CH6
"Do we know if they are here in force?" Kate finally asks after remaining silent for a minute to let it soak in.
"They didn't say. Lucile, anything?" Rick calls out.
Lucile appears in-between them at the end of the counter. "My ability to scan space is limited. I utilize the satellites that are in orbit to scan the surface. I have to rely on information from Evergreen for anything out in space. And the local ability to see space is equally as limited as I am." Lucile explains.
"Long story short, you don't know?" Kate comments.
"I'm sorry but no, I don't know. …. What little I do know is that the carrier that Don and Tom ran into was a 'Scout Carrier'. Intel has this size of ship as capable of carrying eight fighters." Lucile provides what she does know.
"A scouting mission then. But the guys only encountered six fighters. Where are the other two?" Kate is worried now.
"There a number of possible explanations. It only had six to start with. They had a technical problem that prevented them from launching the other two. Or they had already been launched, just not where these six were. And are still out there, somewhere." Lucile provides.
"Lucile how much range do these fighters have? I mean could they reach Earth from where this carrier was destroyed?" Kate is worried about something.
Yes, they have basically the same range as the fighters Don and Tom use, why?" Lucile is used to Kate and how she thinks now.
"Do these Honji Sinhindrea also do suicide attacks like the Japanese in WWII?" Kate asks.
"Processing, … Yes they have done so in the past. Just not as dedicated to it as the Japanese were at that time." Lucile tells them. "You are thinking without a carrier to get home with they might as well do some damage." Lucile is still trying to follow Kate in her thinking.
Kate just nods her head. "But what would you attack if you were Honji Sinhindrea and had no Intel on your enemy?" Kate questions.
Lucile replaces herself with a globe of Earth at night. And Rick and Kate move in close. "If you go by visual only at night, I would say East Coast or pretty much anyplace in Europe." Kate points to those areas with her hand.
"Europe looks denser while the East Coast looks brighter." Rick offers.
"Brighter means more power usage. If I wanted to do damage I'd take out the brightest spot I could find. This big bright spot here." Kate points out.
"That is New York, Boston, Philadelphia and DC." Lucile tells Kate.
"Ok, so I've selected where. Now what do I hit?" Kate questions. "Bright means power. What are the major sources of power in those areas?" Kate asks.
Connecticut Yankee
Location: CT
Hope Creek / Salem
Location: NJ
Millstone
Location: CT
Oyster Creek
Location: NJ
Pilgrim
Location: MA
Peach Bottom Atomic Power Sta.: Unit 2 (aka Unit 1)
Location: PA
"There are several more examples in the area. Too many to easily list actually." Lucile tells them.
"Or defend easily?" Kate adds. "And Natalie and Jim are in Seattle. They can't order fighters into the air over NY, CT, NJ, PA or even MA." Kate wonders how to stop them. "And countless airliners in the air in this area." Kate is feeling overwhelmed.
"Let's tell Natalie and Jim what we know and what we think and let them figure out what they can do, if anything." Rick offers.
"Lucile." Kate leaves off the please.
The globe disappears and the image of Lucile replaces it. "Information as discussed has been sent to Natalie and Jim." Lucile tells them.
"Think they have enough pull?" Kate questions.
"They have the only United States Space Plane Base. And if was their fighters involved in the action." Rick shrugs his shoulders. "How were the boys?" Rick asks to change the subject. Referring to his sons.
"Actually pretty good. I think most of it was more than they could understand. But they did support their sisters when it came down to it. I was proud of them. … And of you." As Kate comes around and wraps her arms around him and looks him in the eye.
"They are all family. What else was I supposed to do?" Rick is being humble Rick.
"Still I'm proud of you. It took courage. And I love you even more now." Kate tells him.
"Come on wife. It's late. How about a trip to our bed?" Rick offers.
"Is there going to be anyone in this bed with me?" Kate asks suggestively.
"I think I can be convinced to join you for some unwind time in our bed." Rick tells her.
"What if I don't want you unwound just yet?" Kate asks.
"I'm all yours wife of mine. All yours." Rick moves in for a long kiss.
