"Katraians," he began, "we fight for our planet and our way of life. All Katraian pilots, obey Major Dubois without question, no matter what you hear between us when the Federation arrives. Your fighters are painted in Alliance colours. You fight for the Alliance until this battle is over. And if we should fail and our plan does not work, you must go with Major Dubois and fight on as members of the Rebel Alliance. Good luck to us all." He cut the link and Erion said,
"That makes us twenty four Wasps and four Tiger Sharks. With the Grennig and the Rising Star, we have a good defence force."
"I'd better get going," said Raan, sliding back his seat."
"I'll take you out," said Starfire.
"Good luck, Raan." Erion raised a hand and Captain Raan, late of the Aurian Marines, threw her a saucy wink. Delta Ten bowed and Hal nodded quickly to him as Raan walked to the hatchway and looked back.
"See you on the other side," he said.
Chapter 22
Starfire soon returned and slid back into the pilot seat. "That's Raan settled into the tow plane. He's out there, waiting in the line with Callon and a couple of others. They've surrounded the fake planet killer with fighters as if they're protecting it."
"Well done. We have to make this look good," stated Erion. "If Rimek suspects a trick, he'll destroy every living thing on Katraia out of meanness.
"We might get a chance to take him out," said Hal, softly.
"Nah," began Starfire, "He'll be right at the back, ready to run."
Hal disengaged his targeting grid and zoomed in, giving him a wide, three dimensional angle of the space around him. Immediately to his left was the little moon, Lumis. It was dirty red in colour and heavily pitted. Heading towards it was Callon Cloud, two Katraians in their appropriated Wasps and Raan, towing the fake Planet Killer. They appeared to shrink slowly in size as they neared the dead asteroid. Behind it, from Hal's point of view, the planet Katraia loomed in space like a massive blue and white wall and took up all the screen with its majestic beauty. Hal moved the scope to the right and the Rising Star came into view. She was almost an exact replica of the Grennig, but was painted matt black and had no brass rivets. Hal zoomed in to see the raised pilot section. It looked like Jed was pilot and little brother Lon was co. Hal just caught sight of Thirty Seven as he leaned forward to adjust something, so he must have been sitting at the navigation post, ready to balance the outputs from the engines. Captain Jakoral was out of sight and Hal assumed that, like him, he would be at the starboard gunnery post. Far behind the Rising Star, from Hal's point of view, the four engine tail glow of Buck's tanker shrank slowly as it headed off to the right, towards the planet Trianon. It was to hide there, just inside communication range, until it was needed again. In between the Grennig and the Rising Star, two ranks of fighters were strung out in a rough line, one above the other. The proximity warning beeped on Hal's console and he zoomed out and brought the targeting grid back into play. The enemy ships were too far away to see with the three dimension imager so they appeared as blips on the grid in front of him.
"They're on my scope, Major," Hal informed Erion and she nodded her head to acknowledge him. Not long now. A little ball of tension sat in her stomach and she took notice of it. She knew from experience that as soon as the action started, she would go into battle, almost on automatic pilot and the tension would heighten her judgement. Now, with nothing for it to do, she had to make a conscious effort to push it to the back of her mind and concentrate on the battle strategy. She was in command of the forthcoming conflict although Jed was higher in rank. His fighting experience stemmed more from running away from customs ships and hiding to protect some precious cargo or other. The Rising Star had seen more than her fair share of fighting, but usually against a few fighters or a Customs Corvette.
"Alliance ships, form into your squadrons and call out," said Erion. Four lines of five Wasp Fighters grouped in front of the Grennig.
"Blue squadron standing by,"
"Yellow squadron standing by,"
"Green squadron standing by,"
"Red squadron standing by,"
As the squadron leaders called out, the fighter tail fins glowed and changed colour to match their squadron. It was one of Con Tranter's ideas and would help Erion in the coming battle.
