by T I WADE
“Laser locked on closest ship, firing now,” stated Maggie a second after Igor’s voice gave them the information.
“Radar shows three more Matt ships climbing away from the Matt base. Mother ship gunners, halt your fire on the retreating ships,” stated the radar chief on America Two. “Mother ship gunners only, aim for the three new bogeys over.”
Maggie’s second beam exploded the enemy ship 700 miles in front of her.
“All shuttles, side thrusters on full rear thrust, or we won’t pull out of this dive, fire at will, over.” Ordered Jonesy already slowing their ships down.
The gravitational pull on Mars, less than 15 percent of Earth’s didn’t add much to increase speed in a dive. They were already at maximum, and their shuttles weren’t accelerating much since they had already further reduced forward thrust down to 80 percent on Jonesy’s orders.
The weak Martian atmosphere did little to hinder the entrance of a spacecraft heading down vertically, but it had to be respected. Once they were back inside the weak atmosphere thirty seconds later, the Matt ships tried to spread out in different directions. Jonesy warned his pilots.
“Easy on the sticks guys. Oops! There goes a poor Matt, tried to outmaneuver the atmosphere,” stated Jonesy seriously as an explosion blossomed out forty or more miles below them, and still at over 70 miles above the surface. “Thrust down to 60 percent, full reverse thrust on your side thrusters, and don’t change your attack angle by more than a few degrees at any one time. You OK up there partner?”
“Up here and alone thank god,” replied VIN. “You guys certainly heading down in a hurry. We have hit one of the three exiting ships, expecting more to come out in 20 seconds, over.”
“Target locked, here’s one for my friend Jamie,” stated Maggie determinedly and another Matt ship exploded miles head of them.
“Got one!” added Gary Darwin.
“About time,” replied Jonesy. It was Gary’s first kill.
“SB-V, we have two down, over,” shouted Michael Price excitedly.
“Here’s one for my friend Penny,” stated Maggie and Jonesy raised his eyebrows. His wife was certainly on form today as a third explosion brought down the numbers.
“Second bogey destroyed 17 miles north of the base. Three more exiting. These are heading out in all directions, over,” stated the mother ship’s radar crewmember. “Two enemy ships still in a vertical dive 57 miles above the surface 40 miles apart. Lone enemy bogey now heading south and climbing. I think the lone bogey has seen our incoming mining ship. Three new bogeys heading vertical east, north and west, seven miles from the door. Door closed, expected to open in 160 seconds. Asterspace Three turning in at 67,000 feet, 185 seconds from target, over.”
“Good job Igor, Boris,” commented VIN. “Jonesy Asterspace Three needs protection, over.”
“Copy that, partner, we are pulling out of our dive and descending in that general direction. Saturn, Lunar, keep on those two bad guys’ tails.
“One bad guy,” replied Gary getting his second kill.
Gary got his third, which pissed Mark off as he missed his target as their pilots had to begin pulling the shuttles out of their dives still at 100,000 feet above the planet’s surface and at a rapid 47,000 knots. Mark, eyes glued to his camera was shocked to see the enemy he had missed still heading down and it only began pulling out a few seconds after Lunar.
The Matt ship didn’t make it and at full speed managed a pull out of his dive, but headed straight into the side of a mountain Michael Price suddenly realized was Lookout Mountain.
The two larger shuttles felt like being in very nasty roller coasters as they bottomed out at less than 10,000 feet and began to head back up again to continue losing speed and following the three new enemy clambering for altitude.
The three bogeys didn’t have a chance as the two shuttles, seconds apart swept through them like hawks after pigeons and two explosions lit up the dark night sky.
“Two bogeys to go,” stated VIN. “Jonesy, Asterspace Three 30 seconds from impact, door should be opening.”
“Copied Partner, catching up to lone bogey, damn Maggie missed, door dead ahead 35 miles out.”
“Door is opening, there is a blue shield inside the cavern. Somebody I need that shield taken out,” ordered Igor looking through the approaching mining craft’s forward camera.
