The Academy

by Vincent Trigili

For several minutes, we burned at high speed towards them with no obvious action being taken by the pirates. I assumed they were demanding our surrender and waiting for our reply, while our commander stalled to buy as much time as he could. All we needed to do was burn out of the gravity well caused by these larger and much slower ships and recharge our jump drives. Then we could jump away to safety.

  Then I saw energy building on the battleship. “This is Red leader, mark battleship primary weapons power up!” I called on the comm. If they got a shot off while we were flying in such a tight formation, they might very well kill all of us with that one shot.

  “All fighters, break formation, scatter effect!” came the reply.

  I punched the controls on my craft and banked off at a high-speed, 270-degree turn as a beam of energy leaped from the battleship to where we had just been sitting.

  “All wings, scatter, and move. Stay put and you die,” came the call from our commander. “Blue and Green Wings, take out the carrier’s launch bays. Everyone else, be on the watch for fighters.”

  “Red leader, I got drones launching from the battleship,” said Karrith.

  “Roger. Red Wing, move to engage those drones,” I said as I brought my fighter around.

  Soon my wing and I were fully engaged with the drones, which were extremely nimble, light and fast, fully-automated attack craft. They were also extremely cheap, so our cannons cut through them with ease. The big guns on the ships we were fighting would not have the targeting resolution to hit any one of our ships, so they would have to depend on the drones and any fighters the carrier had in order to do combat with us. They were tossing drones at us as fast as they could, far too many for us to take out by picking them off one at a time.

  “Red Wing, we need to kill these guys faster. Get into a tight spiral formation with me, unlock all your cannons, and set them to auto target, maximum repeat, thirty-three percent power,” I said. Since my wing had the unmodified Peregrines we could fly the more typical Peregrine attack patterns, which tended to require being as crazy a pilot as one could be without killing any wing mates.

  It was working. As we passed through the middle of the group we cut a massive swathe of destruction. Even with our cannons pulled back to thirty-three percent power, we were still ripping the cheap drones apart.

  “Excellent work. Red Wing, let’s do that again, but this time increase the spiral radius by about fifteen kilometers so that we cut a wider path,” I said as I brought the wing back through the cloud of drones that was rushing towards our primary cruiser.

  The second pass destroyed most of the remaining drones, but a few that were outside the main group were still headed at full speed towards Mother Goose. While the massive battleship guns were largely ineffective on such a small target, the drones would rip it apart quickly. “Red Wing, break formation and clean up,” I said as I sent them a target order to make sure we got through the remaining drones as quickly as possible.

  “Mother Goose is ready for micro jump. Flight wings, follow once we are clear,” came the call from command. Shortly after that I watched our command cruiser enter jump space and vanish. I knew the engines could not be more than ten or fifteen percent recharged, so they could not have gone any distance. They must have been just escaping the battle.

  My suspicions were confirmed moments later when jump coordinates were sent to my Peregrine, and an order to pull out was sent over the fleet comm.

  “Red Wing, delta formation. We jump together; lock controls to mine. We jump in five,” I said. I gave the countdown and jumped out.

  As we came out the other side, the orders came for all wings to spread out and watch for pursuit, which was unlikely since there was no way for the pirates to guess where we came out, but a wise move nonetheless.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  We cruised on through space attempting to keep a low power profile. It was oddly lonely sitting in the Peregrine out there, without even the comm to keep me company. The deathly silence of space was something I was not used to. I lost all track of time as we slowly cruised through space doing our best not to attract attention until our jump drives were fully recharged.

  After a while the all-clear was given for inter-ship lower power communications, so I called up my wing, “Well done, Red Wing. We ripped through a nice pile of drones, and not a single one got through to Mother Goose.”

  “Thanks, wing leader,” said Karrith.

  “Yeah, it was great to work with someone experienced for a change,” said Ben.

  “For a change? Then you do not see many experienced pilots out here?” I asked.

  “Nope, this route is seen as a proving ground of sorts,” said Ben.

  “Yes, a suicidal one at that,” said Karrith.

  That was not a good omen for my chances to make it to Aleeryon Prime, nor indeed for the stability of this area. If pirates were to be beaten back, it would be necessary for more flights like this one with experienced pilots to start fighting back. If the pickings were not easy, the pirates would move on.

  “Shadow,” Petrith called over the comm.

  “Yes, sir,” I replied.

  “We have a problem, and I am hoping you have a fresh idea,” he said. “In every other trip we have taken we have met only blockades like the one we just ran, and usually only one of those per trip. So, while it has been a bit risky, it was fairly simple for our small flight group to slip through but it appears that has changed. Check your charts; you should see we will be forced out of jump space near a neutron star after our next jump.”

  “I see it: a nice chokepoint for the trade routes,” I said.

  “Aye, and we can fully expect the same pirate group whose blockade we just ran to have ships there waiting for us,” he said.

  “It would only take one drone ship to make things very bad for us,” I said.

  “But as you can see, all the routes go through that star exit,” he said. “So right now we are looking at a potentially bad trip.”

