Con-Red: Recourse

by Feinstein, Max

  Five seconds into the flight the Knights were already more than halfway at their objective. Semi-transparent images of the automatically enlarged scene ahead allowed Styker to already start making out most of the larger ships as they engaged in battle. The sensor systems built into the AF-103E detected each of the ships and fighter craft involved and enhanced them for better view within the transalloy canopy surrounding him. He could now clearly see two large frigate sized pirate ships, outlined in red, trading blows with three much smaller hundred and twenty-five meter long Panther class patrol ships that made up the ARC system defense force. As he continued to watch groups of comparatively tiny fighters would streak by on perimeter patrol patterns.

  These three Panther vessels, manufactured by Iskra Heavy Industries, were actually modified armed versions of a freighter design they built for the shipping industry. While more heavily armed and shielded in comparison to their civilian counterparts, the Panthers were still no match for most dedicated military ships. As if in confirmation to Commander Telwin’s train of thought one of the defense ships took a full broadside and detonated in a series of explosions its port side. Even so the pirate frigate continued to pound the vessel relentlessly with plasma rounds until it broke along the thinner midsection of the hull. The remainder quickly fractured into multiple large fragments with sheared, scared, and half molten edges. What little internal flames had remained were quickly extinguished by the surrounding airless nature of space. Zooming in further on the image, Styker even witnessed dozens of flailing bodies get sucked out into space making the scene that much more realistic.

  Destruction of that single Panther ship opened a hole within the convoy’s defenses and a trio of enemy shuttles maneuvered to take advantage of the vulnerability before the other ships repositioned themselves. An alarm rang out at that second and caused Styker to look down at his sensor display. Instead of showing the collection of ships and fighters coming up directly in front of him the screen was now a flickering haze filled with static. It seemed that only his optical systems and the enhanced Dragonfire’s spectroscopic array were working properly. He was about to relay new orders to his squadron when a ‘Connection Lost’ signal appeared on his HUD, indicating a disruption in the area wide Tactical Battlefield Network. Luckily his PAS, pilot assist system, automatically detected the failure and switched to the unit’s TacLink, which was a laser datalink based system.

  This development came as a complete shock and surprise to the commander. There had been no previous indication that the pirates had such capability and therefore the Knights had not planned for it in this mission. Years of experience and training took over almost instantly, however, and allowed Styker to quickly overcome the initial surprise. His entire squadron had trained for such events before and contingency plans were always in place since every flown mission had many unknown elements associated with it. It was this refocused determination that allowed him to visually detect a change in the enemy fighter screen’s movements. They were quickly coming together into pairs, but still trying to keep some of their previous patrol patterns. Something inside him, possibly instinct, screamed out at him that something was wrong.

  “Break into pairs and release decoys NOW NOW NOW!” Commander Styker yelled out and mentally activated the decoys within his fighter’s weapons bay. Pressing the trigger he watched one of them drop down under his craft and accelerate forward, broadcasting an identical sensor shadow of his own Dragonfire only more intense.

  Responding in kind the rest of the squadron launched their drones as well. Staggered in pairs and triplets the flat-nosed decoys charged forward into the unknown. His read of the situation at hand was proven correct at that very moment when over a dozen quickly fading explosions went off directly in front of the Knights flight trajectory. With his sensors being jammed and offline at the moment Styker could only utilize his optical systems and the fighter’s spectrum analysis array. He redirected both of these to the area directly in front of him and saw just a hint of a twinkling light, almost like tiny stars. The Spectroscopic Array processed the information more methodically, quickly detecting what little light reflected back towards the Dragonfire to establish an estimated image of the objects ahead. It compared that image with those within its own database. All if this took only milliseconds to accomplish and reaffirmed Styker’s assumption.

  “Proxies!” he called out and quickly pulled the throttle back while initiating a retroburn in order to cut his forward momentum. “Switch to burst and go over top. Follow my lead Knights.”

  He heeded his own advise the changed the variable laser cannons to ‘burst fire’ mode. Styker squeezed on the trigger in his right hand. Before the first laser burst exited the wing mounted cannons a new series of detonations appeared as the decoys reached the strewn out proximity mines. These explosions happened to be much larger than the ones previous and were followed by others as the rest of the decoy drones reached the mines. To his surprised one drone actually passed through the field without triggering any of the mines.

  With a mission at stake there was really no time to think, only to react and do. He pulled the fighter into a climb, knowing that the majority of the mine field’s strength would be within its center. At the same time he held down the trigger and unleashed a hail of rapid fire energy bursts. The narrow dark green beams proceeded to rake the floating mines directly in front of the maneuvering AF-103. They followed the fighter and stitched their way from the center of the field towards its periphery. Most of the bursts passed harmlessly between the hundreds of small devices, but every now and then one of the high powered beams would impact one of the objects. Looking out directly in front of him through the darkened canopy Commander Telwin watched a number of these struck mines explode, noting that they were doing so at a far closer range than he had expected for his comfort.

