The other two Mauls sounded off as did the Aurora high above them, and also the two Hawks who would fly the inner protective cordon around the carrier.
'All crews: this is flight. Drop, drop, drop!'
Immediately, the locks holding the Mauls to their platforms disengaged and Nico and the other pilots pushed the power into the antigravity units and slid into the air. With his two joysticks, and feet controlling the rear rudders, Nico felt for the wind and air currents through the seat of his pants and quietly flew out from the carrier to his designated departure area. Once there he fed more power to the turbine pods, rotating them up from vertical to level, as the fuselage of the Maul started to generate its own lif t. As soon as he passed the 120 kilometres per hour mark, he lowered the power in the antigravity units until they were idling at neutral, and increased power lifting the nose to join his wingman.
Sliding up behind the lead Maul, he saw Will in the rear gun turret. Nico pulled a little piece of equipment from his flight vest and waved it at Will, who nodded, doing the same. The units looked for each other and any other line of sight laser comms units within range. Within a few minutes, the
aircraft of Bravo squadron could communicate amongst themselves with no outside eavesdropping.
Major Nina Heatly, who was flying the Maul that Will sat in the back of, gave her reasoning. 'Been thinking and having a quiet word with a few of the guys and we think that the commander's battle plan for today is not that good. Ifwe want to come out of this with any credibility, I know we need a new plan. Any dissension?'
All the others, having watched their fellow crews getting shot down or forced down by the sheer brilliance of the brigadier's tactics of separation and his use of terrain, were itching to try something different than the Mauls' two standard . skirmishing and ground attack methods they had been using. The orders for the day were the same: pairs operating in specific areas, hunting the Saluki or waiting for them to come to them.
Vishav Jyani in the rear of Anneke Bester's Maul said, 'Well, we need to try something new at least. I have argued with Mr Warne and also the commander that the tactics of the last two days have not been working, but they seem much more interested in something else. What could they be waiting for?' Lieutenant Traci Bannon, with her sergeant major husband Robb as gunner, spoke up. 'We are treating the battle typically as ground support, which is what this aircraft is all about. We should treat them as bombers. Go for a box formation. All together. Great collective firepower that way and let the Aquila helicopters come to us. We could swat them like flies.' 'Captain Etz,' Nina said. 'You are the historian. Good idea?' Johan Etz thought for a few seconds before he cleared his throat. 'Well, major, I am in the back seat, just along for the ride, but yes, I see no reason why that would not work very well. My only question is, what if it goes wrong? Who will explain this to the commander? And the Games Board monitors will be invisible to us until we are out of the fight. Annoying that we cannot use our radar, as it would be easy to identif y where they are so we would know where the Aquila aircraft would be. But that would not make for good AV, would it.'
There was a long silence before Nina said, 'OK. The hell with this. I need to talk with the commander.'
Using the controls on the top of one of her joysticks, she activated a secure link. 'Haast, this is Bravo one. Request secure link to the commander.'
'Roger. Stand by, Bravo one ... Bravo one, this is the commander. What's happening, major?'
Nina took a long, deep breath. 'Sir, with all due respect, if we carry out this same two-ship harrying plan as we have done in the last two days, we are going to get creamed again. We would much rather go for a box section formation with everyone and let the Saluki come to us while we fly in formation around a nice and nasty craggy mountain top.'
There was silence from Haast so Nina decided to press her case further. 'That way we could use the aircraft to best advantage. We have a shorter flight endurance time than the Saluki, so we cannot muck about. And with everyone firing intersecting arcs, we could do them great damage.'
She took a breath and was about to continue when the commander interjected. 'I understand. But. Well. As you know, we have been playing this battle on the safe side. How many of our aircraft have been blown to bits and how many crew are tanked or even seriously hurt? Think about it, Nina. You are not the carrier combat aircraft OC for nothing.'
Her eyes narrowed, then she pursed her lips. 'Ah, I think I see. There is another game right after this one, isn't there?'
'Yes, so please follow the battle plan and ask Captain Bester and Lieutenant Jyani to refrain from blowing the crap out of the Saluki, even if they are very good at it.'