  “I have an idea. Give me a minute to work out the numbers,” I said. I looked over the star charts and performed some jump algorithms by hand, and then said, “I am sending you a new flight path. It will add around a day or so to our flight, but it will keep us out of sensor range of any fleet that is camping out at that star.”

  “Interesting. It looks like you have us flying away at an angle and back again. That would dodge the problem nicely, but I’m not sure if the merchants will go for the delay,” he said.

  “It will also mean that the next blockade, if there is one, will not be expecting us since we never made it through this one,” I said. “I know that time is money and all that, but if we do encounter a blockade that is waiting for us specifically, the trip could very well end at that chokepoint.”

  “True. Well, I will present your idea and see what they say,” he said, closing the comm.

  We continued to travel in silence for a while, and I wondered how that conversation was going. I looked over towards Petrith’s ship and saw a thin, weak power link between him and command. I assumed that it was a lower power communication channel of some kind.

  “Flight group, new route being uploaded,” came a call from command.

  When I checked the route, I saw it was the one I had sent to Petrith and to my surprise it was labeled “Shadow One.” For some reason, I had expected Petrith to take credit for the idea.

  “First jump in ten minutes. All fighters, begin pre-jump preparations,” said command.

  Since it was possible to travel only in straight lines through jump space, I had created a route that basically set an equilateral triangle for the journey. We would head away from the trade route at sixty degrees for one full jump, then turn sixty degrees back and jump back on the route safely past the ambush.

  It was hard to be patient with the amount of time it was taking to get to Aleeryon Prime. I knew that we had to be careful for this plan to work, but every hour that ticked by was anoth
er hour in which Flame was in very real danger. They might decide to do any number of foul things to her while they had her, and we had no guarantee they had not started already.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  My plan had worked and we were safely around the chokepoint. However, the next jump would be a problem, as it would take more than a week to bypass this final chokepoint along the route and it was usually a hotbed of activity.

  “All wings, we are fully expecting trouble as we come out of this jump, so everyone move out to twenty kilometer orbits around Mother Goose and lock in for jump. Once we clear the jump I will send out assignments, but the primary objective is to buy Mother Goose the six hours she needs to jump out to safety, so move immediately to defense as soon as you are able,” was the message from Petrith.

  I watched in wonder the dance of power from the constant flow of communications between the ships in our flight. It was not a great deal of power, but the complexity of the streams and the way they interwove among the ships was a sight to behold.

  “Red Wing, as soon as we clear jump we are likely to be hunting drones so reconfigure your cannons like we did in the last fight, all four unlocked and at reduced power so that we can fire much faster,” I said as I maneuvered my fighter into position.

  “Here we go,” said Petrith as the flight entered jump space.

  When we came out I was suddenly worried that this would be the last time I flew a fighter or anything at all. We landed right in the ambush I was expecting, but it was far worse than we could have imagined. As far as the eye could see there were cruisers, fast attack cutters, drone ships, and fighters.

  “All ships, overload your shields and engines. Pull in tight on the Goose; we are going for a max run!” came our orders.

  I knew that would not work, but the navy officer in me obediently followed orders and pulled in. The idea was that by packing in tightly all attempts to shoot us would be scattered across many different ships. This would give Mother Goose more time to flee, but with this many enemy craft it would be a tiny gain, if any at all.

  “Here they come!” I heard Petrith call out as my tactical alarms started screaming about incoming enemy fire.

  “Petrith, this plan will not work. We need to draw fire away from Mother Goose, not to her!” I replied.

  “I suppose you have a better idea, Shadow?” was his response.

  “Yes, in fact I do. Let me take Red Wing on the offense,” I said.

  There were a few moments of silence as I watched our collective shields continue to heat up from the pounding we were under. If he did not react soon, I might just have had to go renegade. After all, that is what a foolish hero would do.

  “Go, then, and good luck,” he said.

  “Red Wing! We are going on the attack. Break formation and cover me,” I said as I blasted free of our tight formation. Then over the public comm I called out in my best evil-sounding, crazed, lunatic voice, “I am coming for you!”

  As my fighter rushed the enemy line there was a moment when time stood still. I knew what I was about to do was absolutely stupid; I also knew it was the only chance to survive this trap. I did wonder what the pirates were thinking when they saw my little fighter breaking ranks and heading right for them. I hoped they were worried that I had some massive trick up my sleeve because that would cause them to react in fear instead of doing the reasonable thing and continuing their attack on Mother Goose.

  I was looking for softer targets than those in their front lines and spotted them: they were somewhat removed from the battle, but at the speed I was traveling it only took a few moments to reach them. They were support craft where food, medical supplies and the like would be held; ships critical to any large fleet’s ability to survive in space, but usually completely neglected in terms of defense. I picked out what looked like a food ship for my first attack run.

  While keeping my engines on maximum thrust I dove towards the command tower on the vessel and opened fire with all of my cannons. My wing responded by firing their weapons on the same target, though they were struggling to keep up.

  Cursing, Petrith called out, “What are you doing?”

