“Release Decoys,” Knight Lead commanded and triggered his own launch, watching the drone speed away from under his fighter.
Nine other drones joined his to form a new squadron of contacts on the enemy vessel’s sensors. Each of the decoys broadcast larger signatures and readjusted course in order to draw some of the incoming fire from Knight Squadron. Styker watched this happen almost instantly as one of the drones quickly disintegrated, but the rest continued on with ever changing evasive maneuvers. The frigate’s automated defensive systems quickly shifted to engage these new inbound threats and made the Knights secondary targets. Despite this Styker knew that any second now the men and women monitoring those automated systems would realize the diversion and redirect the weapons accordingly.
Not waiting another second in order to take advantage of the lull in weapons fire he gave the go ahead to close on the enemy. Punching the throttle entirely forward he felt the engines roar to life behind him. The rapid acceleration pushed him into his pilot’s seat instantly as the fighter lurched forward. Slowly the inertial compensators adjusted to the new stresses and the commander brought the Dragonfire around in a lateral arc towards the capital ship’s rear. He tried his best to keep the AF-103 maneuvering without pause in order to not get stuck by laser fire.
“Eight hit, repeat I’m hit,” came the sudden exclamation from Knight Eight, “breaking off and turning back to starting position.”
Styker acknowledge the man and continued on towards his target. The sensor display in front of him showed the Dragonfire breaking formation and slowly moving away from the battle zone. The remaining squad members closed around his position, however, and continued to the target. At the same time two other of the drones detonated on the other side of the engagement. Commander Telwin could already feel more of the frigate’s weapons shifting fire back towards his real formation. He sent his craft into another barrel roll just as another blue ray passed close by and another of his men called out to declare a hit.
“Knights, target Hotel One as planned,” he commanded and trained his eyes on the still distant enemy warship.
The Dragonfire’s system had already designated the target and fed the data into the guidance system on the missiles being housed in the internal launch bays. On his command the fighter unleashed the first of four Kiba missiles, showing them all drop out and launch in quick succession. The rest of the squadron followed suit and released their own weapons. Within seconds Styker’s sensor display lit up with thirty-six simulated MP-212 warheads streaking away towards the distant target beyond. That enemy was in actuality one of the Federation Navy’s brand new Griffin class corvettes and at the moment she was simulating an enemy frigate for the purpose of this exercise.
“Enemy fighters!” warned Knight Two at that moment before going completely silent.
Styker saw the holographic display quickly flash at that moment to show the simulated destruction of Lieutenant Kelvin ‘Quick’ Qickowski. “Knights launch countermeasures and plow through them before engaging.”
He quickly increased the gain on his detection array and rescanned the area where Quick got taken out. At the same time Knight Lead turned towards that area himself. Completing his turn he was quickly presented with a heads-up-display filled with an entire squadron of ten enemy fighter craft. With only eight members left the squadron was surprised and outnumbered. The opposing commander had deployed his fighters and had kept them floating powered down in space in order to help prevent their detection. Unfortunately Styker had flown the Knight’s right into them.
The zoomed in forward display let him see the Dragonfire assault fighters accelerate and fly right through the center of the enemy concentration, sending them scattering in order to avoid collision. Each pilot quickly reversed their course once that happened and tried their best to put themselves behind the now accelerating enemy craft. Styker noted with great interested that the enemy fighters maneuvered exactly as the alien fighters had in the video shown them and in the simulations. This wasn’t a coincidence. The Pegasus autonomous combat vehicles were loaded with flight algorithms collected from data salvaged off the Federation and were now being used to help train the naval pilots.
With the help of his advanced neural implants Styker picked out one of the fast flying fighters from a distance and plotted its course and speed. That information allowed him to make a highly educated estimate as where it would be in the next few seconds. Shifting the Dragonfire’s nose gently to the side he waited a split second before triggering the dual particle cannons. Bursts of three rapid shots fired out from each barrel and almost instantly closed the distance between Knight One and the enemy fighter. The first pair missed wide, but the others struck home along the entire length of the smaller craft. Styker saw its shields flash a sky blue before the drone instantly shut down.
“Got one on my tail, trying to evade,” Knight Four’s calm voice came over the squadron’s TacLink.
Before the statement was even completed Styker saw Patricia ‘Marks’ Holton’s fighter fly past in front of him with one of the opposing drones at her rear. He proudly noted the coat of arms at the rear end of the other Dragonfire, featuring a knight’s helmet with a pair of broadswords crossed behind it. “I’m on it Marks,” Styker replied immediately and accelerated deeper into the fray. In seconds he was sliding in behind the Pegasus ACV that was trying its best to score a kill on his squadron mate.
The drone detected his presence and without delay triggered its own evasive maneuvers by breaking off its attack on Knight Four. A simulated missile launch was detected on sensors a second after the Pegasus rolled away and Styker saw Patricia release one of her decoy countermeasures from the rear of her Dragonfire. He didn’t wait around to see its effect, instead pulling hard on his control stick to follow the smaller vehicle into a dive. Together they created what seemed like a beautifully choreographed dance of war with Styker matching the Pegasus move for move. While the enemy alien fighters had better dogfight characteristics than standard Dragonfire assault fighters, the upgraded AF-103Es were more than a match. His fighter even bested the enemy at a number of aspects. One of these was turn rate and allowed him to get the upper hand when the Pegasus rolled to starboard and tried to come about in order to bear its weapons on him.