"Katraian pilots, pick a squadron and join it. Stay with your squadron and try to keep up." Each squadron acquired a Tiger Shark and Erion nodded to herself. Two fighting corvettes and twenty four fighters. She couldn't count the Planet Killer escort, but it should be more than enough, even considering that the Katraians probably had no battle experience. She stood up and walked to the centre of the pilot section. "Del, take Raan's place as co, please." The graceful android slid into Raan's seat at Starfire's left and hovered his hands over the crystals in front of him. "Centre Seat!" she snapped and a silver steel rod rose from the centre of the floor and stopped at head height. A small padded seat flipped down and she backed into it. The stool section tilted down until she was more leaning than sitting on it. "Straps!" she commanded, and two metal straps rose quickly from the seat, snaked over her shoulders and crossed over under her breast bone to click into place and pin her to the revolving shaft. A small bar rose up from the seat and extended to form handlebars, which Erion gripped. "Visor," she said, and a black visor flipped open, swivelled, and stopped in front of Erion's eyes. She adjusted it and pressed a button when she was happy with their position and the black visor extended itself and wrapped around her head to join at the back of the shaft.
"Hal, give me three sixty please," she called, and the gunman nodded and flicked a casual hand over one of his crystals. From Erion's point of view, the Grennig pilot section melted away and a three dimensional map of the space landscape appeared all around her. She placed her hands in front of her to calibrate the images and it looked to the watchers as though she was conducting an imaginary orchestra. After a few seconds, she said, "Right, everything looks good so far. Let's hope this thing doesn't give up half way through." She flicked a finger over the handlebar, cleared her throat and spoke again. "Can everyone see me?" A little holographic Erion appeared in between Starfire and Delta. Starfire nodded and said,
"Grennig, Aye."
"Rising Star, Aye."
"Red leader, Aye," the calls all came in, and even Buck came in with,
"Bloody Tanker, hiding behind a planet, away from all the action, Aye,"
"Thank you, good," stated Erion. She turned her head to the left and she could see the dim engine exhausts of Raan and his group as they travelled to Lumis.
Tranter had managed to patch in the holographic images from the port gunnery cameras, so that Erion could see all round the ship and out into space. She had communication and zoom controls at her fingertips and a simple head movement turned the cameras to give her an all round view. There was a split second delay, which could result in over correction, but she had practised hard in simulated battles with Jed and the Alliance pilots and hoped she would be alright in a real battle.
"Enemy ships will be in striking range in seven minutes," stated Delta Ten, calmly. There was no time for doubts and Erion tried to clear her head because pretty soon, she wouldn't have time to think. She zoomed in her visor vision and Rimek's Battle Cruiser came into view. It was a standard B class Battle Cruiser, much bigger than the Grennig and had more fire power, but it was clumsy and slow to manoeuvre. It was wedge shaped and had a multitude of laser cannons sticking out from every angle that she could see. It was surrounded by little fighters, that buzzed around it like tiny fish, following a whale. Erion zoomed back out again. It was what they expected and it would be here soon enough.
"All ships, change to frequency seventy two point eight," began Erion. "I'll check back in ten." She waited a for a moment and then she spoke again. "Anyone who can't hear me, sing out on the old frequency." Static filled the pilot section and Erion said," Change us over now, Lieutenant." She waited for Starfire to give her the thumbs up.
&n
bsp; "Frequency changed." stated Delta Ten from his post.
"Well, that's it," said Starfire. "The Federation can listen in to us now. You don't think they know we know they know…." She tailed off and shrugged at Hal's baffled glance in her direction."
"According to the data core we took, they cracked this code in our transmissions," explained Erion. "We were going to change it, but we decided not to in case we wanted them to know stuff from our com chatter." Hal pulled a 'not bothered' face and turned back to his gunnery console and Starfire added,
"Of course you would know this if you ever came to any of our tactical sessions." The expression changed to one of annoyance and Starfire smirked.
"Stop it, Star," admonished Erion, who could still hear what was going on in the pilot section, even if she couldn't see it. "Focus." She pressed the com again and spoke to her fleet. "Blue and Red Squadrons, take out as many enemy fighters as you can. Yellow; follow Raan and the Planet Killer and stop any enemy fighters getting through. "Green, you stick with us and take on the fighters with the enemy Battle Cruiser. Pick off any stragglers. We must get the Planet Killer set up down there. Katraia must not fall into the hands of the Federation."