  The inherent danger of the maneuver was quickly realized when a pair of much brighter and larger detonation bursts went off far to his starboard. At the edge of his formation, where Knights Seven and Eight were supposed to be, was a quickly expanding fireball and debris field. His squadron status display changed at that same moment to show the loss of contact with Lance, the pilot of Knight Eight. He began to fear the worst for Seven as well when an entire Dragonfire cockpit ejected out of the diminishing fire into the empty space above. An emergency EV beacon came online at that time as well. It informed everyone inside the solar system that there was an extravehicle pilot in need of immediate assistance. In reality a pilot inside an undamaged ejected cockpit was able to survive for days while floating in space.

  Breathing out a sigh of relief for at least some good fortune Styker proceeded as planned. He would review what had truly happened later, but now was not that time. Pushing the control stick forward again after a second more he quickly leveled back out, estimating that his squadron had finally passed over top of the mine field. Behind him the other fighters followed his every action and together accelerated once more towards the battle still taking place ahead of them. Each remaining paired flight spread out a little further to cover a wider area. During their transit, however, the positions of the enemy fighters had changed. They were no longer orbiting the pirate engagement as before. Instead, Styker now noted that their whole squadron of DragonRay fighters was coming directly at them for a head on engagement.

  These fighters were so named by the UPF military because they were a cobbled together mix of old Dragonfire parts and even older Stingray class fighter bodies. It was true in this particular case that looks were highly deceiving. From the outside these fighters looks completely unfit for battles of any kind, but in reality they were far from it. Federation Naval pilots found out years ago that DragonRays were quite formidable when under command of experienced pilots and had no trouble dispatching unwary opponents. Each one was well shielded and armored and used two oversized shuttle engines instead of the standard four to maintain a decent acceleration profile. The added weight of armor decreased its maneuvering cap
ability, though, and gave naval fighters an edge in combat.

  “Engage at will Knights,” Styker relayed to his squadron and moved his eyes over a pair of the incoming DragonRays, “good hunting.”

  Without any other sensors he used the optical lockon feature and mentally told the system to target those craft. A pair of invisible laser beams quickly crossed the closing distance and intersected with both of the designated fighters. That information was quickly transferred to the already waiting missiles inside two of the three internal weapons bays. Another mental command initiated the fire sequence and both MP-212C Kiba projectiles were ejected from the fighter before accelerating towards their targets, following the laser designator the entire time.

  Other Dragonfires followed suit with missile attacks of their own and quickly answered in kind by the enemy squadron. Watching the enemy advance and the missiles streak out to meet them Styker saw tiny ignitions of light under each of the enemy fighters. He didn’t need active sensors at that point to know what was happening. “Missiles inbound!” he called out as the flight commander and instantly put his Dragonfire into a drive to initiate evasive action. At the same time he activated his Electronic Countermeasures Array.

  Out in space the two groups of opposing missiles crossed each other on their way to various targets. The enemy’s ability to use sensors gave them a big advantage in the engagement, their missiles were able to follow every action performed by Knight Squadron. With the UPF squadron now activating its ECAs, however, it would make the missiles jobs much more difficult. UPF weapons, on the other hand, had to rely on their own sensor systems at the moment as each fighter conducted evasive maneuvers that at times caused them to lose their laser designation link. The Federation missiles had the ability to track targets on visual profile alone if needed. When getting close to their target the Kibas also used infrared detectors to track heat output in the coldness of space. With help from the ECA the two forces were now well matched.

  A series of laser bolts shot out from one of the pirate fighters and knocked out two of the incoming UPF missiles, amazing Styker with their precision during his high-G rolls and turns. As he pointed his fighter back at the enemy Commander Telwin watched as an enemy missile raced by his cockpit. He waited a second for it to come back around to target him, but his countermeasures proved to be effective and the weapon continued moving straight without seeing him. Some of the other missiles didn’t missile, however, and impacted some of the Regal CBG’s fighters. Most of those detonated against the heavy shields surrounding each fighter, but one did manage to cause some damage to Knight Five, disabling one of its engines and warping part of its tail. Both of these damaged items were redundant and allowed the fighter to keep on with the engagement without much trouble.

  Commander Telwin mentally took note of the damaged craft and tried to see how effective his own squadron’s missiles had been. Without sensors it was hard to track those launched projectiles. The spectroscopic array, however, informed him that it was now only tracking eight enemy ships instead of the original ten. It wasn’t much of a victory, but considering the heavy enemy jamming it was all Styker could hope for. At least their numbers now evened out, which Styker hoped would help his unit perceiver.

  Finally after what seemed like forever, but was in fact only seconds, the two squadrons came together in a large dogfight. As trained the Federation fighters attacked in pairs after selecting a single pirate DragonRay each. From the corner of his eyes Styker could see his three remaining pairs flower in all directions to execute their missions. On his TacLink display he could see that Knight Two, his wingman for the battle, had taken up position behind him. Without having to say anything Styker swung the fighter around to hunt for the enemy and knew that Two would follow his every move. Together they accelerated after one of his fighter pairs that now had a DragonRay on its tail.