“SB-V, we are coming around, 8,000 feet, have door visual. Michael lock onto inside of cavern,” ordered Lunar.
“Laser locking,” replied Michael calmly. As he said that three Matt ships exited the gaping blue shield inside the cavern. They immediately dipped down below the bright blue hole, and like snakes in the grass turned and headed away in different directions.
Less than a second later Michael had the laser blasting away at the blue shield as a speck of something entered his camera view. It was Asterspace Three, and much like what had happened to SB-I, the blue shield exploded a split-second before the unarmed mining ship went in and seconds later, the same massive blast erupted out of the mouth of the cavern, and with it pieces of debris flew out in all directions.
“Three new bogeys and one old one,” added Lunar as she pulled up and nearly collected SB-III. They both headed directly over the exploding mountain less than half a mile apart.
“Wow, that was a big blast,” stated VIN. “Heading over the horizon, see you in 12 minutes, alive hopefully, out.”
“Reduced the old ones down to zero, astronauts. Three shuttles left. All shuttles head vertical to pull the new enemy up with us,” ordered Jonesy, and under full power they headed back up into the dark night’s sky full of bright stars.
Mars, Max, Vitalily and the two others had been listening into the fight outside since the beginning. There was nothing they could do and Mars was disappointed that he wasn’t up there. Gary Darwin, it seemed was doing a good job.
The crew inside the blue shield were blind. They had no way to see what was going on outside, but listened to the battle commentary on one handheld radio like people on Earth used to listen to sports on the radio.
“It seems several more and we are out of targets,” stated Mars to Max and the others. They were about to fit on their helmets. Asterspace Three was incoming to the mountain next door to theirs, and the explosion could really rock their boat.
The crew underground knew that there was a tunnel connection to the rest of the Matt base, which was about to be attacked, but they hadn’t found it. Max had also closed the outer door so that the crew controlling the incoming ship wouldn’t get the cavern’s mixed up.
“Door closed, expected to open in 160 seconds. Asterspace Three turning in at 67,000 feet, 185 seconds from target, over.” They heard Igor state over the radio and they screwed on each other’s helmet to ready for the explosion.
They didn’t know what could happen. The power could go out, which meant that the blue shields would disintegrate or close themselves down. They had fully recharged suits, and were expecting to return immediately to Mattville, down the tunnel, if the shields went out.
The explosion when it came was a deep rumble that could even be felt inside the shield. Pieces of tunnel rock and stones began to lazily fall through the shield. The crew looked up and dodged the several rocks falling through the roof of the shield.
Since the shield was up tight against the tunnel, the pieces of the planet that separated itself from the walls, just fell through the shield.
Mars looked out once he had dodged the falling objects and saw the same happening inside the large cavern. Most of the pieces were small, the size of his fist, but one piece the size of his head fell lazily to the floor, and shattered into a few pieces. Other than that, the lights and the shield stayed on.
The rumbling and quake stopped after a few seconds, and the crew braved heading out of the shield to check the damage.
“All shuttles head vertical to pull the new enemy up with us,” the underground crew heard Jonesy say through their helmets and they headed one
by one across to the other side. It was a mess, the first blue shield had exploded and there were burn strips along the walls through the tunnel.
There was no blue shield behind the first one and Mars looked back into the cavern to see a massive pool of air floating underneath the rocky oval roof of the cavern. The large bubble of air was as far down to the top of the cavern door ten feet below the highest section of the roof in the center.
“We’ve lost the air from the forward cavern,” Mars stated to Max.
“The other rooms should be fine, but I think we should set up a new shield before we enter the mining cavern. The shield will protect that areas’ air from spilling out,” replied Max.
“Mars, Max, stay off the air, we have a battle up here,” ordered Jonesy from high above and the two men went about their work to set up the new shield with hand gestures only. Max knew that they had plenty of full air tanks in Mattville.