Nina frowned. 'Just have to ask. You have not been bought off and this is not a bet twister, is it? And this battle you speak of, once this one is over, is it Games Board sanctioned?'
'No. You can rest assured, nothing to do with gambling or fixing. 'It is much more serious than that. And no, it is not sanctioned. At least not that I know of. Put on a good show for the Games Board. Haast, out.'
Nina looked over the clouds, seeing the mountain peaks jutting up out of them, and wondered what she was going to say to the crews. She tapped the intercom icon.
'Will, there is a much bigger game on after this one. A non sanctioned one. We are to go with the battle briefing and play softly.'
Will, who was sitting with the seat back and footrests extended out to their maximum to accommodate his height, grimaced. He and Nina had been together for such a long time, he knew from the tiniest intonation of a word how she was feeling about things.
'Yeah, wondered about that. That Saluki I hit yesterday should have gone bang considering the amount of rounds I hit him with. All he did was pull up with smoke pouring out of him and spiralled down to an OK-looking landing. So, hold on, am I getting this right? You say play softly. We are being preserved? Both us and the Aquila?'
'That's my take on it, Will. You happy about this?'
He smiled. 'Of course, Nina. Where you go, I do also, but just with more firepower.'
Nina winked at her husband, smiled, then continued: 'OK. Listen up, guys. Just had words with the commander. We go with his briefing. There is a reason, and although I do not know the details, I believe that it is a good one. Break off into your pairs and let's go look for Saluki.'
There was a long pause before anyone answered. Johan Etz finally said, 'Good. Wondered. We took a few good hits yesterday that should have knocked us down, but we just lost power on the starboard-side engines. All makes sense now.'
Nina nodded to herself and toggled the intercom again. 'Will, before you put away your secure comms unit, get Anneke for me, please.'
'OK ... hey, Anneke! Nina wants to talk.'
Anneke looked out at the Bravo one aircraft that was pulling away from them. 'Nina?'
'The commander asks that you and Vish don't waste the Saluki today. Just mess them up a little.'
Anneke harrumphed then cocked her head to one side, knowing that sometimes the Games Board requested a different outcome, and pinched her lips. 'Weird! That's no fun! But you are the boss. OK, we hear you. Talk later.'
Nina let out a long breath. 'Bravo one, Bravo two. Swing out, maintain parallel 300 metres. Let's go hunting.'
Nico shrugged his powerful shoulders. 'Bravo two, Bravo one. Parallel 300. Let's go play tag with the nice Saluki.'
Nina increased the thrust of the turbines and started the two in the rearmost engine pods, lifting the nose and aiming for their designated patrol area. The winds had started to pick up a little and the updraughts from the mountains below started to buffet the aircraft. She grinned to herself, loving the feel of the powerful wingless aircraft and its immediate response to the slightest change of the flight controls. But most of all she loved the feeling of the aircraft as an extension of herself. She thought about the action and the visor on her helmet slid down to cover her face. She thought again and the seat conformed a little more to her fine musc
ular body, holding her a little tighter to itself.
The visual recognition systems of the Maul looked everywhere at once, seeing and tagging the slightest movements or changes in the environment through the four optical spheres positioned on the aircraft. As an item of interest was seen, the computer would log it and bring it to the two crews' attention in the HUDs.
Two very slight temperature variations high up on the side of the massive craggy bluff to their port side were detected.
Will, seeing the icons come up in his HUD, swung the gun pod around until the thirty-millimetre, long-barrel, twin rotary cannons were covering the area. Feeling the change in the drag on the aircraft as the pod swung to the side, Nina automatically adjusted the engine pods and power settings to compensate. She knew that the timings for the first engagement were also right, so she started the remaining two forward turbines, giving her access to full power.
Nico, in the second aircraft, saw what was happening and also started his other engines. 'Vig! Heads up, mate.'
Viggo was looking at the valley floor 500 metres below them and then up the sides of the cliffs around them, seeing the series of small plateaus. There was a sudden chill in his spine. 'Nico!Bravo one. Climb hard! We are about to be ambushed!'