  As they descended on the enemy’s rear he saw that it was already firing on his squadron mates with blue and red energy beams. Some of these missed as the Dragonfires maneuvered to throw off the enemy’s aim, but others hit their target, impacting against one of the fighter’s shields. At the same time a pair of new missiles detached from the pirate craft’s wing hardpoints and targeted the pair’s trailing Federation Naval fighter. This new attack seemed to go unnoticed by the Dragonfire for a long second since most of its early warning systems were being jammed.

  “Savage, missiles on your tail!” Styker shouted as a quick warning to his second-in-command and triggered his own lasers at the enemy fighter without a complete lock, while dispatching a missile of his own. He hoped to distract the pirate long enough to get the upper hand.

  He watched the Kiba race away ahead of his fighter before curving towards the enemy as Styker engaged its visual lock. All he had to do was follow the target with his eyes and the Dragonfire fired out its designator beam automatically. The pirate ship must have detected the laser lock or seen the launch and broke off its attack to try and evade the incoming projectile. Its turn mistakenly put it right into Styker’s line of fire. Never one to waste a presented opportunity he fired on the enemy once more with his beam weapons set on cycle. The four particle beams slammed into the craft’s top shields. Their combined assault was enough to bring down the defensive barrier and allow the following laser bolts to hammer its heavily armored body. Styker saw them impact along the DragonRay’s body and starboard wing.

  The body’s armor plating only blackened and melted slighting on the outside, but the wing was less so and the lasers punched right through its entire thickness. This sort of damage would have in no way impeded the fighter’s performance, but unfortunately for the pilot there was a missile hanging off of one of the wing’s hardpoints. One of the laser beams struck this warhead and caused it to explode, shredding the entire wing and destroying one of the craft’s engines. Even so the heavy fighter would have survived if wasn’t for the Kiba missile that struck its underside at that same moment. That missile pieced the fuselage and exploded inside the ship ripping it apart in a brilliant ball of fire.

  While this was all happening Savage, in Knight Three, had been busy trying to avoid the missiles directed at him as well. Both of these projectiles were guided by the launching fighter’s sensor systems, but their locks were constantly being disrupted by the heavy jamming being put out from Three’s ECA unit. One of the missiles shot over the top of the fighter after losing senor contact and began to come back around to relocate the target. There was no such luck with the second projectile and it slammed into the top of the Dragonfire. Unlike the other explosive missiles this one was a pulse type weapon. Its detonation showered the intended craft with a heavy barrage of directed ionizing radiation. The direct impact instantly disabled the fighter’s shields and passed into the interior of the ship. Styker turned back towards the craft in time to see its four engine nozzles flicker out. The Dragonfire continued flying through space on its remaining momentum.

  Commander Telwin was about to call out for an S&R shuttle over his TacLink to come pick up the stricken pilot when the Dragonfire blasted apart. Through this large explosion shot out the very pirate craft followed close behind by Knight Four. All around the battlefield Federation and pirate fighters fought each other in an intensive ballet of death and destruction. There were victories and losses on both sides, but Styker had to admit that his opponents were highly qualified in their own regard. The one piece of good news that Styker could see was that his squadron was fighting in a more effective manner than the enemy and were getting the majority of the kills. His on screen display indicated to him that there were now four enemy fighters remaining, while Knight Squadron still had six fighters in combat.

  He hit the throttle again and within a few seconds slid behind another enemy craft that was on the tail of Knight Five’s AF-103E. It was the same Dragonfire damaged in the first missile exchange and the pilot was still holding his own against the trailing enemy craft. Every evasive action that Styker witnessed was effective and cause
d the pirate’s fire to miss completely in its attack. The skills of Junior Lieutenant Spencer ‘Ice’ Alervin impressed him greatly and he was deeply proud of the young man, considering he had been a relative new comer to the squadron only months ago. There was a lot of potential in that one, Styker thought to himself as he adjusted the control stick in his right hand to achieve his own target lock on the DragonRay.

  A new transmission from one of his other squadron mates caused the commander pause, however. “I’m hit! Shields down, multiple system failures. I can’t shake him!”

  “On my way Ten. Come around to Six-Two-Nine,” Styker heard Karagin, the pilot of Knight Nine, relay to the other pilot.

  “Roger that, on my way,” Knight Ten, Brash, replied before his voice suddenly changed to something more hectic, “engine failure! Trying to transfer…”

  Through the TacLink the sound of a nearby explosion could be heard before the entire transmission cut off altogether. An EV transponder appeared at Knight Ten’s previous position and began transmitting on emergency frequencies. No other communications appeared from that ejected capsule, though, causing the commander to lose that much more hope.

  “Ten, One, sitrep,” Styker called out as he triggered a particle beam burst and watched the enemy fighter barrel roll away from it. “Ten respond.”

  He tried to contact the pilot a few more times before quitting without any luck. Commander Telwin knew that he needed to focus more on his target at the moment, which was proving to be a rather worthy adversary. The enemy pilot was able to press his attack again Knight Five and at the same time dodge most of Styker’s fire with fluid evasion maneuvers. He could almost feel the calmness inside the pirate’s cockpit. Having trained and flow combat missions for over fifteen years he could almost always differentiate between actions done in panic and those that were truly preplanned.