by AJ Vega
Reece Ulva
Reece was anxious, and he knew his pilots were too. They had been itching for a fight ever since they left Stromond all those months ago. But he knew he had to be patient. The operation, which had started simple, had turned into a complex series of variables. Not only did they have the enemy pirates to deal with, but also now an unknown force hidden in the shroud as well.
“Reece, are we just going to sit here?” Tash complained over the link.
Normally, Reece would tell Tash to shut up, but he felt the same way. He gripped the control stick inadvertently, playing with the firing trigger. If only he could just shoot something, he would be fine. He felt like a drug addict deprived of Elation; if he could just get one little fix, he would be fine for a while. He stared out at the enemy fighters as they began attaching themselves to the cargo containers. They were right within his targeting range; such an easy kill they would be.
Reece had waited enough. He broke com silence and opened a channel to the Sea Wolf.
“Julius—” he started, then corrected himself. “I mean, Captain. We can take them, just give the word.”
“You know about the task force hidden in the shroud?” Julius said.
“Yes, I overheard,” he said. “We can still do this. They won’t be expecting us.”
“I’m not so sure,” Julius said.
“I have a plan,” Reece said.
“That plan won’t work anymore.”
“It’s a different plan,” he said. “Trust me. We will wait for the task force to engage, then we’ll do a shrapnel bloom in the middle of the chaos and jump away with the cargo.”
“You don’t even know which container it is,” Julius said. “Plus a shrapnel bloom in the middle of all that… you’ll wind up with half your squadron impacting against the Sea Wolf.”
“Not if you take her out of here. You can’t do anything against those destroyers anyway.”
“No. It’s too risky. Without knowing which container it is, you’ll be cut to pieces.”
“Well, we can’t just sit here,” Reece, said. “We have to do something!”
At that moment, a red warning light flashed on his cockpit panel. It was another proximity alert warning. He focused his vision out at the nearby space distortion that appeared around them. The enemy destroyers suddenly came out of the stealth shroud, with flak guns firing away at the enemy fighters.
“Easy, guys,” Reece called out to his pilots. “We’re far enough away, no reason to panic.”
“Who’s panicking?” Tash said. “I just hope there’s something left of these wankers for us to pick off.”
Within seconds, the destroyer gunfire had almost completely eliminated the enemy pirates—along with most of the cargo.
“Doesn’t look like there’ll be anything but scrap metal to shoot at after this,” Mac said. “They’re not touching that one container, though.”
“Yeah… I noticed that,” Reece said.
“Reece,” Julius’ voice came on. “You can act on your death wish. We’re going to move out. We will monitor you remotely. Good luck.”
“I’ll make my luck, Captain,” Reece said with a smile he could not help.
With that, the telemetry feed showed the Sea Wolf jumping out of the system—it was now their show.
“It’s about damn time!” Tash said.
“Okay, boys,” he said. “We’re on! We’re going to make a high-speed strafe run against what’s left of those pirates. Whatever you do, though, don’t hit the cargo. After the run, you all do a shrapnel bloom. I’ll make a run for the cargo container.”
“Oh, yeah, you get all the glory,” Tash said.
“Not very sporting killing off those pirates,” Taffy said.
“We’re not engaging them,” Reece said. “Just a single strafe shot as we exit the shroud. Then a shrapnel bloom, and we jump the hell out with the cargo. That’s it! Understood?”
The pilots acknowledged with a mixture of affirmative grunts and obscenities.
“Pick your targets,” Reece commanded.
He watched his heads-up display show pilots and their target designators. They faced five enemy fighters, with one of them towing the cargo. His pilots would do a single shot against the five, while Reece would target an extra shot on the one carrying the cargo. It would have to be precise in order to avoid damaging the container it towed.
Hopefully, the two shots would disrupt the tow beam and Reece would grab the cargo container, and then jump out with the rest of the squadron with a shrapnel bloom in their wake. That was the plan, but he knew that nothing ever went according to plan.
“Go weapons hot,” Reece commanded. He keyed in the command to extend his Z-40’s weapon’s bay, as did the other pilots. This, he knew, was where the Z-40 really shined; no other fighter could ready its weapons while inside the stealth shroud. With the bay extended, they could fire off a single shot against a target before the enemy could even get a lock on them, essentially firing their weapons while invisible for nearly a second.
“Engage on my command.” He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “Execute!”
Reece felt a vibration in his cockpit as the Z-40 Interceptor exited the shroud, and then he pulled the trigger on his control stick. A pair of bright, blue accelerated protons lanced ahead and converged on the target. As the protons impacted against the pirate fighter, another pair of protons struck it at the same time. Flashes flared out from the fighter as its shields took the impact. The precise fire was enough to cause the tow beam to disengage, and the cargo drifted away on its own inertia.
Pushing the throttle forward, Reece aimed his fighter at the cargo’s trajectory. He had to fight his own inertia, as the momentum he had coming out of the shroud was too fast. He should have come out more slowly, but he could not worry about that now—something for the playback video for tactical review later.
The container was spinning and drifting a few kilometers away now. He adjusted his course to the proper intercept trajectory and kicked in the thrusters. As he neared the cargo, he looked at his tactical display. The Sea Wolf had jumped out as planned. His pilots had hit their targets as expected and were now in the midst of initiating the shrapnel bloom. Any moment now, the bloom would erupt with a bright light and an energy pulse that would overload the sensors—allowing them a clean getaway. He had to grab that cargo.
His Z-40 was now within a few meters of the container. He closed his weapons bay and activated his tow beam. The container slowed its speed and began to attach itself to his underbelly. A flash lit up around him, and his visual sensors went out for a moment. The bloom had gone off; it was now time to jump out.
As he began to activate the control for the gravity amplifier, Reece noticed his tactical display came back and he hesitated. All of Wolf Squadron had jumped out, save for him and one other fighter still flying in the middle of the destroyers’ line of battle: Tash.
“Tash!” he said on the link channel. “Get out of there!”
“I would,” Tash’s voice came back, eerily calm. “But my gravity amp went off-line. It’s not coming on. You better jump out.”
Reece could see on his tactical that most of the pirate force was either gone or nothing but wreckage, but the navy destroyers were recovering from the bloom and targeting Tash’s fighter.
“I’ll cover you,” Reece said. “We’ll get away on regular propulsion—together!”
“With what weapons?” Tash said. “You’re towing the cargo; you can’t shoot. You need to go.”
Reece was already on course to Tash. “I’m ejecting the cargo; I can pick it up later—”
“No!” Tash said. “Don’t blow this mission on account of my ass. It’s not worth it!”
Reece had his finger on the tow beam control just as he saw Tash’s fighter dart ahead toward the nearest destroyer.
“What are you doing?” Reece said.
“Give my share to you and the rest of the guy
s, you prick,” Tash said.
The destroyer’s flak cannons erupted. The entire space in and around where Tash’s fighter had been was engulfed in a bright array of explosions. It continued for what seemed like a full minute, and by the time it finished, nothing remained of the small fighter, not even the tiniest bit of debris.
Reece tried to bury what he felt and hit the gravity amp control. As the gravity amplifiers did their work, Reece seethed at how the navy had unleashed so much firepower for such a small threat. The cowards could not even give Tash a chance.
“I’m sorry, Tash,” Reece said aloud. “You bastards are going to pay…”