[Prepare for translation] Admiral Drake announced as soon as he was back at his station.
Terminus shifted so smoothly to Warp speed that it was hardly necessary, but it was so ingrained into every space-faring human to give that warning that not much could ever change it.
“Alright, I’m off to the drone bays. We have to make some new Drone Fighters, and I have a design for a small version of Terminus’s main engine that is much more space and material efficient than the old ones.
Then we will move the Corvettes and Crusader Class Mecha to the smaller ships and upgrade their shielding to withstand a few extra hits from an orbital defense position.
The shield on Terminus is ready for the mission now.” Nico informed Max.
“Alright. I’ll keep tracking the Klem pods and get the Super Heavy Mecha ready for defense when the shield fails. In space they should be easier to deal with.” Max agreed, already tracking their target swarm.
This one was much more spread out than usual, and Max suspected that it came close to a meteor or planetoid whose gravity affected their course and pattern a little.
They were all still going to hit the planet, but not in a nice tight, easily managed pattern. They would be spread around three-quarters of the planet instead.
Attempting to prepare a Mecha defense against that would be a nightmare, especially if they landed in the oceans. Nico would be a bit sad, but Max had no intentions of letting any of the Klem reach the planet.
He knew she was looking forward to fighting Rebels and Klem at the same time in some strange free for all three-way battle, but the very thought gave Max a headache.
In the evening all the Command Staff gathered to present their plans for the defense, and the plans that they presented were all basically the same. Place Terminus at the Eastern edge of the swarm and deflect it past the planet as well as they could.
Their shields wouldn’t expand large enough to block the whole swarm now that it had spread out, but only the Eastern edge would hit an ocean, so it was the highest priority.
A handful of naval vessels was no match for a Klem infestation that had time to grow in the depths.
[You all forgot we have drones.] Nico reminded Max as they were handing the fire zones for the Super Heavy Mecha that would be on defense.
They were called orbital insertion fighters, but they could fight just as well in space, at least the ones that used energy weapons could. They only had a hundred VR pods, but that was still a lot of fighters that could thin the swarm as it approached.
Assuming they were capable. The team had redesigned them once they found Terminus, so nobody outside the Drone Technicians really knew what they could do.
[How many planes do we have?] Max asked.
[We will have two hundred ready when we arrive. One hundred for space, then another hundred plus the survivors for the ground battle.] Nico replied.
That was enough. Not by much, but one wave of fighters would be enough support to make their landing much less likely to be a disaster.
Getting information from Kitimat 3 was difficult. Both sides were trying to jam communications while they waited for reinforcements, and neither side knew which one would arrive first.
Max knew. It would be them because nobody else was coming. There were still a lot of Rebel ships in the sector, but they were all engaged in battle with the Inquisition Fleet. Neither side had any more resources to help this world, especially when they were facing annihilation anyhow, in the form of giant alien bugs.
“Alright, the drones will deploy as soon as we drop out of Warp, and attack the Wave of Klem Pods. We will stage here, giving us maximum chance to successfully deflect into the star, and time to react to changes in the course, if the calculations were wrong.” General Yaakov outlined the final plan while the Pilots made notes.
[One Hour to Translation, all hands to battle positions.]
The announcement came just after lunch, ship time, and Max climbed into Enduring Rage, finding Nico already present, asleep with a VR headset on.
“One hour until it’s time to work.” Max reminded her, in case she had the Mecha’s radio off.
“Got it. Have you eaten? I can make happy juice if you need.” She offered, meaning coffee made with an energy drink base instead of water.
“Just finished lunch. I thought you would be with the drones.” Max replied, wondering why she fell asleep here playing games.
“Experimental controls. The headset is tied to the ship’s sensors and the drone’s communication net. If it works as expected we were thinking about making smaller drones to send with the Battalions to do long-range recon.” Nico explained.
“And how do we know which ones are the experimental ones so we can judge performance?” Max asked.
“The ones with the happy little Gatling Lasers on the front. You’ll know when you see them.” Nico explained.
That didn’t tell Max much, but he suspected that the pattern would be easy to recognize. Nico never was subtle.
[Translating now. Deploy drones in 30 seconds.] General Yaakov ordered.
Space around them seemed to twist through the sensors add they slowed back to standard speeds. They were still moving too fast, Max thought, and they were in front of the Klem pods, but the drones raced out at incredible velocity.
They could easily match any military cutter at less than Warp speeds, and they were already firing at the Klem by the time they got into even a semblance of a formation.
Each had a multi-barreled laser array in the front of the elongated egg-shaped body and Ion Cannons at the end of the wings. The drones were set up as a biplane with the wing ends boxed, so they should be incredibly maneuverable in an atmosphere, and the design let them have a 270-degree rotation for the adjustable wing guns.
Most were bone white with red markings, complementing the Unit’s Mecha, but out in front were two bright yellow ones with smiley faces where Max would expect the cockpit to be.
Nico was right, he knew which ones were the test units.