by SF Edwards
The locking diamond closed on his HUD. His arm muscles shuddered when the lock tone sounded in his ears. He huffed out a breath, flipped up the cover on the missile launch button, and crushed the launch button.
Blazer’s eyes went wide. The attacker got off three of his own missiles in rapid succession. The three simulated rounds slammed into the unshielded freighter. A message that the ship was killed lit his screen as it tumbled out of formation. That was my freighter to protect. I let down my charge, when I swore I would never let something like that happen again. He wasn’t sure who to be angrier with; the Explosions pilot who killed it, Zithe for ordering him away or at himself for following the order.
Blazer eyed the fighter--it jumped to avoid his missiles. Blazer wet his lips in anticipation. His target avoided the first missile but the maneuver killed most of his momentum. Blazer smiled when the second missile exploded over the fighter, killing its shields. That was all he needed and Blazer tickled his afterburner again before opening up with full guns. He didn’t even cheer when the "kill” lit his screen. Instead, he turned his attention back to the battle at hand.
The carnage left Blazer with a sick stomach before his screen flashed the words “ENGAGEMENT COMPLETE.” Arion’s fighter hung dead in space as did Bichard’s, Rudjick’s and Datt’s. Freighter Delt rolled helpless behind them with misfiring maneuvering jets lighting up the darkness. Freighter Char read over seventy percent damage and Freighter Brave was twenty percent disabled. Only the first transport escaped unscathed. Most of the Explosion’s fighters drifted in silence, disabled. Three managed to escape by retreating towards the asteroid shell, Zithe still in pursuit.
Blazer breathed a calming breath and scanned the disabled craft again to make sure no one had actually taken damage in the engagement. “Eight, Four. What’s your status?” he called out to Arion.
Arion let out a heavy sigh in reply. “I'm disabled and the other guy is bugging out.”
“Damn it!” Blazer said. “This was wrong!”
Temblin watched from the small window on Blazer’s display, shaking his head, a mirror to Blazer’s frustration.
Joda came over the link a moment later, his helmeted face filling the screen. “All Monstero Nach Fighters, enable command has been sent. Assume escort formation around the freighters and refuel.”
Blazer bit his lip in frustration. We shouldn’t have lost so many fighters or allowed the freighters to take such damage. Blazer formed up with his element around Freighter Delt. In addition to serving as the targets for the exercise, the freighters also served as refueling tankers.
Blazer wished he could rub his eyes when a docking claw pulled his fighter in close. Seri’s face appeared on his screen. “Blade Force Flight, Lead. Blade Four will take the command in the next engagement. Let’s see how Blazer fares.”
Blazer gave a double click in reply. Sweaty and jittery from the first engagement, he did not want to lead them on the offensive.
UCSBA-13, Asteroid Shell Zone 3, Monstero Nach 04
Blazer’s pulse pounded as the end of the hect neared and the freighters appeared on his thermal scan. He eyed the passive sensors. The transports glided through space towards them. His own fighter’s systems on standby to minimize his thermal output, he hung on the back of a metallic asteroid less than a kilometra from the inner boundary of the shell.
A glint of light caught his eye. He looked over and spotted Arion holding up his macomm. Blazer picked up his as well. Arion’s macomm beamed a message to him over a tight beam laser that the enemy wouldn’t detect.
“Freighters are coming into range. Waiting on you to give us the word,” Seri and Gavit signed the message to show that their elements were ready as well. Arion just acted as a relay.
Blazer sighed and tuned back to his sensors. Powered down the way they were he couldn’t confer with the others to decide when to attack. It’s all on me.
He studied the heat blips. The four largest were clearly the freighters. The Explosions arrayed themselves with the bulk of their escorts between the transports and the shell. Blazer smiled at that. They aren’t watching the asteroids that have drifted inward from the shell.
A series of sensor pulses lit up Blazer’s receivers. He timed them and spotting the pattern activated his low -powered link antenna. Powering up all his systems too soon would reveal the attack to the Explosions. “All units, lead. Wait until the freighters reach this point; then power up and attack. Element Two, wait five pulses before initiating your attack run.” Blazer had no choice but to send his orders over the radio. Otherwise, Zithe and his fighters would never have received it.