“I see one bogey heading vertical, the other two are dragging their tails on the ground somewhere off radar,” continued Jonesy at 50,000 feet above the planet surface. By this time their speed had dropped off back to normal and the three shuttles circled and waited.
“These guys are flying different,” stated Saturn noticing a change in their tactics.
“Well done girl, I noticed that as well,” replied her father. “I bet these three pilots are the more experienced pilots. The flights mostly had a leader, I bet these guys are their best, which means their last. Pilots treat these guys as veteran pilots. I believe that the single ship ascending is a trap, Maggie and I will head down to intercept. As far as we know there are three remaining fighters. Any more than three and that means they have another base we haven’t found, then we hightail it back into space, over.”
There wasn’t any good reason to wait around for America Two to arrive back over the horizon, so Jonesy added full thrust and headed down to take on the climbing enemy ship 37,000 feet below him.
Jonesy knew it was a trap, and he still headed in smiling as the enemy spaceship turned over once it saw Jonesy descending and headed down towards the ground.
“OK, guys, Saturn, Lunar I need wingmen. I’ll flush out the others and you guys sort them out.” Jonesy leveled out of the dive and followed the lone ship through a canyon as the two other shuttles headed down. SB-III caught up with the slower ship, and Maggie was locking onto the target dead head, when it turned through a ninety-degree corner in the canyon valley and Jonesy had no choice but to head upwards. His ship was going too fast to take the corner and he went skywards at 97 percent full power.
“Jonesy you have two bogeys on your tail,” shouted Saturn to her father as she turned in to cut them off. She already knew that she wasn’t close enough for Michael to get a clear lock and she went vertical under full power to try and cut the corner. As she did that the third bogey Jonesy had been following rose vertically up out of the canyon miles ahead to follow his two buddies who were already heading through 40,000 feet, 15,000 feet behind Jonesy
In the weak atmosphere of the planet, Maggie in the co-pilot’s seat watched as they rose skywards and two maser beams passed within several yards of their shuttle.
“Maybe a few tactical maneuvers might be in order, darling,” she stated simply to her husband as they rose under full power.
“I need another 60,000 feet, then I have a fancy idea in mind,” replied Jonesy squeakily, the rush of the climb at 21,000 knots taking his breath away. “You just ready your locking mechanism and leave the firing to me, and tighten down your seat straps, I’m just hoping the wings stay on this bird.”
It took several seconds before Jonesy reached his wanted altitude. Four more maser beams had passed within yards of their craft, and the enemy weren’t losing ground. It was just a matter of time before one of their maser beams took out SB-III, and they knew it. They were also prepared for Jonesy’s next maneuver.
Down below, the two other shuttles were behind the third bogey, which had realized the same mathematical negative as Jonesy had, and had turned over in a loop to head back down to hide on surface.
Jonesy had no choice but to do the same and at 100,000 feet he looped the shuttle upside down and around in a 180 degree turn as fast as the next to zero atmosphere allowed him to do.
Maggie did her best to lock onto a target on their way down, but the loop was too fast, the distance too far and she had no time for a lock.
“Who do you think I am, Maverick?” Maggie complained to Jonesy as the two ships behind them did exactly the same maneuver. “Now we are really in the crap Mr. Jones. They are going to blow us into tiny little bits. Bang goes your fishing retirement.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” smiled Jonesy in return.
“They are right behind us and even closer on our damn tail,” she replied not happy about her husband’s command of the situation.
“Ready to shoot down some pigeons Mags,” Jonesy replied calmly. “Watch this, and be ready. I saw this trick on The Matrix.”
Jonesy hit all his side thrusters and only one of his two aft thrusters at the same time, and with Maggie unbelieving, whipped the shuttle around 180 degrees. As they began flying backwards, vertically and directly towards the ground, he leveled the ship out and added full rear thrust to the rear thrusters, and full forward power to the side thrusters.
SB-III had never been flown like this, but at so high an altitude, and with virtually no atmospheric conditions, she didn’t seem to mind reversing her butt towards earth.
