by Jay Toney
Atmosphere leaked out of the damaged hull from damaged sections on decks three, four, and five. The leakage is restricted to only a few bulkhead sections. Emergency bulkhead hatches were already closed and locked in place to isolate damaged sections.
Natasha cut the forward thrusters and then fired the main engines at full power. She locked onto the two destroyers and launched another salvo of missiles. The gunners joined the attack firing the ships particle beam weapons. Beams of energy burned away at the destroyer's shields, weakening them.
The destroyers fired back launching four more missiles and engaging the Queen Anne's Revenge with their energy weapons. The shields absorbed the energy from the guns but weakened. A loud bang and violent jolt shook the starship. "What in the hell was that? It wasn't a missile detonation," Doc said.
Jadsia replayed her sensor scans and slowed them down in an attempt to determine what hit the ship. "I think we were hit by a gun turret," she told Doc.
One of the destroyers was hit in the forward section by the Queen Anne's Revenge's missiles. The other warship took two missile hits, forward and amidships. Both Alliance ships continued fighting. This time they are only able to launch three rockets at Doc's cruiser.
The Queen Anne's Revenge diverted the four missiles fired at it from the Alliance destroyers and concentrated on the next three rockets. Natasha rotated the ship on its yaw axis and fired another full salvo of missiles as they passed by the destroyers. Doc targeted the Vigilant with his starship's main guns. Its weaker energy shields and other damage made it more susceptible to damage from the Queenie's energy weapons. Green lances of energy struck the ship burning through the destroyer's armor and hull plating. A large gash opened in the ships hull. Atmosphere escaped with explosive decompression, and the warship spun out of control. Moments later escape pods and lifeboats launched and ejected from the damaged warship.
The Queen Anne's Revenge engaged the incoming missiles with its PDC. Two of the rockets are destroyed. The last missile struck aft damaging two of the main engines and the engineering section. The hull integrity is compromised, but it held together without decompressing.
Natasha centered the target reticle on the Triumphant. Doc fired again and held the firing stud down until the weapons burned through the destroyer. The main guns overheated and several warning lights lit identifying critical malfunctions with the main guns. He couldn't fire them again until the damage is repaired; he didn't need to. The destroyer lost power and went dark. Its engines died, and the ship drifted away. Minutes later, escape pods and lifeboats left the disabled starship.
Doc isn't worried about the escape pods or the lifeboats. The people in them have nowhere to go other than Antares prime. The Antares military will deal with them, but first, he had to find out what is happening on his planet. He already knew that the Alliance took over the government located in the capital city. Doc already took care of the destroyers in orbit so there wouldn't be much of a force left on the planet. The Alliance ruled using the fear of their warships to control the local government.
"Recall the Nighthawks and launch the Reaper Squadron," Doc ordered Devon. The Reapers launched, led by his son, Nathaniel and the Nighthawks started landing so that the starfighters could be rearmed.
****
Nathaniel retracted the stub wings of his Marauder and advanced the starfighters throttles. He dove towards the planet's surface. The dozen other pilots followed his lead. Nathaniel locked the starports coordinates into the navigation computer but hardly paid it any attention. He knew where he is and where he needs to get to, that is good enough for him.
The nose of his Marauder glowed red during his descent. Then flames covered the cockpit canopy. His ship began to shake as the atmosphere thickened. The friction from the atmosphere slowed his starfighter from hypersonic speeds to supersonic. His view of the ground cleared.
Nathaniel changed his course to bring his Marauder over the valley where the capital city and spaceport are located. Anti-aircraft missiles launched towards him and the rest of the squadron. He activated his ships ECM and began weaving to make it harder for ground-based missiles to lock onto his starfighter.
Nathaniel wanted to get to the ground fast. He pushed the ships throttles further forward and increased his dive angle until he is in a vertical dive. Velocity maximum warnings sounded. He silenced the alarms. Nathaniel isn't worried about the possibility of shearing his fighter's stub wings off. They are retracted; if they sheared off, there is little he could do about it. The rest of the squadron fell behind making a much more sensible approach.
