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hardened?”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you want the same attack speed?”
    “If it’s possible, I do.”
    “May I assume you ran these calculations?”
    “I didn’t but Cyanna did.”
    Dolly looked at George and said, “What?”
    “According to the data, just one striker the size of a Needle traveling at two thirds light speed will generate an explosion larger than four hundred of the previous strikers. It still boils down to mass times velocity and that twenty ton striker should knock a huge hole in any force field big enough to fly a ship through.” George looked at Arvolo, “How many of these strikers will the main battleship carry?”
    “The same number as Needles.”
    “That’s a hundred and sixty of those monsters.”
    Arvolo said, “I was really limited in how to attack that Violet Fleet. There were close to three hundred thousand ships and we didn’t have but fifty thousand strikers. I was forced to find a way to use our fusion missiles to carry out the destruction. Now if we will just modify our ships, we should be able to knock out a fleet that size rather quickly, especially if you’ll get the new attack craft into production.”
    George said, “How do you know about that?”
    “We flew one here. Admiral Anders was able to take one for analysis.”
    “What do you think about it?”
    “They will become our attack fighters.”
    George leaned back and said, “Go on.”
    Arvolo said, “Our main battleships are becoming like the Violet Ships. We had to line them up and fire a barrage at the center of their lines to break through their force fields. We give away all the advantages our battleships have over the enemy by forcing them to fly in fleet formations instead of being able to attack targets of opportunity. Our ships are faster, more maneuverable, and possess more firepower but we use them like old fleet formations restricting their movements. They also are an easy target to attack. The Battleships will be used to attack groups of ships and then escape. The Needles will keep any ships pursuing our battleships away.”
    “How will the Needles be armed?”
    “They will carry mini-strikers that weigh about a thousand pounds each as well as a main beam strong enough to punch a hole through any ship they hit. The striker will knock down the force field and the Needle can use a beam or another striker to knock out an enemy ship.”
    Jeff said, “Just how are you going to transport the Needles and attack craft to the battle site. Will the pilots be forced to stay in their ships throughout the exercise?”
    Arvolo looked at Cyanna and she inserted a disc into her console. She stood and walked over to the wall display as a huge, round ship appeared. George said, “Isn’t that a colony ship?”
    “It is, but we’ve added some changes to its structure.” Cyanna looked at the attendees and asked, “How many launch tubes can be installed on this ship?” She waited as the room remained silent. She looked over and saw George punching his calculator and then he looked up and smiled, “More than three thousand Needle tubes with twenty in each.”
    Cyanna smiled, “You’re dead on the number but we cut back to two thousand Needle tubes to add more attack craft.”
    George whistled, “You’re planning to carry twenty thousand on that ship?”
    Cyanna tilted her head and smiled, “Yes we are. The total number of pilots and crew manning the ship will be ninety five thousand.”
    Dolly said, “There won’t be much space in the ship for living quarters.”
    Arvolo said, “Actually there will. The attack craft will be anchored to the outer hull with the pilot’s room directly under their ship. “They’ll enter their attack craft by going up through the ceiling. The launch tubes for the needles will be scattered around the ship among the attack craft.”
    “Won’t that ship make a huge target before we could launch?”
    Cyanna said, “We’ve run some trials and if the ship is jumping into a situation