Turned out they were wrong. While Natalie and Jim were unable to get fighter protection over the East Coast the Honji Sinhindrea did not attack any of the East Coast power plants. They both attacked the largest Nuclear Power generating plant on the planet. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant (柏崎刈羽原子力発電所 Kashiwazaki-Kariwa genshiryoku-hatsudensho.
The destruction was total and fallout from the radiation released into the atmosphere was going to do even more damage. All major news casts were calling it a coolant failure exceeding the disaster of Chernobyl.
No mention was ever made of it being attacked by fighters, let alone fighters of the Honji Sinhindrea.
Only 'The Silence' on the Evergreen and the Douglas/Crystal clan knew anything about what really happened.
However the budget for the next generation of US Space Fighter Planes was effectively doubled thanks mostly to the efforts of Natalie and Jim and the hacking skills of Lucile, with encouragement from Rick and Kate.
The next generation series 'C' was on the drawing board (computer), with still more hacking skills by Lucile with the Douglas/Crystal clan giving her some encouragement. And was due for prototype construction in 11 months of two ships. Thanks to Lucile and her skills it was taking less than half the time it would normally take.
Don, Jenn and their little boy Alex, along with Tom (back on his feet) with Emily (due in just one more month) were back over at the Crystal house going over plans for the new fighter with Lucile. They had been doing this on a daily basis for months now. Lucile would replace the projection of herself with a wire frame of the new fighter and Don and Tom would ask about possible corrections, while the girls would constantly ask questions about safety. They had come close to losing their husbands once already. And with Lucile on their side this time, they were determined to not let it happen again.
The XF-400 Knight Hawk Endo/Exo-Atmospheric Attack Jet. He3 fueled SCRAM jet (Supersonic Combustion RAM jet), enabling the XF-400 to fly from inside an atmospheric envelope to a trans orbital phase right into ACM (Air Combat Maneuvering, i.e. dogfighting), in the (almost complete) vacuum of space.
It is armed with one frontal, sub-nose gimbal mounted electro-magnetic railgun (capable of covering a 50 degree kill-zone) and one dual-barrel aft-mounted railgun, mounted on a turret, capable of auto-target seeking and tracking with a single rear firing Spartan space-to-space missile and six hardpoints, capable of carrying Spartan space-to-space forward firing missiles, bombs and pods for carrying special electronic equipment or instrument modules. With the primary ammunition of "MAHEM" (Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition). The MAHEM program will demonstrate compressed magnetic flux generator (CMFG)-driven magneto hydrodynamically formed metal jets or fragments from a single explosive cartridge. MAHEM allows for multiple targeted warheads.
LIDAR : Laser Infrared Detection And Ranging. Long Range, configurable. Can track and engage up to 100 independent targets.
HUD : Heads-Up Display. Mainly used for displaying flight parameters, navigational information and overall combat intelligence.
ODP : Optical Disk Playback. Used for mission data recordings. Can be used later on for mission evaluation.
The XF-400 has various modular components, easily replaced in case of malfunction.
LIDAR is manufactured by Altimus Positioning Systems , Reeling Hills Estates, CA., which is a subsidiary of Engineer Supply, Lynnburg, VA., which is privately owned by Richard and Kate Crystal.
The cockpit was referred to as a bathtub. It was a carbon fiber composite almost triple the strength of the previous one. And it came with a portable air canister in addition to the ones built into the seat back. Also the environmental system in general had a backup power source. And the environmental suit came with a separate homing beacon that can be activated by either verbal or physical action.
Also the air brakes could now double as clamps to hold the bathtub that had been ejected from another craft to yours and bring it home. And the craft was also capable of being re-fueled while in flight using a new fueling system that would retract into the fuselage when not in use.
One of the pods houses a slightly modified version of the Pulse Laser that was mounted in the 'B' version. It has its own built-in power source and uses the LIDAR targeting system. And there were also fuel pods to extend flight times.
Another set of pods would dispense:
Standard mines were frequently deployed in large amounts, creating a large minefield and rendering entire areas of space impenetrable. Requiring actual contact for ignition, these weapons would release a highly explosive chemical charge that indiscriminately damaged or destroyed anything nearby. These mines were effective against vehicles of all types.
