And do you know how to do that? Admiral Fultons interest in the matter was clear.
Of course. Theoretically, there is nothing complicated about this, although there will certainly be a lot of technical problems at the implementation stage, but I am sure that all this is solvable. Take, for example, a warhead of an anti-ship torpedo. What do we have now? We have a three-part combat unit. When in contact with the side of an enemy ship, a shaped charge is activated, burning the armor and allowing the warhead to enter. Next, almost simultaneously, the blast part of the charge and the cassette with capsules containing an active combat substance produced by the lizards are activated. As a result, we have a combined damage to the inner structure of the ship, which the quargs are not able to cope with easily, as the combat use of these munitions has shown.
Its a very effective weapon, but what we need now is a very different result. If we dont want to destroy the crew, a warhead is in no way allowed to penetrate the ships interior compartments, which means that it is necessary to direct all the casualty effects of its operation parallel to the side of ship and not inside its hull. Thus, we will critically damage all systems placed on or directly below the armor in the technical compartments, but will not affect the habitable space of the enemy ship. With this approach, of course, the ammunition consumption will increase several times, but in the end, instead of destroying an enemy ship, we can turn it into a useless, tampered barrel, incapable of fighting, but with a live crew inside.
And then As I recall, in the Kappa Ceti system, the tactic of using boarding robots with non-lethal ammunition, proposed by Major Lavroff, uh excuse me, still Captain Kotova at the moment, was very successfully tested in the capture of the orbital terminal.
The participants had been silently digesting the information received for some time.
And how long do you estimate it will take to convert this concept into actual ammunition in the artillery magazines of our ships? asked Admiral Nelson.
* * *
The first wave of torpedoes reached the anti-torpedo network, with which the quargs were trying to cover the formation of their ships. Compared to the veil that the enemy strike fleet was able to deploy near star Ran, this network did not look very impressive. The two standard aircraft carriers could not hold enough scanner probes and fighter jets, not to mention specialized probe carriers, which the enemy did not have here.
The quargs here have already been briefed on our latest tactical developments. The fate of the enemy strike fleet, which had the pleasure to experience them near star Ran, remained unknown to the military leadership of the quargs, but near Kappa Ceti, we used these tactics, too, and there were many witnesses left, so a strike with cluster warhead torpedoes against a network of scanners and fighters proved to be reasonably expected for the enemy. However, this knowledge could not help the quargs because the forces were too unequal.
The torpedoes dropped their protective fairings, and 20 small rockets from each of their heads rushed towards the targets. The loosely secured drone scanners that made up most of the anti-torpedo network disappeared in blast outbursts just like they did before, but the quarg fighters, which had some armor, did not explode. New warheads did not even penetrate their thin fragment protection. Colonel Jeffs men knew their business well, and the strike elements, like the full force of the explosion of the rockets warhed, dispersed in a plane parallel to the side of the aircraft, only slightly deforming it, but tearing down anything that projected beyond the hull. After three or four such strikes, the fighter lost all its ability to fight. Having lost its weapons and scanners, with a damaged propulsion system, it turned into a large escape pod for its pilot.
The first wave has worked well, reported the commander of the «Invisibles». The network is destroyed. 57 incapacitated enemy pursuit planes are drifting amid the debris.
Well pick them up later. We dont have time for them now, answered I to the officer.
Second wave to target in three minutes. Third wave in five.
In the second wave, anti-aircraft torpedoes have been launched. Jeff and Stein didnt even have to redo them, these munitions were already designed for the destruction of short-range guns and anti-aircraft missile launchers, and did not pose a direct threat to the crews of the ships, or, in this case, to the enemy orbital fortresses.
The quargs quickly realized that our first strike was not aimed at the ships, but at the orbital fortresses. Even though they lost the anti-torpedo network and were unable to restore it, they tried to help the slow-moving armored giants under attack by opening barrage fire with their main batteries at the approaching torpedoes. But the accuracy of their fire without proper targeting left much to be desired, and the loss of torpedoes was negligible.
In those minutes, the garrisons of the orbital fortresses must have prepared themselves for imminent death. The quargs knew what our torpedoes were capable of, they have seen more than once the disastrous impact they have had when massively used, even on the largest and most secure ships. And now weve used them on a really massive scale. 25 «Invisibles» at full salvo launched three waves of five hundred torpedoes each. For the four orbital fortresses, it wasnt just redundant, it was an excessively large number, but I didnt know how our new ammo would show up in real combat, so I thought Id take some extra precautions, because Jeff warned me that torpedo expenditure was going to increase.
The quarg orbital fortresses were covered with a continuous layer of explosions. The commanders of our ships who witnessed the beating were probably expecting to see the fortresses falling apart or swelling up by multiple internal explosions. Then their surprise turned out to be even greater when the externally intact armored spheres appeared to their eyes. It was only with a strong magnification that we could see the results of the impact on the projection screen in full detail. Twisted or simply cut barrels of major caliber guns, steamy craters instead of anti-aircraft emplacements, mangled missile silos Not even a trace of the scanners sensors. Four orbital fortresses ceased to exist as combat units.
The ultimatum continues? I checked with the liaison officer.
Thats right, Fleet Admiral, Sir. They are not reacting.
«Invisibles» from number 26 to number 50, prepare for a salvo on enemy ships. Supply transports, reload the «Invisibles» which have finished firing with carriers of boarding robots.
«Invisibles» are ready to launch torpedoes.
Full volley!
Chapter 2
Tactical Officer, whats going on? Commander Kilshs voice sounded flat. Why didnt the orbital fortresses collapse? It was bound to happen with so many hits.
A tense silence occupied the command post of the cover squadrons flagship for a few seconds.
The enemy used a new type of ammunition, Commander Kilsh, finally answered the officer. Telemetry data from orbital fortresses show that they have lost all external weapon systems, including anti-aircraft emplacements and major caliber guns, but there are neither internal damages, no casualties among the garrisons.
But why do the humans have to go through all this trouble? With so many torpedoes, they could destroy our entire squadron, and as a result, they only managed to disable the four fortresses.