Cameron couldn’t answer for a moment.“Sir, you want us to paint unknown targets?”
“That is correct. Ensure all safeties are engaged before moving out.”
“Captain,”Cameron stammered.“Couldn’t that trigger them to attack?”
DeHart mumbled something away from the mic. Cameron could swear he heard the phrase dumb shit Sector flyboys.“They haven’t so much as sniffed in our direction yet. No reason to suspect that they will now.”
“Unless we start bouncing target signals off their hulls. Sir.”
“Long-range sensors can’t get a strong enough signal. If we can’t target them, we can’t hit them. By sending a small squadron to investigate, we hope they’ll realize it isn’t an attack.”
“Hope?”George said, incredulous.“Did he just say hope?”
Valley Forgecontinued.“Your orders are clear. Brief your pilots and move. Valley Forgeout.”
Cameron stared out his cockpit at the distant cruiser, absolutely dumfounded. That Fleet could so casually dispatch SP into a violent collision of unknown warships infuriated him. A Sparrow, piloted by a Fleet scout team, could get in and out without risking fire from the enemy. The Phoenix packed a punch, but the older second-series models were far less maneuverable than the new fighters. And given the acrobatics the unknown vessels seemed capable of, Cameron had every right to feel uneasy.
“Wolf Squadron, this is Wolf one.”Cameron cleared his throat, unhappy with the orders he was about to give out.“We’re going to move in on the unidentified ships in quadrant 41. ROE hasn’t changed, but we are going to paint them with active radar to determine if we’re able to achieve target lock. Once you have acquisition, maintain line-of-sight and try to get some data for the ghosts in the fade.”He referred to the Fleet Analysis of Intelligence Division, known in the armed services as FAID, or colloquially as the Fade. The mystery of what went on in the myriad of onyx buildings around the galaxy led to many conspiracy theories and cheesy thrillers on the Net.
“We’re dividing into Flights, so break into your fighting pairs. Wolf nine, you’re the odd man out, so you’re with George and me.”
“Devil’s threesome,”George said.“I’m in, but my safe word is‘doily.’”
- IV -
Aboard the supercruiser Valley Forge, Commander Sam DeHart paced the bridge. The size of a bedroom, the operation center of the half-mile long ship sat dead center and twenty feet below the top hull. When the first battle cruiser sailed from the International Orbital Ship Yard back in 2101, the bridge sat atop the vessel and gave the officers on the deck a magnificent view of the stars and any action that occurred on their plane of the battlefield. That design choice lasted until the first pebble smashed through the diamond windows, killing the command-and-control structure for the entire ship.
Subsequent models placed the bridge in a safe position, and numerous cameras fed live images to a wall of monitors all around the room. It made for a more impressive view, and a more dynamic one. At any moment, a direction could be called up and viewed with incredible detail, allowing for full 360-degree situational awareness. And, most important, the chain of command would be maintained unless an attack achieved a catastrophic kill.
Captain Fuller, the executive officer, stood near the battlefield projector marking positions on his personal tablet. Though DeHart had a mind for ship-on-ship warfare, Fuller’s specialty remained the big picture. It wouldn’t be long before he commanded a ship of his own—in fact he could have had any vessel of Destroyer class or under already. Yet the allure and prestige of the Cruiser, the last true warship the Fleet possessed, called to him. DeHart would, in short order, fall into a promotion to Commodore, and he could either take a Carrier or a desk. Not that he felt there was much of a difference between the two.
“It’s a dogfight so far,”Fuller said. He watched the graphical display more than the monitors around him. The computer used images from the various cameras to create a three-dimensional model of the battlefield. However, without proper tracking signatures, the smaller craft jumped around erratically whenever they moved beyond the cameras’line of sight. Fuller had placed a white board up next to the display and was taking notes on each ship type by hand.“These two frigates,”he pointed to two floating spheres,“seem to be air-denial. They’re building a wall of shrapnel around that carrier.”
