Meerclaw and the Gunboats - Part Four

 The Count and I return to the main conference chamber. The fleet Captains greet our arrival with another shout of "Honor!" and R'Rorash calls the meeting order. He motions to the fleet's Chief Science Officer to begin.

I remember C'Nisar from guest lectures on theoretical fighter and small ship designs from the academy; this should be interesting. He has a knack of making difficult information digestible to warriors such as ourselves. I also have more than a sneaking suspicion that his presence as main scientific advisor to the Count on the Lyran Front is no coincidence; no doubt he has had more than just a paw in the new fighter design I have just been shown. The Count notes my interest and his whiskers twitch in amusement. "Gentles," says C'Nisar, "My team has been tasked with analyzing the wealth of information provided by Ser Meerclaw and his Science Officer on the Tempest, Commander C'Taia. The stratagem of pooling information from the two Heavy Cruisers via the Tempest has paid off handsomely. By waiting for the enemy to void their own electric warfare superiority, the data extracted has enabled us to build a nicely detailed picture of the new enemy vessels." 

I notice that C'Taia is helping with the presentation as the screens show a fully realized version of the little Lyran ships, familiar to me from the battle and my own repeated viewings afterwards as we returned to Zamyan. C'Taia is one of the best science graduates in th last few years at the academy, and I have a feeling that this incident has made him into a protege of C'Nisar, as the younger officer takes over the briefing: "Gentles, you will see that the new Lyran ship fits their catamaran profile, no doubt for reasons of easy fleet identification. Its size is roughly half that of one our little Police cutters. Now please pay attention as I talk you through its weapons load out via the videos collected by the Tempest."

He plays the material a segment at a time, explaining each as he proceeds. "As you can see, these vessels operate in a flotilla of six. Visually, they are all almost identical, but two of them seem to have other functions. One is a leader, and the other is an integrated Scout vessel." This causes some murmuring among the assembled officers. "The ships are screened from our sensors by an extreme electronic warfare environment until the Tempest's group arrives at the edge of overload range." More muttering in the hall as our little force destroys all of the enemy fighters in the vicinity and then the Lyran command ships vaporize our Medium Cruisers. The video zooms in upon the little enemy blobs and freezes at the point they become fully visible. P'Tarr continues, "As you can see, Captain - now Ser - Meerclaw has ordered his ships to nail the enemy fighters just inside overload range. The Lyrans must have realized that he is now intending to withdraw, so they open up with all the heavy weapons they have in an attempt to stop this. The Tempest's oblique sideslip puts her in perfect position to turn off for a warp jump while also avoiding the outermost Lyrans carriers and all their fighters. This is the moment we were waiting for, and the sudden focalization in the video upon the new ships provides us with much information as the enemy's electronic screen is disrupted. I shall give you a few seconds to view them in detail on your seatpads."

C'Nisar now resumes. "The detailed analysis you have been given shows that each of these little ships carries two disruptors and two phaser-1s. You can all do the math, but it it is obvious that a flotilla of these carries more offensive power than even the formidable Lyran Dreadnought. They are also shielded and warp-capable, although probably with a limited capacity when compared with a starship." The screen zooms in on their warp engines. "You will note that these two engines each has an extra pack of the same magnitude of power strapped to it. Sensor data suggests these extra warp packs will give the flotilla quite a decent range, something on the order of 1,000 parsecs, which as you know is the sensor limit of scout channels. Using them will boost their speed significantly in a combat situation, perhaps even doubling it, but we think that doing so will increase their vulnerability to damage. Note that they remain turned off for the duration of this babble, presumably as a deliberate choice. Their shielding is appropriate for a vessel of this size and demonstrates their capability to protect themselves in the environment of a warp bubble." All of this accords with my own detailed observations on the voyage back to Zamyan; a defensive installation that carries a flotilla of these things will have excellent interception capability, speed and combat power. The picture freezes in close-up on one of the ships as my voice is heard giving the order to initiate disengagement.

There is silence, then a round of applause from the assembled Captains. The two Science Officers beam with pride and ask for any questions - "No doubt you are already processing the tactical implications of this innovation," says C'Nisar. "It would seem that the Lyrans have developed these innovative designs as a counter to our superiority in the fighter arm."

A deep voice cuts through the excited chatter: the Baron himself. He addresses his comments in my direction: "I fully understand the tactical innovation represented by these new Lyrans. I have been reviewing the videos with great care, and I see from the playback of the engagement that you ordered your ships to aim all of their drone missiles at the enemy station, Ser Meerclaw. Would you care to explain why? Is this simply down to the heat of the moment?"

I reply as courteously as possible. "My Lord Baron, I thank you for an opportunity to explain my thinking. Can I have remote control of the video please, gentlemen?" The scientists pass authority to me and I close on a moment immediately after the exchange of energy weapons, zooming in on the enemy ship I chose earlier while preparing for this briefing. "Our esteemed scientific colleagues have admirably explained the enemy's offensive, warp and shielding capacity, but I have to say that as a former fighter pilot myself, I had something else on my mind: ESGs." This elicits some knowing approval from the Captains seated near me. "I knew that our sensors would pick up the kinds of details already mentioned, but I was also hoping for something more. May I continue please, Lord Baron?" He nods assent. "To be frank, I was thinking about the defensive capabilities of these ships. My main worry was that each of them might be carrying an ESG, but as you can see from this moment here their defensive suite is comprised of two phaser-3s. Presumably the small hulls are just a little too fragile for such a powerful device - fortunately fir us. This is still a considerable amount of firepower and it is supplemented by the availability of some channels from their integral scout vessel. As you can see here," I say as I manipulate the controls' "some of our drones simply seem to lose guidance control rather than being shot out of the sky - this supports our science colleague's earlier observation. It cannot be explained as an effect of the Battle Station, which has just blinded its own sensors, or by their War Cruiser Scout, which is too far away. I could not see any of our missiles getting through the sheer amount of defensive fire the enemy could put out, so I concentrated on testing the defences of these little ships to see if we could glean any more information." I finish with a question of my own. "My Lord Baron, I am at a loss as to how we should describe these new ships. Would you have any preferred designation?"

His eyes light up at the suggestion. "For some reason they remind me of the little coastal ships that used to ply the many waterways on Kzintai. The great powers that fought so many conflicts before unification by the First Patriarch allowed us to reach for the stars used many such ships. I believe they were called gunboats." 

The name stuck.