With our war fleet enroute to Earth, one of the most important battles against the evil AI was about to begin.
We had left Makemake behind a few months ago, leaving only two warships to protect the cargo fleet and the dwarf planet if something came too close. If they had to leave Makemake while we were away, we had a few predetermined rendezvous points to meet after we returned from our mission. I also had assigned Admiral Mei back to her navigation duty aboard Lodos as I would need her expertise.
The fleet was split about a week ago. Now, we were just about a few days away from our attack on the AI's interstellar colony ship. Lodos was the leading ship of the main attacking force, and the larger 'bait' force was a bit ahead of us, but coming in with a different angle.
"Sir, Tachibana's ship is requests to separate from the fleet to start decelerating." Mei said.
"Request accepted." I said. "Relay my good wishes to him and his crew."
"Got it, sir."
And the last split in the fleet has been accomplished. Since Tachibana was intending to stay near Earth instead of zipping past it like we were about to do, his ship had to make a retrograde maneuver.
"Professor... Can you detect any enemy movements? Is our bait going to work?" I asked.
"I can detect quite a few ships preparing to intercept our bait fleet." replied Professor Yamamari. "However, they have more than enough ships to successfully intercept both of our fleets, so I can't say for certain if it will work."
"I see."
"Sir..." Mei joined our conversation.
"What is it, admiral?" I asked. "Do you have any suggestions?"
"No, I have a question." she said. "Do we have any backup plans if we get intercepted and have to call out the attack?"
"If we get intercepted early enough, before the bait fleet departs Earth, they may try to push in instead of us." I said. "But apart from that, no."
"I would rather say..." the professor interrupted me. "...that it is left as an exercise to the fleet commander. Who knows, we might come up with a new plan at that moment."
"That would indeed be better phrasing; thanks a lot, professor." I said. "And Mei, the term 'fleet commander' includes you."
"I'm not a kid, thanks for the reminder." she said, before turning to her navigation console. I walked over to take a look at her screens, leaning onto the back of her seat and resting my arms on her shoulders.
"Is that the final approach trajectory?" I started asking questions.
"No, we have one more maneuver coming up to finalize the approach."
"What is our closest approach to the target?"
"About 8 kilometers, assuming the target doesn't accelerate in any direction."
"How long will our engagement window be?"
"We will have a window of 5 minutes to launch missiles. If we are to use railguns or such, we will only have a few seconds at most. Even with the best of our automated systems, targeting will probably be hard."
"Can we pre-calculate our targeting?"
"Since the target does not accelerate and our final trajectory is known; yes, we can pre-calculate our targeting data. But the slightest inaccuracy can make us miss the target by multiple kilometers, so the later we do it, the better."
"Why is there an error light on the main engine number 1?"
"Its propellant feed line pressure sensors have failed, says our engineers."
"Didn't you order them to fix it?"
"I did."
"When?"
"A week ago."
"So why is it not fixed yet?"
"HOW WOULD I KNOW, CAN YOU MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!?" Mei went furious. "If I thought it was something worth reporting, I would have!"
"Oh, woah, admiral is angry." I said, before quickly leaving Mei's vicinity. If Professor Yamamari wasn't on the bridge with us, I would surely be kicked in the guts.
"The bait fleet is reporting." Mei quickly restored her cold-blooded 'duty mode', however. "They report that they see a big fleet moving to intercept them. They have to make course changes, from the looks of it."
"Understood." I said. "Do WE see anything, professor?"
"No, not from here." he said. "We are GO for the assault for the moment."
"Alright." I said, moving to the comms console to connect to the main engineering deck. "Engineering!"
"Sir, this is Chief George from engineering. How can we help you?"
"I need a thorough inspection of all munition loading systems as well as torpedo launchers. Test them by loading and unloading actual missiles with warheads. Any possible lags or errors in the system must be eliminated. Everything must work at full speed, with no interruptions, and 100% accuracy."
"Yes, sir. We are on it. Anything else?" he asked.
"When can you report back to me?" I said.
"Two or three hours most likely."
"Great. Keep up."
"Yes, sir. Engineering, out!"
"Sir..." said Professor Yamamari. "Commander Tachibana's ship is rotating and is slowly moving away."
"They must be preparing to maneuver." said Mei.
"They are extending some extra radiators and preparing to start their main drives." the professor said.
"Sir, the commander sent us a message."
"Let me see."
'---TERRAN RESTORATION CONFEDERATION NAVAL FORCES---
Commander Tachibana
Sir, we are about to leave the fleet. I'm grateful to the entire fleet for the pleasant ride up until here.
We will shortly start decelerating, once we are far enough from the attack fleet. Our closest approach to Earth will then happen above the Atlantic Ocean, in the mesosphere. With the help of some aerobraking, we intend to get into orbit. We will perform a short survey from there and pick ideal landing sites before the enemy fleets can come close enough to attack us. We will then make a few cargo drops to the Earth's surface, and our forces will make landings in separate but relatively close spots. From there, each force will start scouting their sectors to find resources and possible runaway human populations.
The abandoned ship in orbit will be set for self destruction once the landings are complete.
If one of the forces start running out of any vital resource, unless there is a danger of provoking an AI attack enroute, nearby units will come to help.
I expect this initial phase to last about a week or two, considering our equipment load. After that, unless we see resistance from the local population or the governing bodies, we will start organizing and training new recruits. This might take longer than I wished for, so until the training phase is complete, our naval forces will conduct the main bulk of the operations.
After the first training phase is complete, we will mainly target launch centers, hangars and related service facilities in a hit-and-run fashion. Secondary targets will be extraction and refining facilities.
The whole campaign will last until either;
a) All of our forces are destroyed.
b) We are lifted back into space by a Terran Restoration Confederation force for whatever reason.
c) Earth is recaptured by humanity.
d) Peace is made somehow.
---END OF DECRYPTED PACKAGE---'