DeHart, from his chair above the main tier of the bridge, watched the action on the monitors.“Both sides have cruisers, why aren’t they engaging?”No one answered. DeHart often posed his thoughts aloud as a part of his mental process. It only took new crew members one time under the commander’s withering stare to know when to respond and when to remain quiet.“It could be our presence is putting them in a defensive posture. They don’t know which side we’d come in on.”
“And if a round from a cruiser misses target and hits us, or one of the civilian stations...”Fuller let the thought die in the air.“It’s not a bad theory, Commander. It could be this is a new form of martial etiquette.”
The CO stared blankly at his second-in-command.“Are you saying this is a British line formation brought into space?”
Fuller laughed.“If I’m the only person thinking it, than lock me up. We don’t have ships that use weapons anywhere near this design. I’m not familiar with all of the Cove’s dirty little secrets, but I think I’d remember catching a glimpse of one of these being built at Colorum.”He pointed to the two unknown battle groups.“These aren’t humans, Sam. They don’t have to think like we do, nor do they have to behave like we’d want them to.”
DeHart bit his thumb. He didn’t want it said aloud. There wasn’t any proof either way, but the evidence stood on its own legs at the moment. No ships like these existed anywhere in Terran space; Or, if they did, they were the best-kept secret in human history. But to take that leap, to say the word“alien,”it was too much.
“Commander, I recommend we pull SP back. If we get in the middle of their intergalactic barroom brawl, we’re dragging ourselves into uncharted water. And it looks pretty deep from here on the shore.”
DeHart nodded.“Pass it out to SP. Recall to former position and hold.”
“Intel is going to be upset you didn’t get a scan.”
The commander sighed.“Right now I’d rather deal with a ghost than a little green goblin.”
* * * * *
Cameron, George and Ensign McLane flew in a tight formation just to the rear of the unknown black fleet. Wolfpack had spread over a line of a thousand kilometers so as to appear less aggressive to the alien ships. Alien—the word had sounded wrong in Cameron’s mouth the first time he’d said it, but he was pressed to find a better description. He’d never visited the colonies before; that trip was a bit out of his budget. Once, while serving as a skycap pilot over Europa, he’d seen strange lights that seemed to chase his Sparrow around the small research station. But those were just vapor wraiths. This was a whole new ballgame.
The dark fighters appeared to have been built with the sole purpose of looking as scary as possible. A three-wing design gave the hull a distinct Y-shape, and the red splotches across the glossy black metal resembled animal markings or war paint. Radar and sensor array spikes popped out at odd angles across the body. Two gray barrels hung under the smaller wings—the main cannons—and fired rapid bursts of red energy at the far-off silver craft. Sound didn’t carry in the vacuum, but the resonation from each salvo echoed inside Cam’s cockpit. George had commented that the engines didn’t seem particularly well-designed, leaking thermal energy in a red stream behind the vessel as it flew.
Up close the missile frigates no longer resembled perfect spheres. Made of six layers of rotating disks, the warships spewed out a steady barrage of heat seekers that locked onto targets and gave chase. The cruisers revealed a secret up close as well: the gargantuan barrel that protruded from the nose and seemed to run the length of the ship. Every few minutes the main gun would fire, rocking the entire ship as the breach
dropped out the rear of the vessel to expel gasses. Flying this close to the giant vessels played havoc with Cameron’s nerves, but he focused on the mission.
Ensign McLane volunteered to be the one to scan the ship. His fighter was relatively old, but had recently received a new port engine. If the active radar caused the aliens to grow hostile, Cameron and George could hold the line while the younger pilot escaped. As the ensign’s Phoenix closed with a solitary Y fighter, George pulled off to his flank to watch for other ships. They hadn’t said a word in twenty minutes, save guidance on flight patterns. When they neared a slow group of alien craft, the silence finally broke.
“This is maybe the second dumbest thing you’ve ever gotten me into,”George said. He was sweating. His arms were stiff from holding the yoke so tight.
“Second?”Cameron looked off at a distant explosion. A silver fighter broke into thousands of pieces as a missile connected. He was lost in the image for a moment. There wasn’t much debris left after the fireball, and no evidence of a pilot trying to punch out.“This is way worse than Angela Hershbach.”