Nico did not answer, simply poured on the power and started to climb hard.
Nina pulled back on the control sticks, slamming on the power, trusting in the extraordinary instincts of impending danger that Viggo had demonstrated time and time again over all the years she had known him. Below them, the snow-camouflaged covers were pulled off the gun emplacements, which fired 100-metre-long ropelike spears up at them.
Viggo and Will called out the warnings to their pilots as the spears split and then split again, dragging black filaments out, forming large nets that, controlled by the tiny rockets at their ends, curved about the sky, trying to land onto the Mauls.
Viggo quickly looked over the emplacements, attempting to identif y the possible controllers, but gave up an instant later and started firing anyway, strafing the area.
As Nina threw the Maul all over the sky, Will wondered about the area where the two heat signatures had been seen. 'Break right! Climb! OK. Break left! Dive!Roll right! Good!'
He let off a long, tearing, mind-numbing burst with the rounds exploding all around the two spots on the mountain side and seconds later the ribbon nets lost cohesion.
Viggo called out, 'Bravo one. There will be Saluki close. Ready your chin guns!'
Nina yelled, 'Will! You have my guns.'
Will tapped the screens so he could see what the forward rotary and the missile launcher could see. 'Got 'em!'
He quickly programmed two missiles to do what he wanted and fired them. They launched one after the other from the launcher under the front of the Maul, racing away from the· ship to climb to the top of the cliff face, then curve over it and detonate.
The Maul charged vertically up the side of torn and jagged rock, rolling over the top to be met by three Saluki hovering close to the ground, whose pilots were still gathering their wits after the two missiles had peppered them with fragments. Will fired on the centre one as the one on their right fired a long burst into the starboard-side turbines, which immediately started to shut down. The centre helicopter promptly landed with smoke pouring from its engine exhausts. Nina's hands flashed across the controls, ramping the antigravity units up to compensate for the loss of lif t. She flung the Maul in a tight left turn as Will fired into the second Saluki, knocking it down just as rounds raked them, heavily damaging the port side engines.
Bravo two howled over the lip of the mountain range top with the chin gun already targeted on the remaining Saluki. Viggo fired, smashing the armoured helicopter down its left side and filling the jet turbine covers with holes. 'Itimmediately lost power and hard landed.
Nina laughed, and then grimaced, seeing the readouts of the damage to her beloved Maul. She hovered the machine thirty metres above the three downed Saluki, while the wind started to blow her away over the mountain top. She lowered the landing gear and called, 'Bravo two. I am out of propulsion. Can you land me, please?'
Nico washed speed off his Maul and swung around, balancing the four engine pods outwards to swing over the top of the stricken Bravo one. Once in position he deployed his rear landing leg, extending the three-clawed foot out to carefully grasp the lifting point on the back of Bravo one, and then gingerly pushed the Maul back to where the three Saluki were. He put the Maul down on the snow- and ice-covered rocks. As soon as they made contact, Nico disconnected and Nina powered down the antigravity while the machine settled into the snow.
High above them two Games Board antigravity sleds with a pair of monitors on each became visible. Nina saw them and sighed.
'Nico. Take over the squadron. As per the rules of this engagement, I and these fellow Saluki pilots are out of the fight. We will wait here for the Games Board recovery units. Will see you when we do.'
The Games Board sleds and their occupants vanished again.
Nico acknowledged the message, peeled off and, gaining airspeed, flew down the side of the mountain.
'What's the plan, Nico?'
Nico looked out through the canopy and the forbidding terrain, wondering what they could do effectively on their own. He tapped the comms icon of Traci and Robb.
'No doubt you can see from your screens that Nina is out. We knocked down three Saluki, so by my reckoning that would leave sixteen still available to fight somewhere around here.'
'See that you are now the head honcho,' Traci said. 'OK, swing by over to us and let's see what we can go find.'
