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| Navy drone launch, courtesy of the United States Navy (attribution here). |
The flying air carrier, Lexington, was a twenty thousand ton, bulbous flying wing that was mostly an airship. Without the lift generated from the wings the ship would begin to gently descend to the surface as its helium cells made it just slightly negatively buoyant. Air carriers were mostly constructed from lightweight composites and propelled by turbo fans that were electrically powered by a chemical fusion plants, like those found on heavy combat mechs. At its maximum speed of 250 kilometres per hour, the Lexington wasn’t going to break any speed records, but it could travel completely around the world before refuelling.
The super aircraft carriers of the early 21st century were completely obsolete by the end of 2030s, and had been replaced by these new flying carriers. These new carriers were designed from inception as drone carriers. They were smaller, mostly crewed by robots, and stealthy between their active camouflage and radar deflecting construction. These carriers operated without escorts, and delivered their squadrons of supersonic attack drones into battle from a stand-off distance. Human piloted fighter aircraft had been almost completely replaced by unmanned drones due to the advent of laser weapons. The autonomous drones were cheaper, more maneuverable, capable of pulling high-G maneuvers that would incapacitate a human pilot, factors that made them more survivable and expendable at the same time. A drone could still be remotely operated by a human pilot, but a squadron of six drones usually had only one human squadron leader in the kill chain to both guide it and authorize weapons use.
The left side drop bay doors flipped opened in the bottom of the carrier. There were two long bays running down each side of the carrier. A squadron of drones hung suspended from their cradles some 10,000 metres above the ocean far below. One squadron of drones, the ready alert, was always ready to launch on immediate notice, while the other five squadrons could be armed and readied within fifteen minutes. On the CAG’s orders, the squadron dropped free from the ship nose down. Their afterburners kicked in during free fall to have the fighter squadron arc back up in a parabolic curve then turn towards the unknown contact at maximum speed, breaking the sound barrier as they went.
The carrier’s bridge and combat information centre (CIC) were both in one large room located within an armoured compartment in the middle of the carrier. Automation and integrated workstations had now put control of all of the ships systems in one place. Touch sensitive display consoles that controlled the ship and its weaponry were grouped by related function and organized in a semi-circle in front of the captain and XO’s stations, and all personnel faced forward towards a large set of displays at the front of the bridge. The main display showed the forward view in front of the ship with tactical and strategic displays along side showing the view in front of the shop along with tactical and strategic displays along side it.
“Ready alert is away. The Gunslingers report they are fully operational,” the CAG reported to the captain. “Arming and fuelling the White Knights is under way.” In the hangar, robot arms and a small human crew were working quickly to ready the next squadron.
***
The tactical operations officer notified the captain that a long range reconnaissance drone was coming up on the contact and put a visual up on the main display. The view of the ocean in front of the carrier vanished and was replaced by clouds racing by. The video was being transmitted from a Albatross III reconnaissance drone, one of many wide-winged, solar powered drones that patrolled the security zone for months at a time. The drone descended below the light cloud pocket it had encountered and the bottom of the video feed showed an altitude of 1000 metres, with an airspeed of 300 kph.
There were a series of gasps from the bridge crew as the video feed locked in on a strange beast that pulsated and glowed yellow from within. It resembled a crested jellyfish floating above the sea, with a frilly beard around the base and masses of long tentacles below it. A band of dark black eyes seem to circle it around the body’s midpoint. It was hard to get a scale on it until you looked down and saw the waves breaking against the tentacles that reached into the ocean. You could understand it was big and a couple of hundred metres high, but you weren’t sure.
“What is that thing?” Williams asked aloud.
“Don’t know,” the XO replied. “Sure looks like some kind of weird alien jellyfish to me. The thing is actually floating in the air. Probably some kind of Blue Newt critter. Data has been forwarded to HQ. Maybe the AIs can tell us.”
“Drone will be overhead in two minutes,” the tactical officer chimed in. “Gunslingers will intercept in four minutes.”
“That thing shouldn’t be possible,” the captain spoke again. “The square-cube law says no living thing could support itself at that size. Is it even organic, or is it some kind of machine?“
“Looks organic to me,” the XO replied, “run a full scan of that thing.”
