Read For Honor We Stand for Free Online

icon representing the Cumberland .   “The enemy expected us to keep station in the planet’s upper atmosphere until our heat sink reached its capacity, and then, having no other options, make a run for it.  Even with stealth systems engaged, at this range and accelerating this hard, we can’t completely mask our drive signature, so they can detect us well enough to follow.  Now, we are doing exactly what they thought we would do, running right when they expected us to run, falling right into the trap they have prepared for us.”  The doctor grimaced.  This wasn’t comforting at all.
    DeCosta continued.  “Here is the Cruiser that was in low orbit,” he pointed to an icon moving away from the planet to fall in behind the Destroyer.  “This one is the ‘chase man.’  He has gone to flank speed and is doing his best to follow us.  He’s falling behind right now, but he can already tell from our acceleration curve that even with our repairs he has a higher top speed and will eventually overtake us.  Right now, we are ducking into the stream of ionized matter from the volcanic moon.  Here is the path of the stream,” his finger traced a long curve from the moon to the planet.  “Notice that the planet’s inner moon is just about to enter it.  He thinks we are using the stream to help us lose him or prevent him from getting a missile lock, so he isn’t concerned.  We’re doing just what he expects fleeing prey to do.  Run and hide. 
    “Here is the cruiser that was in high orbit.”  The XO pointed to another icon on the display.  “If the low cruiser is the ‘chase man’ then the high cruiser is the ‘cutoff man.’  The cutoff man’s job is to station himself athwart our line of escape forcing us, he thinks, to do one of three things.  One: to attack him head on, in which case we will be destroyed by his superior firepower.  Two:  try to go around him, in which case we are cut off using his superior speed and advantageous starting position and then destroyed by his superior firepower.  Three: try to hide in the space between the chase and the cutoff man, the high cruiser serving as the anvil to the low cruiser’s hammer.  In that case they use their excellent active sensor capability to locate us and their superior speed to hem us in between them, at which point we are then . . . .”
    “Destroyed by their superior firepower,” the doctor completed.  “It looks gloomy, but you do not seem in the least weighed down by it.”
    “That’s because what Robert Burns said about the best laid plans of mice and men applies with particular force when the mice are the size of men.  Here’s where, for them, things first start to ‘gang aft agley.’  See the computer’s projection of the cutoff man’s most likely intercept course right here?”
    “I do, but it is blinking red and seems to go right through this moon.” 
    “Right.  That’s because we timed our escape maneuver and aimed the direction of our exit so that this moon, Mengis VI A, blocks the cutoff man’s direct intercept vector.  So, unless he wants his current speed to carry him thousands of kills out of his way, he needs to drop a lot of velocity and go around it, following the limb of this moon like this.”  The XO’s finger traced along the curvature of the moon on the side facing away from the planet.
    “How do you know he’s going on that side rather than on the one nearer the planet?”
    “Good question.  Because, when the Krag go around a moon or planet, they always do it posigrade, that is, along with the direction of the body’s rotation, if they can possibly manage it.  That’s so if they need to make an emergency landing they have to dump a lot less velocity in order to set down safely.  Now, here’s his play.  He’s only going to follow the curvature of Mengis VI A until the shortest distance between him and his estimate of our course projection doesn’t go through that moon.  At that