Nathaniel didn't pull out of the dive until his ship's radar altimeter showed that his altitude is below 1500 feet AGL. The starfighter groaned, and Nathaniel thought he heard a cracking sound, but according to the Marauders sensors, his ship is undamaged. He extended the starfighters wings for better stability in the low altitude he is flying at.
The Marauder's target acquisition computer locked onto the first target, a weapon turret. Guns from the tower locked onto Nathaniel's starfighter and fired. Nathaniel spun his ship to avoid the gunfire and launched a pair of missiles. He banked his Marauder, and turned away from the tower, confident that his missiles would hit their target. He isn't disappointed. He watched the explosions on his starfighters rear-view monitor and watched the tower crumble to the ground.
Nathaniel banked his ship and turned again heading towards his next target, another weapon tower. He locked onto the tower and fired another missile. Then he pulled back onto the controls, and his Marauder climbed in a near vertical climb. Nathaniel pulled back on the throttles and let his starfighter stall. Then he fired the port thruster to cause the ship to nose over into a dive.
The Marauders target acquisition computer locked onto another target, this time it is a gunship. Nathaniel glanced at his SDU. None of the other starfighters from his squadron are nearby. He thought, they better hurry before I took care of the enemy and have all of the fun to myself.
His ship is too close to the gunship to get a missile lock. Instead of switching to the starfighters internal 40mm cannon or its particle beam cannons, he fired the missile. He thought he was too close to miss. He flew past the gunship and selected the next target and turned towards another weapon tower.
The missile missed, and the gunship got airborne. It accelerated towards the lone Marauder. It followed Nathaniel's movements and got close enough to the starfighter for its gunners to fire. All three gun turrets locked onto the Marauder and fired.
Nathaniel learned from his mistake, but it was too late. His Marauder is riddled with holes. Its hull is breached in too many locations to patch. He lost one engine, and the spaceship's lateral controls. He couldn't outmaneuver the gunship with the damage done to his ship, nor could he outrun it with only one engine. He pulled into a climb and hoped that the gunship would break away from him.
Another series of projectiles hit his starfighter, damaging its controls and shearing off its starboard wing. Nathaniel's Marauder burst into flames. He had only two choices, either he had to eject, or he needed to get higher into the atmosphere where the air is a lot thinner. He advanced the Marauders throttles, black smoke poured out of the starboard engine. The port engine strained to keep the starfighter climbing.
A black shape ahead, another spacecraft, dove towards his ship firing its guns. Nathaniel is sure that he is dead. The gunship pursuing him exploded. A female voice filled his helmet, "You are all clear kid, now get out of here." Nathaniel recognized that voice. It belongs to Angel.
The Marauder climbed higher, and the flames died down and finally extinguished altogether. Multiple warning lights flashed for Nathaniel's attention. He tried resetting blown circuits to regain control. It didn't help. His starfighter is left without lateral controls and damaged pitch controls that bar
ely function.
Nathaniel ignored the eject light that flashed brightly in his eyes. He heard enough horror stories about people ejecting that he didn't want to experience it for himself. The warning lights are both distracting and blinding in the dark cockpit.
Nathaniel used what was left of the pitch controls, and the yaw controls to line up with the Queen Anne's Revenge's open hangar. Landing should still be easy enough. All he had to do is line up with the opening, cut the Marauder's throttles, and coast into the shuttle bay.
It didn't work that way. The throttle for the starboard engine is stuck at full throttle. He is going too fast to engage the barrier, and couldn't slow down. All he could do was cut off the fuel supply to the engine and hope for the best.
Doc's voice filled his helmet, "Damn you! Eject! That is an order."
There was no way in hell that Nathaniel is going to eject if he had even a slight chance of surviving the crash. "Sorry pops, I can't eject. I can still land, but it is going to be ugly." Nathaniel turned off the comms before his father could respond. He is close, he only needed his luck to hold out for a few more seconds to land.