The tactical officer spoke again. “Drone indicates that the thing does not return on radar. Ladar is painting it and it looks like it is about three hundred metres high. The main body at the top is about 75 metres high, with a diameter of 50 metres. Thermal indicates the thing is hot, almost 400 degrees celcius.”
“That’s crazy. Its hotter than molten lead,” Williams spoke again. “Recheck the instruments.”
The picture was suddenly a wall of static, then it restored just a little to see the tentacled beast flailing tentacles in a grainy image. The visual broke up again and restored a little, then broke up again.
“Drone reports massive radio interference,” the tactical officer reported. “The thing is doing some type of broad spectrum electromagnetic jamming, almost like an EMP. The body is heating up. It is almost a 1000 degrees now.”
Captain Williams was beginning to get a very bad feeling about this. “Order the drone to maintain distance. We’ll have the Gunslingers do a close-in pass of that thing when they arrive.” The picture from the recon drone broke up into static again and then re-established itself as the Albatross began to circle the alien beast.
***
The Albatross had only made a partial orbit in the next minute when the tactical officer yelled out. “Heat spike!” The picture from the nose camera of the drone showed a bright flash from on of the many eyes on the alien jellyfish and the image violently shuddered, then showed the surface of the ocean. “Albatross is falling. Reports heavy damage, with no response from the tail. It is going down, sir. Looks like it got hit with some kind of directed energy weapon.”
“I guess we know it’s hostile.” The XO spoke up. “Orders, captain?”
“Weapons free. Take that thing down. Have the Gunslingers hit it with everything they got.”
“I suggest we rearm the White Knights for anti-ship, sir, “ the CAG spoke up. “The Gunslingers are primarily armed for air to air.”
“Make it so,” Captain Williams replied. “Prep all of the squadrons, anti-ship. That thing is big, but it is going down.”
***
“Sheriff,” Fast Eddie Wilson, the Gunslingers squadron commander was ready for action. Both he and his assistant commander were already in their flight pod in the Boom Room. The Boom Room housed six virtual reality command pods, each of which commanded a squadron of drones. All of the pods were currently occupied during the alert, with each squadron either in flight or arming.
The Gunslingers pilots sat in tandem in their pod, surrounded by a 360 degree view around the lead drone, and control consoles with flight controls in front of them. Both pilots wore helmets with a transparent full face visor that partially obscured their faces when the heads up display (HUD) projected on it. Eddie guided the lead drone, and issued orders, with Roscoe acting as his backup and attack coordinator for their six drones. The AI controlled attack drones could fly and attack completely autonomously, but human pilots commanded them and could fly them as required. A human component was still essential in the kill loop for coordinating tactics, target identification, and weapons release authorization.
Eddie was a veteran pilot, unlike his assistant, he was old enough to have flown jet interceptors before the last of them had been decommissioned just over a decade ago. He always felt a little detached when flying drone missions as it didn’t have the same impact as being in a cockpit in the middle of the action. He could still get into the mission, but the thrill wasn’t the same. After watching the recon drone feed and and the shooting down of the drone, he had bad feeling about this mission building in his gut. Maybe it was just the strangeness of the alien monster, but he was glad he wasn’t in a cockpit facing that thing right now. Looking forward he could see the alien monster straight ahead of the lead drone and slightly lower. They were sixty seconds out.
“All drones report ready,” Roscoe called over. If he showed any nervousness, it was hidden in the excitement of his voice. This would be his first combat mission.
“Let’s do this by the book,” Eddie replied to reassure Roscoe, but it was probably for both of them. “Attack Pattern Alpha. All weapons hot. Select Jackhammers, mass fire.” Eddie wished their drones had been armed with Sea-lance anti-ship missiles, but they only had a mix of air to air missiles and the general purpose Jackhammer missiles. Still, each drone carried four Jackhammers and also had a 25mm gatling cannon that could be used for good effect.
“All drones to max combat speed, fire all missiles at 10 km, then break off. We’ll reform at point delta and come in for gun runs if it isn’t dead yet.”
