had been…a long time ago…and he still could not accurately describe what exactly it was he’d seen in that moment.  It had been amazing and terrible at the same time though.

And he didn’t even know if he accurately remembered it at all, or if it was just his mind trying desperately to recognize something, anything, in something that was inherently unrecognizable.  In all two centuries of star flight, no sensor or camera had ever recorded what happened in that blink, that flash of light between hyperspace and normalspace.  It was like the ship disappeared and reappeared and there was nothing in between the two, nothing to connect them.

AIs had gone insane trying to analyze it.  The lucky people accidentally exposed to it didn’t remember anything at all.  Jack remembered.  At least he thought he did.  He just could never put it to words.  Not even thought really.  It was beyond even his ability to imagine, and way outside his ability to describe.  It was like colors he couldn’t see, or sounds he could never hear.  He’d never held his eyes open during a transition since.

There was a lot of energy involved in leaving hyperspace, which usually ran up and down the skin of a ship making the transition.  That was almost certainly part of the flash of light, maybe all of it.   It could overload sensors of any kind if they were not properly shielded, and caused static discharges throughout the ship.  In the early days of star travel, all crewmembers had to wear insulted uniforms during the transition to avoid being shocked to protect them from the deadly effects.

The Peloran had shown humanity how to shield against those affects better, but they’d never helped the Russians in that way, and so they simply lagged behind the technological curve.  They built powerful ships, strong ships, rugged ships, but ultimately the Russians simply lacked some things that the Western Alliance took for granted.  They made up for that in the simplest Russian expedient that had saved them against every invading army outside of the Mongols.  Quantity after all, truly did have a quality all its own.

As static electricity flowed up and down the Russian warships, blinding every sensor they had, the Russians did what the Russians always did.  They bypassed the problem.  Their fighters, insulated inside their hangers during the transition, launched into space to see what was there.  Their sensors were not as powerful as the Russian warships, but there were a lot of fighters, and they transmitted everything they saw back to their motherships.  AI minds, protected deep inside the cores of the Russian ships, assimilated the data, showed it to their Russian masters, and began to react to what they saw.

They opened fire on Luna’s drone.  She did a very good job of dodging the vast majority of the weapons fire, but when thousands of weapons opened up on a single target, dodging ninety nine out of a hundred still meant that far too many made contact.  The Nemesis simply ceased to exist.

“Fraking Ivans,” Jack growled.

Luna sighed.  “Yeah.  Sorry about that.  But at least now we know whether they are friendly or not.  Guess I’ll check out for now.  Good luck.”

“Not your fault.  You got us good info,” Jack said quickly, wanting to get her attention before she left.  “Thanks.”

Luna smiled.  “You are welcome,” she whispered before flickering out, leaving him with Betty and the cyber pilots of the remaining eight drones.

“That was nice,” Betty whispered with a smile.

“It was true,” Jack answered, shrugging towards her.

Betty’s smile grew, a knowing look in her eyes.  “Of course it was.”

Jack grunted.  “The real question is why they’re crazy enough to pick the losing side.”  He nodded towards the displays showing the Russian fleet accelerating towards them.

“I’d guess they think they aren’t on the losing side,” Betty said, her smile turning grim.  She waved at a display that showed fifty of the Shang and Chinese warships beginning to accelerate out of orbit, climbing up out of the gravity well.

“Well, this is going to suck,” Jack whispered.  “How long before the Brits can dive again?”

“Five minutes.”  She did not seem happy with that number.  Jack ran the numbers in his head and pursed his lips.  She was right not to be happy.

“Then I guess we’ll be shooting some Ivans and Wangs.  Pull the drones back to point defense formation.”

“On it.”

Jack watched the British fleet respond to the threat, fighters and destroyers deploying between the capital ships and the Russians.  He glanced at the displays showing the Cowboys maneuvering as well and nodded as he reached for the control stick.  A quick twist spun them around to face the incoming Russians as they continued to maintain course with the British.

“Could you bring everything up please?” Jack asked, glancing at the displays that showed a number of their weapons greyed out.

Betty smiled.  “Well, since you ask so nicely.”  The display showed the laser turret dropping down out of the nose, and the lasers deploying from it.  “Lasers online,” Betty reported in a soft tone as the displays showed all three gravitic cannons extending from the wings and nose.  “Grav cannons online.”  The missile pods extended out of the main fuselage and rotated back and forth to make certain they were operational.  “Missiles online.  All weapons are online,” Betty finished with a satisfied smile.

Jack shivered as the sound of her voice rolled over him.  “Oooh, I like that.”