Nico tapped his navigation screen, querying where Bravo seven and eight were. Their icons lit up so he poured on the power taking the Maul lower towards the valley floor to fly nap-of-the-earth. He thought about the intercom link and, seeing it open, said, 'Hey, ya slack arse passenger. What are your thoughts, Vig?'
Viggo studied the area that the two Mauls were in. 'I should be flying, Nico, then you would not have to ask me questions!' Nico laughed raucously. Viggo smiled then continued. 'Arse yourself. OK, look where seven and eight are heading. Look where the last known position of the Aquila carrier was. What is the betting that three or four Saluki are stalking the Mauls?'
Nico looked at his screens, then up at the HUD, mentally telling it to expand and plot the positions of his friends.
'And that is why you will not be allowed to fly the truck, Vig. You are much too good at thinking about shit. OK, good plan. Let's go see. Some evil terrain between us and them.'
He grinned to himself as he flew the machine at full power, weaving through and up and over the rocky outcrops and vertical toothlike rock slabs and keeping an eye on the ever present towering cliffs on either side of the aircraft.
Thirty minutes later, having taken a tortuous route to get a few kilometres behind the other Mauls, Viggo reported, 'Saluki exhaust gases in the air. They are burning kerosene just like on the other days. Think that they are between us and the Mauls.'
'OK. Hold on ... yeah, I see one, twelve o'clock, 900 metres! And there are the other two ahead of that one. They are flying line astern. Nice!Love it when an enemy is so cooperative.'
Viggo sat in the cramped armoured gun pod and looked up from his screen. On a whim, he cleared his HUD of all information, his fingers tapping out a slightly agitated rhythm on his control columns as he thought about things. 'Nico, I think that we should disable these ones. Not wreck them. There is something not quite right with all of this. The commander is normally much more aggressive and I have been thinking through the battle results that Aquila normally racks up as well. And Nina says to stick with the battle plan.'
Nico sat quite still in the pilot's seat, quietly concentrating on flying the Maul around the difficult terrain and keeping close to the ground, using the huge rocks as cover to allow them to get close to the Saluki. In a subdued voice, he answered, 'Yeah, yeah, know what you mean. There should be smoking ruin
s of aircraft half buried in the dirt and a chunk of us with our Soul Savers attached to our zygotes in tanks by now. But hey, mate, you know that sometimes battles have gone this way before, so what do you think?'
Viggo tapped the screen listing his ammunitions. 'I am thinking that there is a bigger game afoot. You know how I said to you ages ago that I felt something was wrong when we were in that marketplace in the Waipunga village on Storfisk, and I was chatting up that hot woman who said she was a teacher.'
Nico laughed. 'Yeah, the one who did not want to fuck you and kept looking at me! You think that she felt wrong because she thought you were gay, Viggo.'
Viggo shook his head, mildly exasperated. 'No, Nico. Not that. She felt wrong. Like she was an operative. There was something about her that was wrong. Too highly trained, too fluid in her movements. Just a bit too good at what she was trying to put across. Reminded me of Uncle. You know that I am good at seeing things that are being hidden in the open. I think that she was Jan Wester from Basalt. The one the Games Board killed. There were other things I saw there as well, Nico. ACEs everywhere. Yeah, I know they are created by the local families, but there were more than even I expected. To say nothing of what happened with the beetle flight over that village.'
Nico looked at his screens, then up again at the slowly closing gap between them and the Saluki helicopters. He let out a long breath, thinking that Viggo had never voiced anything that he did not know and that his ability to know secrets was a major squadron asset.
'OK, Viggo,' Nico answered seriously. 'Tell me what you want to do.'
Viggo's fingers were dancing over his weapons loadout screens. 'I am loading the missiles with black oxygen warheads. Let's just hope the Saluki pilots are on warmed external air, with sensors to switch to internal supply if needed. Should be, it's standard kit. If we knock them out and they crash and burn, it would kind of defeat the exercise of trying to preserve them. Also changing out the rotary ammunition to paint. I will program the missiles to go after all three Saluki. As soon as the turbines fail, I need you to get us over the tops of them so we can mess up their canopies and live AV feeds.'
Onyx Javelin Page 28