  “The Achilles heel of any major fleet is the support craft. Cut it and the Goose goes free,” I said as I brought my fighters around for a second pass. “Red Wing, throttle back to eighty-five percent, set your cannons to full power, and let’s take this craft down!” I said.

  I powered up my mini bomb launcher, knowing that soon I would need it, but not for this food ship. Our cannons would be enough to rip it to shreds. It did not take long either, as Ben got a lucky shot on what I assume was a fuel store, which caused a massive explosion through the side of the ship.

  “All right!” I called out as I chose the next target, a supply ship that was trying to turn away from us. “Mark new alpha target; cut her to pieces,” I said. I kept up my evil, maniacal comments over the public channels just to keep them on edge as much as possible.

  We made very quick work of that ship also, and it was at that point my plan started to show some success as the pirates pulled off their attack on Mother Goose to come for us.

  “Blue Wing, follow Red Wing’s lead and take out those supply ships. The rest of you, pull out and defend Mother Goose,” said Petrith.

  Excellent; they all had superior firepower and would be much more effective at this move. We only needed to buy time, not actually win this fight, so this plan looked like it just might work. Mother Goose needed at least five more hours at maximum velocity to reach the jump point. All we had to do was draw enough fire to let her get there.

  “Drone ship incoming!” was the call from Karrith.

  “Red Wing, stay tight in on their support craft. They will not risk shooting their own to hit us,” I said. The drone ship would be a major problem. While their fighters and larger ships could not match our maneuvers to safely attack us, the drones could. Looking over the battle I could tell it was hopeless. Once that drone ship was in range, hundreds of drones would be launched, and they would rip us to shreds. Mother Goose was still under heavy fire, and it was just a matter of time before she was destroyed.

  I sighed. Raising Petrith on a private comm channel, I said, “Petrith, we cannot win this. Mother Goose has to surrender.”

  “We do not need to win, just to hold out until she gets away. We can do this!” he said. “You just need to keep pressure on their support craft and off us.”

  “In less than two minutes their drone ship will be in range of our wings out here, and we will all be killed. We lack the firepower to take on this fleet,” I said.

  “Then I will send Gold Wing to take out that drone ship,” he said and forcefully closed the channel.

  I needed a plan to get out of this battle. Petrith would apparently rather die fighting than surrender. I could not accept that, not while Flame was still a prisoner of the sorcerers. As I continued to lead the attack on the support craft, I watched on my tactical display Gold Wing make their run at the drone ship.

  The drone ship saw them coming and started launching its drones, and soon Gold Wing was surrounded by what looked like a large metallic cloud. There must have been over a thousand of them. Gold Wing was eliminated in seconds, and then the drones were sent towards us.

  “Petrith, it is over. Surrender and save whom you can,” I said over the channel.

  Before he could respond a call came out from command: “Mother Goose has been boarded; any fighters that are left, get out of here!”

  “Red Wing, stay with me! Turn off all weapon systems, and divert all the power you can find to your engines. Put the drone ship behind you and burn for the jump point with all you can!” I said to my wing. The Peregrines were the fastest ships in space. Once we got out of weapons range, nothing would be able to catch us. We just had to get there.

  All around me I could see the other fighters breaking free and trying to make the run. Once we cleared the support fleet the pirates could b
egin to shoot again, and shoot they did. I watched my fellow pilots blown away under that pounding, one after another.

  “We aren’t going to make it, are we?” asked Ben as we cleared the fleet into the zone of fire.

  “Some have made it already, and we are faster than the rest of the flight. Crank up your shields and engine thrust as hard as you can push them. Turn off everything else, even life support. This is all-or-nothing time,” I said. “Spread out; do not fly straight. We can regroup once we are out of range.”

  I was sure we were not going to make it through this alive. There was no way out. My tactical display alerted me to the demise of Mother Goose. They appeared to have chosen self-destruction over surrender. What a waste of life.

  My shields began to glow as I started to take fire; not good. No matter how hard I tried I could not break their lock on my shields. It would not be long before they failed and the universe would have one fewer foolish hero.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  “Great work on your test, Michael,” I said.

  “Thanks, Phoenix. I couldn’t have done it without your help,” he replied.

  I was proud of him; he’d really come a long way this year. I think that was partly because of my work with him, which made me happy.

  “So, have you figured out yet what you’re doing with your break?” he asked. “You know it starts tomorrow.”

  “Today, actually. You’re my last task for the semester,” I said. “But yeah, I’m going to check out some of the nearby systems’ restaurants. I hear they got some good barbeque in a small place not far from here,” I said, doing my best to sound excited about the break.

  “It’s always food with you. Don’t you ever stop to think that maybe there might be something else in life?” he said with a big laugh.

  “I’ll tell you what, I’ll think about that over dinner!” I said. I was getting pretty hungry by this point, so it was a reasonable thought.

  After a few more good-natured jabs Michael left, and I was finally able to start working on my plan. The only barbeque I was after was sorcerer barbeque. Flame and Shadow had been gone for over a week now, and no one would tell me anything. For all I knew they were both dead.