The enemy ships, instead of entering the atmosphere to pursue us, made an orbital injection maneuver and got in a stable low orbit around the planet. They would not be able to launch their drones to attack us, but they could simply wait for us to start running low on resources and come back out of the planet's atmosphere.
And when we got back out, the drones would be there, like a swarm of angry wasps waiting for their target to get out of a pond.
"Damn it." I said. "We fell into our own trap."
"How the tables have turned..." said the professor.
"Good one, you idiot." Mei was a bit more confrontational.
"If you had a brighter idea, why didn't you speak up beforehand?" I replied to her. "Either way, we can fight each other later; now let's think of what to do."
"I say we should just wait." said Professor Yamamari. "The enemy will have to travel faster since they are in orbit and we are basically in supersonic atmospheric flight. They will eventually have to either come down here, or they will overshoot our position. If the latter happens, we can simply activate our engines and escape."
"If the former happens?" I asked.
"We will go along with your plan and attack them head-on." he said.
"No way." said Mei.
"What? You think we can't take them even without their drone protection?" I asked.
"It is not that." she said. "The problem is, since we are on a suborbital trajectory, we have to keep our engines running to stay in the air. Before either proposed scenario happens, the fleet will start running out of propellant reserves. We don't have that much time."
"In that case, my plan fails." said the professor.
At that moment, we all heard a faint beep from the sensors console. I went to take a look, and the professor followed me.
"New contact." I said. "Coming down from orbit, approaching our fleet."
"That's three new contacts." said the professor. "Now four, actually."
"I can't identify them." I said. "Too much atmospheric interference."
"What do I do then?" Mei asked.
"Just dodge." I said. "You know, in case they are dangerous stuff. I will enable electronic countermeasures. Mei, get me the engineering deck."
"You are connected." she said.
"Guys, here comes a big power drain. I will enable electronic countermeasures, but if things go wrong, warn me as soon as possible." I said.
"Yes sir, if we run out of power or heat up too much, we will automatically cut power from those systems anyway." said George.
The Fleet dispersed and ships began evasive maneuvers. Warships, at least those which had the appropriate equipment, activated their electronic countermeasure systems. And just minutes later, we discovered that we were right about being so paranoid - those were missiles. The enemy was attacking us, bombarding the fleet from above.
Luckily, with the precautions we took, none of the missiles hit any of our ships. We heard the explosions and felt the shockwaves, though; since we were in denser parts of the atmosphere. It caught me by surprise; we were not used to hear missiles exploding unless they hit the vessel we were in, which wasn't a very common thing especially considering me being still alive.
"They are sending a new wave of missiles." I said to Mei. "Be careful."
"I am doing my best." she said. "For how long do you want to get bombarded? Think of something and get us out of here!"
"I am trying my best, okay?" I said, trying to sound a bit angry. "You should think of something too, admiral!"
The next wave of missiles missed The Fleet by a very large margin. In fact, the enemy's targeting was so bad that Mei didn't even have to dodge the attack.
"I've got an idea." I said.
"Okay, how do you intend to get us killed now?" Mei asked.
"Okay, liste- Wait, what did you say!?"
"Nevermind, just continue!" Mei shouted.
"Okay, anyway. It looks like our countermeasures are pretty effective, especially when combined with atmospheric effects." I said. "They can't even target the gigantic fleet formation, let alone detect individual ships. We can use this to our advantage. A small group of two warships will separate from the main fleet and slowly approach the enemy force. Before they can see us coming and deploy drones, we will strike them and take them out with a surprise counterattack."
"How exactly do you intend to attack them?" asked Mei.
"Lodos and another missile carrying ship will slowly increase their altitude, while staying in the imaginary straight line between the enemy and our main fleet. This way, the enemy won't be able to detect the two ships departing the main fleet, at least not immediately. We will look like random noise on their sensors."
"Then?"
"Once the two ships are high enough to launch an effective missile salvo, they will move away from each other. One will move about 10 kilometers starboard, and the other will move 10 kilometers port. One of them will launch the attack."
"What about the other one?"
"In case the enemy detects the first ship and sends drones to force it back into the planet, the second ship will finish the job."
"Sound like a solid plan to me." said the professor.
"I have my doubts." said Mei. "But every second spends our propellant reserves, and I don't have anything better in mind, honestly."
"Great." I said. "So, Ms. Admiral, choose a ship to accompany us and let's get underway to launch the surprise attack."
"You are giving me the command?" she asked.
"End of humanity or not, I don't think you have taken enough command responsibility for the title of admiral so far." I said. "Let this be one of the major operations on your service record."
"Okay, commander, first things first, I assign you to the sensors console." she started off.
"Yes, sir." I said, before silently saying the following: "Though, just a reminder, I'm taking the fleet's command back once the operation is done."