"Squadron leaders!" Rimek's droning voice came through the com. "You have your orders. Quell this miserable little uprising and retake Katraia. Destroy anything in your path."
"Speak of the devil," muttered Starfire. "Here they come!" The fighters on both sides had spread out into a rough double line and hurtled towards each other. Blue and Red squadrons faced their opposite numbers and Yellow squadron set off on an intercept course with Raan and the fake Planet Killer ship. Erion didn't want to take the fight too far away from Trianon, where Buck Callon and his tanker waited in frustration, listening to the battle, so she kept their speed down. The Grennig, the Rising Star and Green squadron headed slowly towards Rimek's battle cruiser, trying not to look as though they were holding back. All the fighters on the Alliance side had been hastily painted in Alliance colours and it was impossible to pick out the Katraian pilots from their better trained counterparts. "All ships, fire when ready," said Erion calmly. In fact it was a Federation fighter that fired the first shot. He was too far out of range and, although he hit his target, the laser bolt was too weak to do any damage and the shot bounced off the fighter's shield and dispersed into space. The Alliance pilot was a veteran of battles like this and took his time. He waited until he was well within range and blasted the Federation ship into a ball of flame, a split second before its pilot could recharge his guns. Space was suddenly full of laser bolts and explosions as the fighters engaged and four ships on both sides blew up and disappeared into little fireworks of molten metal.
"Protect the planet killer," called Erion. "Captain, get that weapon down to Katraia as soon as you can." Erion knew she was repeating herself, but she wanted Rimek to get the message that Katraia was the intended target. Rimek thought he was eavesdropping on their com channels and also thought it gave him the advantage.
"Aye, sir," called Raan. He was half way to Lumis now and the little group of fighters just looked like a dot on Erion's viewer. With Raan in front, towing the ugly little ship, two other pilots on either side of it and Callon Cloud at the back, it looked like the planet killer was being closely guarded as it flew down to the planet.
"Stop the Planet Killer!" Rimek's voice filled the pilot section again. "All ships, break off the attack and destroy the planet killer before it reaches Katraia."
"They fell for it," breathed Erion. "We have to time this just right. Hal, what's the time scale on the real Planet Killer?"
"Twenty or thirty minutes, Major. I can't be more specific."
"Unidentified ships," Raemond's voice suddenly came through on the com. "This is Commander Raemond, speaking for King Lendus of The Katraia High Command. Identify yourselves."
"This is Major Dubois, Raemond. I'm sorry but we have to deploy our last resort."
"You must be crazy!" yelled Raemond. "There are over a hundred million people down here."
"We discussed this option, Commander."
"Yes, but I didn't think you'd actually do it!"
"Amateurs," sighed Erion. "We cannot allow Katraia to be used as a base in this sector. There are billions of other lives at stake. The decision has been made."
"Damn it, you can't destroy a whole planet just to….." Erion cut him off and Rimek's flat metal voice came over the com.
"You are making a grave error, Major Erion Dubois. The weapon you have is not powerful enough to destroy Katraia."
"Just as long as it destroys the capital city, Commissioner; that will serve our purpose."
"We will build elsewhere on the planet."
"You could," Erion smiled, "but eighty percent of the population live in Katraia Prime. You would have to shuttle in a whole new work force whatever happens."
"We would be prepared to do that, Major Dubois," the voice grated on.
"But maybe the weapon will just keep on going under there and make the whole planet unstable," began Erion. "What a waste of time and money that would be."
"You will not be able to launch the weapon. My forces and every hand on Katraia will be against you."
"We're going to have a damn good try, Commissioner Rimek. Grennig out." Erion made a throat cutting gesture and Delta Ten cut the link.