Proximity mines were similar to standard mines insofar as they used explosives to damage enemy spacecraft. Whenever an enemy craft would enter a predetermined range, it would trigger a detonation sequence within the mine. The resulting blast would spray a cloud of shrapnel in a violent blast cloud, ranging from ten to one-hundred meters in diameter.
Ion mines were used to disable enemy craft flying nearby. Working in the same manner as proximity mines, ion mines would ignite a large ion cloud, disabling all electronic equipment caught in the blast area.
There was also the old school flare and chaff dispensers as well as a parachute for emergency breaking in atmosphere.
From the information Lucile provided the Honji Sinhindrea didn't use missiles so having an ECM pod did not appear to be a priority. Plus they did not have a working Honji Sinhindrea fighter to analyze to come up with counter measures to their targeting system.
Lucile was forced to apologize but access to things like Chameleon Circuitry, charged particle canons or explosive x-ray torpedoes was isolated on Evergreen in a location she could not access. Even the new armor they were still doing tests on was not available.
Everyone had come to her defense. If they were going to wish for something that grand they might as well wish for Star Trek energy shielding or anti-matter torpedoes. Let alone a working phaser bank. Still it troubled Lucile that she could not provide better. Even though the Night Hawk was far in advance of the type 'B' that Don and Tom had been flying.
It had left a problem that Lucile took it upon herself to solve. These new fighters were a better match if not exceeding what the Honji Sinhindrea could field. And they could eliminate a 'Scout carrier' like the one that was taken care of last time. However they were no match for a lager carrier, let alone what was referred to as a 'Fleet Carrier' that could launch literally hundreds of fighters and had almost as many close support auto-cannons for ship safety mounted on and into its hull (think Phalanx auto-cannon mounted on Carriers and other naval ships, only bigger.).
For this Lucile was on her own without anyone's knowledge, working on a bomber version as well as a torpedo that was within the technical capability of present day and still do considerable damage to these types of ships. It was meant to be a surprise for her 'Family' since she felt like she had one.
The bomber itself was turning out to be relatively easy. It was basically a larger version of the Knight Hawk with a number of modifications. The cockpit area stayed the same and it used a similar though heavier wing configuration. The twin boom tail however was a major departure. And the winglets at the edge of the wings were greatly enlarged.
There were two very large torpedoes on hard points to either side of the fuselage. Next to them on each side, attached to the underside of the wing was a torpedo pod that housed four smaller versions of the larger torpedoes, with identical pods attached to the top side of the fuselage. And between the winglets and this torpedo pod were eight dumb-dumb rockets, four on each side mounted under the wings. While on the winglets were four Spartan space-to-space missiles for fighter defense. Two on each side, one on the upper winglet and one on the lower winglet.
All four of the torpedo pods could be replaced with mine pods that would detach and fall away behind the craft where the housing would break apart and disperse the mines. ( Similar to a cluster bomb carried by todays atmospheric fighter bombers like the F-16 or F-15E.).
Lucile had sacrificed rear protection against fighters in favor of a larger fuselage and much larger engine package. The larger fuselage allowed for greater fuel capacity which meant greater range when fully loaded. It had also allowed for a larger engine package for greater speed and a heavier weapons load. However this larger frame meant having an extended twin tail with upper and lower winglets as well as a central vertical stabilizer attached to the upper fuselage between the upper torpedo pods.
Because of the twin tail she had to design the mine pods to fire off of the bomber instead of just fall away. Otherwise she risked having them take out one or both of the extended twin tails.
Lucile's major problem however was the torpedo's themselves. Finding one that could be manufactured with today's technology and still do considerable damage to a 'Fleet Carrier' was turning out to be the hard part.
Finally she settled on a variation of the MAHEM ammunition. The torpedo would not so much as explode as the warhead would burn a hole of molten metal thru the hull and catch the interior of the ship on fire. With fire being the major weapon and major nemesis of any ship in space. Lucile likened the idea to the acid for blood aliens from the Aliens movie series. The molten metal would not just burn thru the outer hull but thru the much weaker walls and floors inside the ship as well, catching everything it touched on fire.
Lucile had even selected the appropriate time to show it to everyone, which was going to be next week. It was going to be her gift to them.