Nathaniel tried lowering the Marauder's landing gear. It was a mistake. He should have bellied in. Instead of the landing skids lowering into place, the port thruster fired causing his ship to spin out of control. "Crap! Crap! Crap!" was all that Nathaniel had time to get out before his Marauder hit the deck. Darkness took Nathaniel. His last conscious thought was about how pissed his father is going to be at him.
Return To The Alliance
Nathaniel didn't want to open his eyes, but he did it anyway. Then he rapidly closed them. The sight of his father staring down at him in addition to a pounding headache, that he suddenly realizes that he has, is too much for him. Apparently, he survived the crash. That, or, he is in hell suffering for all of the wrong deeds that he committed.
"I know that you are awake. Open your eyes," Doc said to his son.
Now, Nathaniel wished that he didn't survive the crash. His father is going to make him regret not ejecting when he was ordered to do so. Maybe he should have listened to him and taken the chance at being rescued in time, but he was too afraid of not being saved before his air ran out. At least, if he lived, he would have a chance at surviving whatever torment his father has planned for him. Doc is either going to kill him for disobeying his orders or worse, he is going to make him wish that he died. Nathaniel reluctantly opened his eyes. His father is still here. "How long?" he asked his father.
"Two days. You had everyone worried. Why didn't you eject?" Doc asked his son.
It is worse than Nathaniel thought. He is mentally prepared for the yelling that he is sure that is going to follow his return to consciousness. He isn't ready for near silence. Either he is dreaming, or this is an imposter staring down at him.
Nathaniel experimented by flexing his arms and legs. They worked, and nothing seemed to be broken. Two days isn't long enough for tissue regeneration or for fractured bones to mend, even with nanite treatments. His starfighter must have stayed relatively intact after crashing.
His father seemed to know what his son is thinking and said, "You made quite a mess of the shuttle bay. It is going to take weeks to repair all of the damage. You were lucky to survive the crash."
Nathaniel didn't feel lucky. His father is still standing next to him, looking down at him. He isn't going to let him off the hook easy this time.
Doc placed his son's flight helmet on his chest where Nathaniel couldn't avoid seeing it. "You made some serious mistakes. What were they?" his father asked his son.
Nathaniel is sure that his father was talking about not ejecting, but he isn't going to give up that easily and admit it. He answered, "I missed the gunship. It got behind me and shot my Marauder up." Nathaniel responded truthfully.
"Wrong! Two people disobeyed my orders! Both of them ought to be grounded for at least a year. I am still considering talking to General Sherman about temporarily employing one of them. Then I can demote Angel back to being the Squadron Commander for her disobedience. She was supposed to return to the Queen Anne's Revenge and rearm her Marauder. Instead, she followed you down to protect you. She was worried that you might screw up, and rightfully so. If she didn't, you would be dead," Doc told Nathaniel.
"When I get out of here, I will thank her for shooting down the gunship." Nathaniel looked around his suroundings before asking, "Where am I and when can I get out of here?"
"You are in sickbay." That explained why Nathaniel took an immediate dislike to the room that he is in. Doc could see his son's dislike on his face. He didn't have to guess what Nathaniel is thinking. He already knew his son hated visiting the infirmary. "Get used to it. This is your new home for a while," Doc told his son.
"For how long?" Nathaniel asked.
"For as long as it takes for you to learn what it is that you did wrong," Doc answered Nathaniel's question. "I hope that you are ready. We have the holosimulator booked every morning for the next month, longer if need be. Let's go."
Nathaniel tried standing and fell. His limbs felt weak. Worse, when he attempted to stand, he immediately got lightheaded, dizzy, and nauseated. Dr. Marcus rolled a wheelchair to Nathaniel and helped him into it. "I can't fly like this. Hell, I can't even walk," Nathaniel told his father.