Betty laughed at him, shaking her head.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” he asked.

She gave him an innocent look.

And then the displays flashed as the Russians began to open fire.  Missiles exploded from their flanks, sweeping around to wash over the British fleet.  Jack grabbed the controls, took a deep breath, and let every conscious thought he had go away.  He became the moment, and felt as much as saw the Russians missiles meet British counter-missiles and lasers defense batteries as Betty began to move their fighter and drones in a complex random pattern to make them hard to hit.

Nothing made it through, but the Russians continued to close and Jack began to move the stick whenever he felt like it, adding his own organic randomness to the evasive maneuvers, as the British responded with a full broadside of missiles.  Russian fighters flew in ahead of another missile salvo and Jack shifted the fighter to port to avoid it as their lasers chattered away at them.  The remaining eight Nemesis drones echoed his movements, sweeping missiles out of space as the British fighters met their counterparts in flurries of destruction.  The grav cannons opened up from every drone, cutting into the Russian formation.  Five of the Russian fighters exploded or ripped apart under the assault, as the British missiles began to arrive in the Russian fleet.  Like the Russian missiles, nothing broke through the point defense at this range.

The Russians continued to close the range though, and the missiles on both sides drew closer before being shot down.  Finally the displays showed Katy’s fighter and drones pull up or dip below the Vanguard and counter-missile fire began to stream out to meet the Russian attack.  The incoming missiles exploded far away from the Vanguard and her escorts, though many of the destroyers and smaller warships began to suffer hits that left them streaming wreckage.

“Thanks, Mischief,” Jack said as he kept his concentration on not being where some enemy missile wanted to be.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got your back, Boss,” Katy responded.

As missiles passed back and forth between the two fleets in a never-ending stream of explosions, the Russians closed to within a light second.  Massive spinal gravitic cannons opened up, stabbing into the British fleet.  They missed the wildly evading warships though, unable to accurately track from that distance and time delay.  The British returned fire with larger numbers of broadside-mounted gravitic turrets, but beyond ripping apart some unlucky missiles they achieved only similar accuracy as the Russians.

Jack flicked the controls to the side because he felt like it as Betty locked onto a distant Russian target and opened fire with all three gravitic cannons.  Her drones joined in, sweeping space around the Russian cruiser with lances of twisted gravity.  Maneuvering thrusters kept their target moving in random directions, but one gravitic cannon managed to sweep over the Russian.  At that range, the Russian deflection grid practically ignored the attack, stopping it without so much as a twitch in power levels.

“Good hit,” Jack complimented her.

“Too bad it didn’t hurt them,” she growled back as their lasers flashed, intercepting more incoming missiles.

“Don’t worry, they’ll get closer,” Jack said, his tone more grim than he’d meant it to be.

Betty grimaced.  “Yeah, not worried about that.  They seem rather determined on the matter.”

Jack winced as a Russian gravitic cannon smashed into a British destroyer.  The deflection grid flashed for an instant before failing, and the gravitic beam passed into and through the British ship, ripping it apart from the inside.  A gravitic turret caught by the assault overloaded and exploded, slashing the destroyer from stem to stern, and then another followed it.  Finally the destroyer broke in half and began to drift out of formation, streaming atmosphere and wreckage.

“Yes, it would appear that they are,” Jack said in a grim tone and pulled the throttle to the side, engaging the thrusters that sent them sliding to port.  A second later, a swarm of missiles came flying by, trying desperately to claw their way to him.  Most of them fell to the laser turret and the rest charged towards the Vanguard only to be shot down by the dreadnought’s inner defensive ring of point defense turrets.

Another swarm of missiles flashed past him from behind, boiling out to meet more incoming Russian missiles in a roiling wave of explosions and Jack moved them to the side again.  The Russians were closer now.  A quick glance at the displays showed the Chinese and Shang were closer too, building up a speed that would see them shooting past the battle in less than a minute if they kept accelerating.  Of course, sometimes that was all you needed.

He glanced over at another display showing the British and Russian fighters in between the two fleets.  The Russians were slower and less accurate, but they had heavier armor, weapons, and numbers on their side, an advantage that was telling.  The British fighters were beginning to fall back towards the fleet in disarray, one or two at first, and more as the seconds went by.

“Hey, Chief,” Jack said, nodding to Betty to transmit his words to Charles.  “Should we be doing something about those fighters?”

“Don’t worry,” came the response.  “Everything’s going according to plan.”

Jack raised an eyebrow as he studied the displays, then swung them around on a whim.  “It looks to me like they’re about to break and run,” he finally said.