“Lock and destroy,” ordered Jonesy and Maggie, forgetting her discomfort about her husband’s erratic flying, locked her laser on the closet target now coming directly towards them at speed.
The Matt never had a chance and the ship exploded less than 10,000 feet above the reverse-falling shuttle.
It took the laser less than two seconds to lock onto the first ship, then another two seconds to lock on the second ship as it came through the first ship’s massive explosion. Even the laser wasn’t fast enough as the second ship exploded as it flew directly through the mass of energy, and Maggie began to feel sick heading backwards at speed.
“Hang on,” stated Jonesy and he whipped the shuttle around to complete the 360 degree maneuver.
Unfortunately, even Jonesy had out flown himself and his shuttle this time. They hadn’t wiped off very much speed in the ten or so seconds they were in reverse mode, and as the shuttle wiped around in a much lower altitude, small external parts separated themselves from the main fuselage of the spaceship.
“Crap!” mentioned Jonesy as the shuttle changed its pattern of flight. SB-III became a vibration as she plowed towards the Martian surface still in a near vertical dive. He struggled with the controls as he spoke to the others.
“Saturn, Lunar, where is the last bogey?”
“Somewhere down in these canyons, Dad,” replied Saturn.
“We are doing a sweep of the entire area, but he has gone to ground,” added Lunar.
“We saw the two explosions high above. Are you OK,” Saturn asked.
“You father is driving like a madman,” replied Maggie calmly, Jonesy was too busy trying to get control of the shuttle.
“I think she is pulling out,” added Jonesy as the nose ever so slowly came up.
At 9,000 feet above the planet’s surface the shuttle began to fly straight and level.
Jonesy was sweating, so was Maggie as she watched the hard surface of the planet rapidly come up to greet them, then began to pass them by as Jonesy kept it on straight and level, trying to catch a breath.
As Jonesy brought her nose up to gain altitude the last Matt rose out of one of the valleys and locked his maser onto their aircraft. It was a quick lock and he had one short burst before Gary Darwin in SB-IV had locked onto him and Gary ended his space flying career for good.
The short maser blast, a mille-second of energy melted the very rear of Jonesy’s engines and thruster openings, and cut through the walls of his underfloor fuel tank like a knife through
butter. His rear thrusters stopped powering the shuttle as the three quarter-full fuel tank began peeling away the floor of the aircraft.
“We are hit!” stated Maggie over the intercom as they still rose up into the Martian sky.
“No thrusters, but we still have 19,000 knots on our side. We are going to have to put her down,” added Jonesy still gaining height. He watched as the speed bled off. He managed to get her up to 17,000 feet before what was left of his controls began to want to act independently of him and the computers, and she began going down.
“Do you have side thrusters?” Jonesy heard Mars Noble add as they headed back down. This time he had little control of the craft, and realized that what control he had, apart from gliding, was the still-working tiny side thrusters.
“Affirmative, Mars,” he replied.
“You aren’t going to survive out there if you break up your suits. We have a blue shield and oxygen in the second cavern. If you can bring her in through the opening, it saves us climbing out to get you.”
“I get your drift Mars, but I have no visual. Most of my systems are down,” replied Jonesy.
“I’ll take you in, Dad,” added Saturn. “I have you on radar five miles away and 4,000 feet above us.
“Better hurry Saturn, our cockpit is pulling itself apart,” added her mother watching a tiny crack appear in the wall of the cockpit beside her. It slowly cracked forward and disappeared behind the console to be followed by a second one.
“Turn ten degrees to starboard, Dad,” stated Saturn. “You are twenty miles from the cavern, and you are decreasing through 12,000 feet. Your speed is just over 500 knots.”
Jonesy had never landed on an aircraft carrier, but he began to picture trying to land on one. Mars told him the cavern was about 250 feet from the door to the back wall and 300 hundred feet long. On an aircraft carrier, they had systems to stop aircraft, this base didn’t, and he prepared the side thrusters as they glided towards the mountain.