The drones confirmed their orders visually on the helmet HUDs. They began to assemble into a dispersed ragged line based on the lead drone, following the designated attack pattern. The drones did not come in directly, but weaved and bobbed in their formation to dodge possible enemy fire. Eddie was not directly piloting the lead drone, but worked with the AI, and both human and computer counted down the seconds till weapons release.
Internal weapons bays opened up on the drones and the Jackhammers dropped out in pairs from each drone. Twenty four missiles burned in at three times the speed of sound. Contrails converged in from the drones wide front into one point where the alien monster was. “Missiles away,” Eddie called out. “Drones breaking off.”
Behind the retreating drones, the monster seemed unaware of the missile wave closing in, its tentacles slowly moving in the air and in the water where they touched the ocean. Suddenly, it seemed to realize the danger that was incoming. The mass of tentacles began flailing in the air and the body pulsated with flashes of orange. The temperature of the beast rose as it generated energy. Long duration beams of energy shot from a half dozen of its eyes. The beams swept through the air at the incoming missiles. A half dozen missiles exploded in the air, but the other relentlessly closed in.
Jackhammers were designed to engage ground targets like tanks, spider-mechs, the big robotic HARM units, or bunkers. They packed a hundred kilogram explosive warhead shaped to punch through armour while providing a large blast effect. Eighteen of these warheads detonated in rapid succession against the beast’s body. Explosions and big clouds of dark clouds of smoke obscured the beast for a half minute. Tentacles could still be seen flailing through the air, but it did not look like the slowing death throes of an animal.
The air began clearing and the pilots and the bridge crew of the carrier gasped. There were a good dozen holes in the side of the creature which was a bright orange now. Yellowish protoplasmic fluid oozed out of the holes in the creature’s thick hide. Even as they watched, the holes could be seen to be shrinking, the creature was healing. Static filled the picture for a moment as more electromagnetic interference burst from the creature.
“Holy Crap,” Roscoe exhaled. The thing had taken a beating ad was still going.
“That’s not good,” Eddie added. “We’re going to need more missiles, or bigger ones. Let’s try for the eyes on that thing. It’s got to have a weak spot. Drones, Attack Pattern Delta. The things got some kind of energy beams protecting it, but we’re going in with guns. All units to use maximum speed and evasion.”
This time, the drones formed into a wide arc and began closing in. They were widely dispersed and randomly dipped and weaved in high-g maneuvers that would have killed a human pilot. The alien monster saw them coming in further out this time and began to fire its beams at them in rapid succession. At first, the drones were successful at evading with the maneuvers designed to counter anti-air lasers, but as the distance dropped, the beast’s accuracy was telling. One drone exploded, then another, but four drones were still on approach.
At two kilometres, they began to slightly straighten out and begin to fire at the creature’s eyes in long bursts of their cannons. At fifty rounds in a burst, several of the eyes were struck, and they burst open in great gouts of dark fluid. The beast seemed to react as if it were in pain. Tentacles arced high into the air and some seemed to be covering some of its eyes. The drones fired several more bursts to less effect and then passed over the alien monster at high speed. More eye beams burned out and another drone exploded. The remaining Gunslingers did an incredibly tight turn and began another attack run.
Beams and cannon tracer rounds blazed through the air. Another drone exploded on the way in and another drone exploded on the way out. Two more eyes on the beast were taken out. Less than a couple of minutes had passed and only one craft from the squadron of multi-million dollar drones had survived.
“Gunslingers are withdrawing,” Eddie, “Squadron has suffered heavy losses, 5 drones down..” He looked in the at the receding alien monster through the rear camera on his drone. There were still a couple of dozen of eyes left on the alien thing. “I hope it doesn’t heal as fast from those hits on its eyes. I recommend that we try to hit it at standoff range with anti-ship missiles and multiple squadrons to swamp its defences.”
“You did good,” Captain Williams replied back. “That thing is tougher than anyone thought.” The entire bridge crew had seen the action first hand. “We’ll do better next time. We’re already arming for anti-ship and we’ll stage the next one to hit it as hard as we can.”
“Yes, sir!” Eddie responded. He then exhaled hard, the intensity of the moment had been greater than he expected.
Turning to his XO, the captain then said, “Get CINCPAC on the horn. We might need more firepower. Request railgun cruisers and more carriers.”
***
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