“Yes it does,” was all Charles returned with.  He sounded pleased.

“Ah,” Jack whispered as he connected the dots in his mind.  So that was the plan.  “Right.  Got yah.”  He jammed the throttle over and the Avenger shot to starboard as a lance of twisting gravity passed by the fighter.  Jack whistled at how close that had been.

“You OK?” Charles asked, his voice betraying concern.

Jack winced as he glanced at a display that showed some stress fractures on the port wing.  “Yeah.  They singed me a bit but we’re still flying.”

“Then keep it up.  We’re about to get busy.”

“Got it, Chief,” Jack finished, paused for a bit and pulled up on the throttle, sending the Avenger straight up.  Missiles came screaming by as the Avenger’s lasers chattered at them.  The gravitic cannons spoke again, playing across the Russian cruiser again with two beams this time.  It shrugged them off with ease, though when several British cannons hit it a second later the Russian’s deflection grid flickered.  It held, but Jack knew it was only a matter of time before casualties began to mount.

As if on queue with his thoughts, three Russian destroyers bracketed a British cruiser, ripping her nose off with one lucky hit.  Jack winced.  Those Russian gravitic cannons were powerful, possibly even more powerful than the Peloran cannons.  The British deflection grids didn’t seem capable of stopping them.  That was going to lead to serious troubles once the Russians found the range.

“Here they come,” Betty said and Jack shifted his eyes back to the display showing the fighters.

The British fighters had finally broken and were falling back en masse.  The Russians accelerated to follow, but the British were simply faster and they quickly escaped the deadly knife-fighting range the engagement had begun in.  They streamed back towards the British formation, and the Russian fighters reformed their scattered squadrons as they led the main Russian fleet into a more decisive firing range.

“Still going according to plan, Chief?” Jack asked as the Russian gravitic cannons and missiles scored hits on several British ships, ripping another destroyer apart.  The Russians had yet to lose a single warship, and the fighter formation was doing its job well.  And then there were the Chinese and Shang approaching firing range from the planet.

“Yes, Jester,” came the patient response.

Jack chewed his lip for a moment as he studied the displays.  “Is it too early to say the plan sucks?”

“Yes,” Charles answered, a hint of grim amusement in his tone.  “It is.”

The displays showed a situation going from bad to worse, with three minutes left on the countdown before they could even consider diving out of the battle.  They needed to do something quick if they were going to stop this from turning into a disaster.  He could feel it in his bones.

“Great.  Tell me when it’ll stop sucking, please.”

“Real quick, actually,” Charles returned.

Betty shifted, unfolding and then crossing her legs the other way to get his attention.  “We’re getting priority targets now,” she announced, nodding towards the appropriate display.

Jack followed her motion and smiled as he saw the lights propagate across the display.  “Nice,” he muttered.

“So glad you approve,” Charles said with a chuckle.

Jack looked at Betty and she gave him an innocent smile.  He hadn’t meant for her to transmit that bit.  She shrugged.

He sighed and held his gaze on Betty.  “Just tell me when.”

Betty relaxed and looked over at the other cybers.  They looked at her, nodded, and flickered out, leaving the console empty except for her.  Then she cocked her head to the side and nodded one more time.

“Cowboy One to all Cowboys,” Charles said in a clear tone as the British fighters continued to retreat from the Russians, returning to the fleet.  “Break in three…two…one…break!” he finished with a shout and Jack slammed the throttle forward.

Around him the displays showed every Cowboy, fighter and drone, exploding away from the British battleships and dreadnoughts they were protecting to accelerate past the fleeing fighters.  Jack licked his lips as British missiles arced around their formation and accelerated towards the Russians.  The plots cleared and for the first time absolutely nothing flew between Jack and the enemy.  He swallowed, flicked the stick to the right as several Russian missiles tried to track him, and saw the Nemesis and Wildcat drones boiling past the Cowboy fighters.

And then the British fighters stopped running.  They spun around as if on queue, paused a second to finalize their firing solutions, and a salvo of missiles boiled out from them that caused Jack to wince as they past his fighter in a torrent of fusion-powered flames.

“Fire!” Charles shouted and Jack’s Avenger shook as their new missile batteries spoke in anger for the first time.  All three gravitic cannons erupted, twisting the very fabric of space between them and their targets.  Even their lasers switched to constant fire, strobing their targets as quickly as they could cycle without overheating the systems.  Every Cowboy fighter and drone followed suit, opened up with every weapon they had, filling space between them and the Russians with missiles, roiling gravity waves, and a steady stream of lasers.

The Russian fighter formation exploded.