"You don't need to be able to stand and walk to use the starfighters foot controls." Doc wheeled his son out of sickbay to the holographic simulation rooms. When they got there, the simulation is already waiting for them to enter the chamber. Doc helped his son into the simulated Marauder. Then he left him to board a second simulated Marauder waiting next to Nathaniel's starfighter.
"Natasha, take it easy on me, or I am going to get sick," Nathaniel pleaded with the starship's AI.
"Doc has prepared for that possibility, there is a bucket, filled with a cleaning solution, and a sponge next to the chamber's exit. Guess who will be cleaning up the mess if you get sick? I'll give you a hint to help figure out who the lucky person will be. It won't be Doc or me," Natasha responded.
Doc is madder than Nathaniel imagined. His father is personally taking the time out of his busy schedule to torture him by following him in the simulation in another Marauder. If he is lucky, his father will have mercy on him and shoot him down, but he doubted he would be that lucky.
The simulation placed Nathaniel and his father in orbit around Antares, replaying his last mission. The simulation is only partially intended for training to make sure that Nathaniel didn't miss the gunship again, and he didn't. Nathaniel destroyed the gunship every time they flew the mission. The training sessions were to get his son to eject, which he didn't, but he got very good at crash landing his Marauder. Nathaniel managed to land his Marauder in one piece no matter what malfunctions his father made him experience. After two weeks his father stopped making Nathaniel fly the combat simulation and cleaning the messes that he frequently left during the simulation. He was finally allowed to return to his cabin after 10 days.
The Queen Anne's Revenge has extensive battle damage that needs to be repaired before they leave the Antares system. Repair pods and mechanics swarmed around the ship removing and replacing damaged armor, and hull plating. The starship will be in orbit undergoing repairs for at least the next three months.
Doc, Jane, and Nathaniel took a shuttlecraft down to the spaceport they just fought to free from the Alliance. The government of Antares and its people are still demolishing the last remnants of the military complex that the Alliance built adjacent to the spaceport. After landing, they went their separate ways.
Doc and Jane typically went separate ways on their shore leaves. This time they planned on spending their vacation together. Nathaniel suspected that he knew why they frequently spent their n
ights together. He didn't have a clue until he and Natasha's avatar became intimate and shared his bed.
Nathaniel heard stories from the other pilots in his squadron about the women they hooked up with during sleepovers. He is sure that the female pilots had their share of men too, but they didn't talk about it, at least not with him. Nathaniel decided that he had enough experience having sex with the avatar that he wouldn't make a fool out of himself in bed with the local women. He sought out a bar, Frenchies that the older pilots frequently mentioned in their stories. All he had to do was follow the older pilots and look like he belonged with them. They led him straight to the bar. The other pilots were greeted by local women who knew them by name. There was no one at Frenchies to welcome Nathaniel. This is his first visit to the tavern.
Nathaniel walked up to the counter and took a seat on an empty stool. Then he ordered a beer and slowly sipped the golden drink. Nathaniel turned around on the stool to look around the bar. For the time of day, it is busy. It isn't even midday yet. While his attention is elsewhere, a young lady walked up to Nathaniel. "Are you waiting for someone special? If not, may I join you?"
Nathaniel is startled and nearly jumped off of his seat. The young lady grabbed his shoulders to help steady him. She gave a little laugh and then introduced herself. "My name is Loretta. I am sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"I am Nathaniel. I am a starfighter pilot from the Queen Anne's Revenge," Nathaniel introduced himself.
"You must be Doc Robert's son. I've heard a lot about you," Loretta said to Nathaniel.
"I am." Nathaniel looked at the young lady committing her every feature to memory. She is beautiful. The young lady talking to him is a little older than Nathaniel, perhaps 18 or 19 Terran standard years. She has light brown hair, brown eyes, and curves in all of the right places. "Excuse me, but none of the other pilots mentioned that there is anyone as beautiful as you are here or I would have come sooner," Nathaniel gave his best and only pick up line to the young lady seated next to him.