“Angela would have ruined my life, you’re just trying to kill me.”
“First of all,”Cameron began.“Angela was a catch. She had a robust figure, a smile that most members of the species would not find alarming and she could whittle with her feet. Plus you always wanted to grow a mustache, and she was clearly the best teacher.”
George jerked his ship to the side to avoid a fiery chunk of debris.“All good points, but she also smelled exactly like hydraulic fluid. Woman never spent a day in her life around heavy machinery, but every inch of that apartment reeked. I spent a full day digging through her stuff looking for an empty bottle of H12.”
Ensign McLane couldn’t resist getting in.“You spent a day rooting around in some lady’s apartment while she was out?”
“No, McLane.”Cameron suppressed a laugh.“That would have only been sad. George looked through her stuff while she slept on the bed.”
“Hibernated,”George shouted.“It’s how her kind recovers after a session of passionate mating.”All three pilots laughed. George stole a glance off his starboard side and saw Cameron banging the glass of his canopy, tears streaming down his face.“And who was it who introduced me to that Sasquatch?”
Cameron was about to answer when his collision alert sounded. He looked around for a moment but couldn’t see any source of danger in his flight path. He adjusted his height, dropping down two meters. Better to trust the sensors than to run into some unseen debris. His kinetic shielding would protect him from smaller fragments, not chunks of wrecked fighters.“I invited you to a party at a friend’s apartment. You’re the one who got blasted on coolers and ended up neck-deep in mistakes.”
The alien fighters had drawn far away from the main battle, performing some elaborate banking maneuver that seemed excessively slow and deliberate. It took a full thirty seconds before they were pointed in the right direction again. Cameron and his wingmen fell in behind, ready to complete their mission.
An alarm sounded across their comms. McLane’s fighter jerked as the inexperienced pilot panicked for a moment. He regained control, but tripped the toggle on his stick and activated his laser lock. The Phoenix’s active radar projected out and found the nearest object and began creating a firing solution. Laser locks were used when the target had no readable signature, such as an asteroid or chunk of debris or alien spacecraft that refused contact. The L-DAR, even more so than active radar, worked like a tracer round. It almost guaranteed a targeting solution, but drew a gigantic line back to the fighter for the enemy to follow with their own weaponry.
“McLane, you all right?”Cameron’s heart pounded in his chest, but he recognized the alarm as a distance warning rather than a threat detection. They had crossed beyond the range of their supporting vessels and the fighters warned that they should turn back.“We’re working without a net, stay sharp.”
The radio squawked and a female voice came over the net.“This is Valley Forge. All SP fighters are recalled to position. All SP fighters are to return to Fleet position, time now.”
“Seriously?”Cameron stared at his radio, dumbfounded.“Why the hell did you send us out here then?”
George whistled.“Common sense wins out. That’s ten bucks, McLane.”
“We didn’t have a bet going,”the ensign said.
George pulled alongside the ensign’s fighter and shrugged.“I don’t think that’s how it works, but I can understand your confusion. Tell you what, I’m a fair guy. I’ll settle for a beer.”
At once, all three fighters’collision alarms sounded. Cameron looked across their formation, noticing both pilots react as well. Something pulled at his mind, a sudden thought racing through. He looked up and noticed they were flying alone. The alien ships had vanished.
“Contact rear! Disperse!”Cameron jerked his yoke to the right. Jets on the port side of the fighter fired off, propelling the craft away. One nozzle sputtered without effect, slowing the turn. A bolt of red energy grazed Cam’s wing, digging a divot along the underside. A warbling note informed the pilot that his compressor valve was gone. Another two inches and it would have been the whole wing.
George and McLane dodged left and down, avoiding incoming fire as they separated from their wingman. Cameron looked over his shoulder and saw a trio of Y fighters bearing down from their six o’clock position. His stomach lurched. They were all on him.“Valley Forge, this is Wolf one. Under fire, I say again, under fire from enemy fleet.”
