Chapter 33: Training Plans

My ladies actually backed off after I walked over to the dining table and sat down to eat. I could see that they wanted to fawn over me, but refrained. The open worship was nice, but I welcomed an evening where I was not being pressed to perform.

It turned out that their restraint was even more welcomed once I started receiving calls from my crew. It seemed that having time to go home and think had definitely inspired several of my crew to come up with training program ideas. The biggest ones were Ensign Daniels, Robert Bruce and surprisingly Brent Boswell. The plans from Robert Bruce and Ensign Daniels were thorough and required more than an hour each to review and finally approve.

Sadly, Brent’s was limited in its depth. We had a back and forth discussion that lasted nearly an hour before I asked the AI to add in the leads for the other three missile batteries.

“Aw, I can understand wanting to talk to me, but I was having fun,” Morgause purred when she joined the conversation.

“Sorry,” I said. “However, I’m trying to work with Brent to set up a good training program for the missile launch duties. He has a framework, but it doesn’t sound right.”

“How can it be wrong?” Brad Kelly asked. “Most of what we do is pushing buttons.”

“True, but there are some timing issues,” David Sarkozy added in. “And sorry for being late. Lisa had to shake me awake.”

“Sleeping so soon?” Morgause asked languidly. I could almost picture her laying on a couch and waving a hand toward the rest of us.

“Resting off a bit of a headache. I tried to take the second lesson for the missile launch tech position. When I got out I felt like I had spent the last two hours studying for a multi-dimensional calculus final,” David said slightly testily.

“Hey, keep it friendly,” I said. “In the end we are all on the same team. We will want to work together so that Corsica can bring us all home. Now, I’ll let Brent begin.”

“Me?” Brent said.

“You kind of volunteered for the position of lead missile tech by coming up with a training plan,” I said. “So I think you should explain it.”

There was a long silence and then in a stammering voice Brent spoke. “Well, I decided to have one of the view screens in my home show me all the details on the missiles the Patrician class can carry. I was a bit surprised by the detail available and by just how intricate some of the features are.

“How so?” Brad asked.

“Well first, as we know the Patrician class ships were developed by modifying a rather standard light cargo ship. This has meant that there are space issues. The first results in the magazine space being limited,” Brent said.

“Twenty missiles total,” Morgause said.

“Its more than just that,” Brent said, but yes, you get twenty total missile bodies, the booster sections. They are set up in two magazines that each hold ten bodies. From what I can tell there are actually three variants though.”

“Three?” I asked.

“You didn’t know?” Brent asked.

“I’ve been concentrating on how each station integrates with each other and the issues with maneuvering the ship to be able to use the rail guns. I did see one metric that indicated that the rail guns are the more destructive weapon,” I replied.

“They are,” Brent said. “The velocity the cannon can impart is more than the best acceleration of any of the missile bodies we carry.”

“Why not use the railguns to launch missiles?” Brad asked. “Wouldn’t the increased velocity help?”

“It actually messes up the maneuvering of the missile. The have considerable ability to turn an follow a dodging enemy, but not at the speed they’d achieve being launched by a rail gun,” Brent said.

“Then why use missiles at all?” Brad asked.

“The flexibility,” Brent said. “There are over twenty different warhead types we could carry. I actually only recommend four for now.”

“Four?” Morgause asked. “And why only four?”

“Because they are probably the most effective and the magazine can only hold twenty-six warheads, so trying to hold all of them makes each one a one use trick for a cruise,” Brent said.

“And that might be useful, but unless we are sure we’d use it, its more likely to be deadweight on the trip. What types of warheads did you like?” I asked.

“There is a standard electronic counter measure unit,” Brent said.

“So it tries to make the other ship’s sensors fail,” Brad asked.

“Exactly,” David said. “Nice to know that we have defensive missiles. I’m guessing there is a standard high explosive.”

“Yes, also one that actually fires off several lasers when it detonates. The lasers are hot enough to cut through most ship armor,” Brent said.

“Good selections so far,” I said. “You had one more you liked.”

“Yes, actually there are two, but one is the primary. Its an experimental unit that uses some kind of miniaturized particle collider as the warhead. Supposedly you get a high intensity pulse of energy. The physics suggest that when it works, it will both strip ships of armor and wreck any and all unshielded electronics,” Brent said.

“Are there issues with using it?” I asked.

“The warheads are incredibly unstable. According to the data, they have to be transported unarmed and inert. There is a fifteen step process to attach the warhead to a drive and carefully prime the particle collider just before launch. You have to do each step in a specific order and sometimes at exact time intervals to avoid having the missile either fail to arm, or go off in the tube,” Brent said.

“Which would not be a way to have a good day,” I said. “Now I understand why you want so much emphasis on warhead attachment and arming drills. You want everyone aware of the combinations and arming instructions.”

“We have to do it that way. The sleep trainer is nice, but I don’t think it will help people learn how to react in a combat situation,” Brent said. “Honestly, after I tried a five minute training session on the warhead I realized I’d need to have William training with me. Some of the sequence has to be done in concert with your loader, since they control the booster section preparation.”

“They what?” David asked.

“I know this one. The missiles we are going to use are modular. The booster section is what we carry twenty of, but there are variations. Some can run longer, but have a lower thrust because they burn slower in order to get more burn time. Others use experimental engines that give them the ability to go ballistic and then reignite the engine for extra speed and maneuvering when they are close to the target,” Morgause said.