Anticipating this move Styker turned slightly harder and hit his dorsal maneuvering thrusters. This caused his fighter to slide sideways in space, out of the enemy’s line of fire. At the same time it brought the opposing drone directly in front of his own craft. He stared at the now non-maneuvering Pegasus for a split second before squeezing down on the trigger. A barrage of blue low powered training bolts fired from his weapons and slammed into the ACV’s shields causing it to deactivate almost instantly. Traveling at high speed Styker didn’t even hit the brakes as he flew straight past the now motionless drone and back into the thick of the fragmented dogfight.
He noticed that his squadron was doing well against the simulated enemy fighters. His sensor displays changed once more, bringing up a new floating image of the frigate that Knights had just attacked moments before. The software had finally calculated the estimated damage of his missile strike. It had not been enough to destroy the ship, but the Kiba missiles had damaged the frigate considerably, affecting much of its combat performance. That was probably the reason for the now rather sporadic fire coming from the vessel instead of the sustained defense they had experienced previously, Styker thought to himself.
Grateful for the effect he mentally changed the sensor display back to that of the surrounding area and veered starboard towards another enemy fighter. He was in the process of closing in behind the small craft when a loud warning alarm rang out throughout the cockpit. Styker’s entire display instantly changed from a soft blue, dedicated to friendly-on-friendly simulation missions, to a deep red of actual hostile engagements. The HUD within the canopy blinked to life. It zoomed out from Knight Squadron’s immediate position to show the Rahias region as a whole. There, in
the northeastern most section, two of the dozens of early warning sensor buoys that had been scattered throughout since the Regal’s arrival lit up brightly and broadcast a detection signal.
“Gravitons detected!” Styker suddenly called out to the entire Federation naval force in the area as the reality of the situation finally hit him, “enemies detected! Repeat enemies detected! Knights form up and prepare for contact. Shields and weapons full. Recall all ACVs. Simulation‘s over.”
FNV Regal
“Admiral on the bridge!” Captain Nickolas Hinnamen announced loudly over the klaxon ringing throughout the Regal’s bridge.
“Report, Captain,” Admiral Achyuta Singh requested as he confidently strode through the reinforced armored blastdoors at the rear of the command deck before they slid closed once more. The combat alerts sounded throughout the ship, calling its entire crew to battle stations in preparation for combat. Every weapons system on the great vessel powered up at once and slid out of its protective exterior shell, while the internal missile ordinance proceeded through their quick self-diagnostic checks.
“Buoys Twenty-three and Twenty-four detected a wave of graviton emissions. I made the decision to call out an all ships battle station and scramble our fighters. Regela is searching the area for any signs of enemy vessels. The battle group is forming up as planned though, sir,” Nickolas answered the commanding officer as he looked back towards the large holographic area map floating over the tactical table along the left side of the bridge.
“Very good Captain. This could very well be the fight we have been waiting for. Please encourage our teams on Rahias to expedite the evacuation, there might not be much time remaining.”
Achyuta took a long look at the tactical map and studied it for a moment. After only a few seconds he had memorized the entire map as well as the locations of every asset he had at his disposal. Most of his forces were concentrated around the large scientific facility they were here to defend. A number of them, however, were spread out throughout the surrounding space. There were two small patrol vessels from Pisces moving along the western and southern boarders and a larger Griffin class corvette that now hung in space directly between the Regal and the two detection buoys. Besides these warships were also a trio of fighter squadrons operating from the carrier and some of her escorts. Admiral Singh knew they were on rotating training missions to keep their skills sharp.
“Launch the ready squadrons, while the rest scramble. I want all of our squadrons deployed immediately,” the admiral quickly commanded as he looked out towards the large continuous display that almost ran around the entire bridge. “I want the Vampires and Tridents outfit for ship assault.”
“Captain Chulovski reports Tempest and Hydra Squadron away!” the captain called out and Achyuta watched the two ready squadrons accelerate past the carrier’s bow into the space beyond, forming up a preliminary fighter screen.
Admiral Singh monitored the situations from the rear of the bridge, while his captain issued orders of his own throughout the carrier. Captain Hinnamen was a perfectly capable commander and Singh let him have as much autonomy as possible for the time being. The four main control stations at the center of the command deck instantly went to work carrying out the captain’s orders. Moving his eyes back towards the expansive display before him Achyuta watched as the variable sized hulls of his CGB’s escorts moved into view. Each ship slowly maneuvered to reposition itself within the Singh Line, as it was now called, while the previously held formation shifted to realign with the newly expected enemy vector. The Regal itself centered the line, but hung back slightly in a command role with the rest of the warships arrayed in front and to either side of it.