- V -
For a moment, it was as if nothing had changed. The two sets of unknown ships continued their ponderous attack, unconcerned with the sudden sortie opening between the black Y fighters and the Terrans. The collective breath was held. As one, the battleships of the black armada turned to face the Terrans, diverting almost three quarters of their force to attack the formerly neutral party. Missiles shot out from the frigates, arcing quickly toward the battle groups. A wall of rockets and projectiles fired in response, and the humans went to war.
The Terran Fleet reacted with practiced precision. Anti-missile batteries filled the sky with flechette rounds to disrupt the incoming warheads. Squadrons of fighters and bombers scrambled from the launch hangars on Midway and Normandy and Terra, rushing out to join the battle. The Valley Forgeand her escort of destroyers fired salvos of tungsten shell from their main guns—six foot slugs of solid metal rocketing out of the barrels toward the enemy ships.
Two waves of fighters crashed together. Red bolts of energy tore into Terran fighters, scoring the hulls with black pockmarks. The humans returned fire, shooting superheated slag into the Y-shaped craft. Plumes of smoke and flame erupted as ships on all sides fell. Slowly, the Fleet pushed the aggressors back into their own battle line. Silver craft from the other side of the fight joined in, peppering the acorn-shaped cruisers with blistering bolts of plasma and salvos of glowing missiles. One alien destroyer took a hit center of the munition bay and exploded violently, sending a wave of concussive energy outward. The scooped hull split into pieces, each trailing debris.
From his position on the moon, Raymond watched what the chaotic frenzy of action. With so many ships moving in so many directions, it was hard to see any order. He recorded every second of the battle. It was the only way he knew to help. Every screen in the building flickered to life, each displaying a different angle.
Above him, the fight raged on.
* * * * *
“Lock on target.”
“Get him off me!”
“Stay still, I’ve got you.”Cameron blinked a droplet of sweat away from his eye. In zero gravity, moisture built up and hung around until it had enough density to move out on its own. At fighting speed, however, it ran like a river from the pilot’s nose to the back of his head.
“Shit, I’m hit!”McLane’s fighter jerked to the side, spewing smoke and sparks.“Port side wing is hit.”
Cameron let his speed drop, sliding his Ph
oenix behind the Y fighter trailing his wingman. When the laser lock found the target, he loosed a single missile. The ten-pound Harpy Medium Range Ship-to-Ship Missile tore through space and pierced the alien craft beneath the engine. The Y fighter burst into three flaming chunks, spewing a nebulae of red fuel. Cameron drove through the debris, pinwheeling to knock loose bits of slag.“At least they go down easy.”
“Like a Luna girl.”George opened on the fighters with his twin Kraken gauss cannons. Compressed tungsten ripped into a fleeing vessel, rupturing the ammunition beneath the cockpit. Its back blew out and the ship drifted away, gutted and dead. The enemy destroyed, Cameron and George led their crippled wingman toward their own front. McLane’s Phoenix was chewed up but still flying. Every few seconds a pinch of fuel would hit the burning wing and flash out, rocking the entire body. George dropped back to watch for more aliens, but they seemed to have turned attention on the larger frigates and destroyers.
“How are you holding up,”George said over the net.
McLane checked his instruments.“It’ll keep, I hope. I lost port jets completely, so no right turns until we get back.”He chuckled.“Chief’s gonna take this one out of my ass.”
George scoffed.“How many birds have you lost?”
“Lost? None. I’ve broken three.”
“Pittance,”George said.“Lieutenant Davis over there, war hero that he is, has totaled seven of Sector’s decaying fleet.”
McLane seemed shocked. Cameron was flying alongside and could see the expression register on the young man’s face.“What the hell are you doing to them?”
“Riding‘em hard, and putting‘em away wet.”Cameron grinned. It was something his dad always said, though he only had a vague idea what it meant. He struggled to catch his breath and calm his racing heart. He hoped his wingmen didn’t hear the staccato in his voice.“I’m just stress-testing the girl so I know she can handle what I gots to give.”He bit down on his water line so hard his jaw hurt.
When the Stars Fade (The Gray Wars) Page 5