"So far, so good," mused Starfire. "Look, the rest of our fighters are closing in to protect the planet killer. "
"Rimek's sending everything towards it, just like you figured, Major," said Hal, peering into his grid. Erion took a brief second to look towards Lumis and saw that Yellow squadron had reached the slow moving Planet Killer and its escort, and was ready to defend it. They turned to face the oncoming enemy fighters and Erion did a quick count. Rimek had sent eight of his fighters towards the Planet Killer and Yellow squadron, along with Buck and the other two fighters would be more than a match for them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another eight Federation fighters break off and head towards Lumis.
"Green Squadron, break off and intercept approaching fighters," ordered Erion. "Jed, close on my wing and attack that warship. Good luck, everyone." Erion was taking a risk sending two squadrons to cover the Planet Killer. It left the Grennig and the Rising Star unprotected from any fighters that stayed with the Federation Battle Cruiser. She saw the sleek shape of the Rising Star on her Starboard side and then the Grennig jerked slightly with a quick recoil as Hal opened fire on Rimek's Cruiser.
"Full front shields, Del" called Starfire as she throttled back, slightly. With Erion in charge of the battle, Starfire was in command inside the ship and Del, as well as acting as co pilot, was also balancing the output from the engines to shields, thrusters and weapons as Starfire requested.
"Lieutenant, I can fire weapons also," stated Delta Ten. Starfire watched his hands move in a blur across the co pilot crystals and made her decision.
"If you can handle, it Del, go for it. Port guns at your command. Hal, you take care of everything else."
"Okay, Star," called Hal. He flatly refused to use any standard Marine responses but Erion was too busy to notice. Red and blue streaks of fire crossed the black skies and several ships on both sides vanished in silent fireballs of flame. More fighters clustered around the planet killer in an effort to shield it from attack as it made its way towards Katraia.
"Hal, what's the countdown?" called Erion. Hal flicked his eyes away from the battle for a second and read his countdown.
"Fifteen minutes, Major but it could go at any time." The Grennig bucked as it received a hit on its front shields and Hal returned fire on the large carrier in front of them. The Rising Star joined them in the attack and the sky was once again full of iridescent rainbows as the three ships engaged in fierce battle. The Grennig banged again as it received a glancing blow from the Rimek's battleship. Starfire and Jed Cloud, both veteran pilots, were flying around the giant ship, trying to dodge its cannon, while firing upon it themselves. Hal also
was old hand at this sort of fighting and restrained from aiming at the well shielded pilot section or the three engines at the rear. He knew this design well and aimed at the rear hold, just behind amidships, where they stored the ammo. The battleship jumped twice, and Hal guessed that Jed had chosen that target as well.
"Jed," he called, "Keep their fighters off us."
"You got it, Hal," called Jed Cloud. He had no idea what Hal was planning, but he had infinite trust in the cold eyed gunman.
"Starfire, get underneath her, come in from the rear," snapped Hal as the Grennig lurched again as the port shields took a direct hit.
"Okay," called Starfire. Her hands hovered over the glowing coloured crystals in front of her and she moved her fingertips over the bright display and pushed down with her left hand, seemingly in mid air. At the same time she raised her right hand slightly and the crystals, sensing the slight movement, altered the Grennig's course and its left wing dipped. The Grennig turned until it was facing the other way. "Hold on," she shouted and moved her hands slightly back to engage the braking thrusters. The Cruiser flew right past them and Starfire kept pace with it from underneath and behind.
"Forward a bit," called Hal. Starfire increased the Grennig's speed a little and the enemy warship appeared to move towards them.
"That's good," he said, squinting into his firing grid. "Keep her steady."
"There you go, Hal," she called. The gunman grinned, took swift aim and fired twice, from almost point blank range. His first shot took out a shield generator and the second blew a huge hole in the ship's unprotected belly.
"Now!" he snapped, just as his fingers touched the firing crystals. Starfire put the brakes on again and turned hard to port and down as soon as Hal spoke. The battle cruiser was huge, and the Grennig was less than a tenth of its size. It flew overhead like a small, metal town while Starfire attempted to dodge its belly guns. Hal's aim, as usual, was perfect though, and white mist streamed from the hole. "That's their life support systems gone," he explained as the massive cruiser slowed down and they began to leave it behind.
Starfire and The Planet Killer Page 24