In actuality the formation was crescent shaped with three staggered horizontal lines floating on top of each other. The longest of the battle lines was the central one, centered by the Regal herself with two of the battle group’s frigates flanking it. Anchored this primary formation spine on either side were the pair of Cosmos class destroyers. The lone heavy cruiser attached to the carrier group was now part of the top most line, which contained another of the Redemption frigates as well as a pair of Odin corvettes. What remaining, the three other escorts and an aging Ridge class frigate joining them from the Pisces SDF, comprised the lower formation layer to provide defensive firepower. All of these warships now moved as one under the coordination of the Regal’s AI.
“Captain, Commander Telwin is requesting orders for Knight Squadron,” the ensign manning communications relayed.
“Twenty-four just went out!” exclaimed Lieutenant Andrio Gorza from the sensor station at almost the exact same moment, “detecting second single graviton burst.”
“They already have a ship in system,” Admiral Singh said as a matter-of-factly.
“Divert the Odessa to Twenty-three’s vicinity and find that hostile. Instruct Knight Squadron to assist in the hunt,” Captain Hinnamen ordered.
These new orders were instantly sent out and Admiral Singh watched the distant Griffin corvette quickly turn in open space before accelerating towards the sensor buoy location on the holographic display. The much smaller Dragonfire fighters of Knight Squadron came around together at the same time and sped past the Odessa in order to take up a preemptive screening position ahead. In the meantime the squadron’s Pegasus drones flew even further head as lead scouts with Regela helping to guide them along the way.
“Time until TF Five Five arrives in-system?”
“Three hours twenty minutes,” the captain confirmed of the reinforcements after checking with the ship’s AI.
“Possible enemy contact detected, relaying location to all available closest assets for confirmation,” the carrier’s sophisticated artificial intelligence said calmly.
Unclassified Contact Detected designating Echo One, appeared on Styker’s canopy display along with a scanned profile view of an alien ship. The detection had been confirmed by the five ACVs now flying ahead of the Knights. This rounded and blister topped two hundred-sixty meter long vessel was a perfect match for the sort of designs used by the enemy invasion force. With its exact location now identified and distributed, Commander Telwin’s squadron of AF-103Es were able to train their spectrographic arrays on that location. Immediately the stealthy contact lit up the sensor display and finally presented a traceable target to every Federation Naval craft and vessel in the area.
Unlike his own craft Echo One had no problem detecting the incoming fighters and corvette and it didn’t take long before an orange lance of light shot out from seeming darkness beyond towards them. Styker slammed the controller sideways and tossed the Dragonfire away from the incoming bolt as his other pilots did the same.
“Contact is definitely hostile Regal, redesignating as Hotel One,” Commander Telwin called out as his fighter leveled out once more.
The fire was not directed at the Knights, however, and he turned his head back in time to watch it slam into the Odessa’s forward shielding. It lit up brightly while dissipating the deadly energy and began to return invisible when another such beam impacted against it. This one was fortunately a glancing blow along the portside bow. Styker quickly turned head back around, following the solid beam of light directly back to its point of origin. Just as the Federation captured footage had shown them all previously this weapon discharged from a coalescence of multiple other lines of light traveling around the alien ship’s circumference.
Instructing the Knights to follow he maneuvered out of the line of fire of both larger warships and instantly saw the enemy’s distinctive crimson shielding ignite atop its whole side as the Odessa began to return fire. The large corvette unleashed a heavy barrage from its forward facing weapon systems. It had been designed with firepower in mind and was able to bring its entire main armament of dual particle beam turrets to bear on targets at any point around the vessel. Four of the Griffin’s five dual particle cannon emplacements traversed to face the front of the ship before discharging all in a simultaneous salvo
. Eight of these devastating beams hammered against the alien vessel as it began to accelerate away from its current position. Guided by laser designators from the Pegasus drones the corvette’s weapons were able to target the enemy with greater precisions.
Styker could almost feel the somewhat oval-shaped ship rock in space as the Odessa pressed its attack further, plasma cannon fire now joining the particle beams to explode against its side. It was certainly a site to see, but he had other priorities and proceeded to close on the enemy. He sent out a mental order to the rest of the squadron instructing them to obtain a laser missile lock on the alien ship’s stern. At the same time new blue contacts appeared on his visual display, letting him know that the corvette was launching its own fighters, Azure Flight, as reinforcements. It was not a moment too soon because the enemy renewed its fire, striking one of Knight Squadron’s Pegasus drones, the same one that had been limiting its evasive maneuvers in order to provide the Odessa with the best possible targeting. This made it an easier than normal target for the alien’s guns. That ship also reengaged the corvette trading fire as it pushed closer to sensor buoy twenty-two.
“There’s our window,” Commander Telwin called out over TacLink when he saw Hotel One’s brightly lit shields began to shimmer and waver in intensity. “Release now!”
With that twenty actual missiles, staggered in two close salvos, now dropped away from the Dragonfires and raced towards the enemy ship beyond. He also sent new orders to two of the remaining Pegasus drones and instructed them to start harassing operations. Each one instantly began to conduct close flybys on the ship, releasing hails of particle cannon fire with intermixed missiles launches. He adjusted his attack vector slightly at that moment and began to fire his own particle cannons.
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