Chapter 36: Chasey Chasey
Light Cruisers and Destroyers are faster than Carriers and Dreadnoughts.
This is just a simple fact brought about by the square-cubed law.
You could only put so much force over an area of a ship's face before either the thrusters started melting or the ship lost effectiveness. The mass and volume of a body increase cubically while the surface areas are limited to a quadratic rate of increase.
Seeing as Acceleration is a function of Force divided by Mass it would be reasonable to follow that, assuming the rate of force to surface area remained relatively constant across all sizes, a smaller ship will accelerate faster.
In comparison to a dreadnought, a fighter moved like lightning.
Light cruisers were about 5 times as fast.
The fleet had a head start, but the chasing force was estimated to catch up within a day. It did not pose a direct threat, they were way too weak in both armor and firepower. What they could do is shadow the fleet and make their positions know to a much larger and more dangerous force.
Unbeknownst to them, Don was doing the exact same thing.
He was stationed a few hundred kilometers to the side, reporting their position. Well within the danger zone of their primary weaponry, not appearing on their sensors at all.
Feeling the gentle pull on his body from the acceleration, he noted their persistence.
"Have they not received a damage report from the harbor?"
"I have no doubt they are already aware of the extent of damage we just inflicted on them ARC, they watched it happen."
"Then why do they continue to chase? Surely it would be better to regroup and fortify their position."
ARC failings in the tactical field were starting to show again.
"I'm sure its partially due to feelings of anger and revenge. What's probably making them continue now is the need to keep an eye on a task force that demonstrated the ability to accurately hit targets from well beyond their own range."
He flipped the virtual page on the novel he was reading. Harry Potter was one of the books that had been recommended to him, and he was enjoying it thus far.
"I'm sure Admiral Adirondack is thinking up some plan to get rid of them. I see no other reason for us to be here."
He said this, but coming up with a way to deal with a shadow force was easier said than done, especially on the fly. The current circumstances didn't help.
The harsh truth is that Adirondack did not have many cards to play with. The fact that her strike force was working on the peacetime standards of fleet composition once she was ordered to attack meant that she did not have very many ships of ANY class.
This dearth was especially apparent in the lower displacements.
Large ships, despite their size, have a tendency to be cheaper and easier to maintain. A massive ship like a Battleship had plenty of parts in need of maintenance for sure, but by account of their being expected to take hits those parts tend to be sturdy.
In comparison, a destroyer was expected to remain agile in order to not take big hits. Many small, delicate, and often expensive parts needed to be repaired as they broke through repeated use.
With only a quarter of the escort ships she should have at her disposal, dealing with pursuers was going to be costly. Her current escorts could definitely handle them, but Don couldn't be sure how many would be lost in the process.
If those light cruisers had their ammunition replenished before hand, up to a fifth of the current escorts could be neutralized. They wouldn't necessarily be destroyed, but the damage done to them would leave them either unable to keep up or unable to be useful in a fight.
Without access to a repair yard, they may as well not exist at that point.
With this she was put in a predicament. She couldn't justify losing a fifth of her already limited light forces, but having this shadow force expose their movements is inexcusable.
She can either maintain the element of surprise, or maintain her ability to deal with light forces.
NOT an enviable position to be in.
Don would not hesitate to decide to maintain the element of surprise in this situation, but he was not privy to the full mission orders. He also understood that her men might die unneeded deaths if she did that.
Large ships would be too slow to catch them and small ships were too fragile and few in number to accomplish the task unscathed. She could ill afford to expose her trump card, Don and the Noah, to the enemy. She couldn't run away.
"A few of the corvettes just left the formation." ARC noticed some of the dots broke off of the back of the blob and started heading back in the direction they came from. "Should we pursue?"
"No. They probably had limited fuel, some damage, or are running low on material for food. Keep in mind they did leave without preparing."
This was something Don had not considered, material insufficiency. If the rest of this shadowing force was suffering similar issues, then fleeing may be an option. This was probably only a problem the frigates and corvettes were fighting with.
With crews numbering in the single digits to high tens and storage spaces to match they had a tendency to be supplied last so their rations would hold for as long as possible.
Light Cruisers and Destroyers would definitely have a stock of a food and fuel to last a few days.
This did open options, but it didn't change the fact that the admiral was going to have to make a choice.
"Let's report this development. I'll request information on what to do next. I know you don't exactly have human needs, but do you have anything you would like to either suggest or request?"
"I will attach my analysis of the situation to the sent file. Put a word about the on-board computer's data report at the end. I believe the admiral to be at least somewhat aware of my existence at this point, but the degree to which she understands I 'Exist' is still in question."
"Make it sound like you are just a lifeless machine, got it."
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