Text based affirmative replies poured in over the low frequency data link after the next sensor pulse and everyone continued to wait.
Blazer’s mouth grew dry. He watched the freighters enter the kill zone.
“All Elements, lead. Engage per orders,” Blazer called. He had to be sure that Zithe wouldn’t emerge from behind his carbonaceous asteroid fifty kimets in and attack too soon.
He hit his emergency system restart key. The crystallic fusion power core sprang to life and the plasma rockets roared, throwing Blazer back in his seat. He kicked his fighter around and raced through the smaller rocks and ice chunks of the asteroid shell before exploding out ahead of the freighters.
He swallowed hard and looked at the scene ahead of him. The Explosions reacted quickly to them as two elements rushed up to meet him. He lined up on the lead fighter before Seri and Gavit’s elements raced out of the asteroid shell. Gavit’s element emerged right in the middle of the freighters, Seri’s below Freighter Delt. The Blade Force engaged the defenders, the element providing core-side cover flitting around to engage as well.
Blazer smiled. Gotcha! Gavit’s element dove into the heart of the defenders. They took out two of the Explosions in their first pass before Blazer and his wingmen came into gun range of the lead element. Blazer danced about with the leader and the pair exchanged fire. Lightning played over Blazer’s shields, blinding him. Just as his shields were beginning to fail, Blazer peeled off with a single blast glancing off his wing. Arion finished the job, leaving Trevis to drift through space. Gokhead was not so lucky. Two other fighters engaged him, disabling his fighter before he even reached the freighters.
Damn, but I knew we wouldn’t come out of this clean. He triggered his surprise. “Element Two, lead. Attack! Attack! Attack!” he ordered and vectored around towards the lead freighter. “Eight, cover me. I’m making my run,” Blazer ordered. Throwing additional power into his shields to restore them, he raced towards the lead transport.
“Three, this is Seven. I think I found my dance partners from the last engagement. I could use some help!” Deniv called out, two fighters engaging him at once.
“I have your rear, Seven,” Chris called out and dove into the fray as another element ganged up on the three dogfighters.
Blazer’s pulse quickened. It was all going to plan, with element three drawing away the bulk of the enemy forces.
“We’ll assist in a moment, Seven,” Blazer called out.
The tone of a missile locked echoed in his ears and he fired off a pair of missiles on the lead freighter.
“Eight, give that freighter a kiss and then let’s help out the others.”
Arion’s double click answered before he fired off his own missiles and they vectored towards the fur ball forming in the middle of the freighter formation.
“Freighter Alph is down,” Zithe’s called over the link a moment later.
“Freighter Brave is down to fifty percent,” Rudjick echoed.
“Scratch that. It’s down!” Datt hooted.
“Copy that. Move onto the next one. We have things under control down here,” Blazer ordered with a hunter’s grin.
“Damn! I’m out,” Deniv reported. “I guess they really wanted to hammer me after last time.”
“Five is out too,” Treb responded.
“Got one of ‘em for you Seven, oh Crat!�
� Chris called out. She managed to splash one Explosion’s fighter and flew right into a hail of fire from another. “I’m out.”
“Element Two moving to assist,” Zithe yelled out.
“Negative, Two. Press the attack,” Blazer barked. He unleashed a killing volley into another Explosions fighter.
“Lead, One. Recommend a tactical withdrawal and have Element Two cover our retreat.”
Blazer checked his sensors. They had done a lot of damage to the convoy and the Explosions already and had taken a heavy beating in the process. “Copy that. All units fall back to the asteroid shell. Element Two cover us,” Blazer ordered and vectored his fighter about towards the asteroid field.
Blazer had to save as many of his people as possible. He could almost feel Arion hot on his tail as Seri and Bichard followed. Checking his sensors his stomach fell away. Gavit hung back to cover them.
“Three, I ordered you to retreat.”
“Copy that lead. Just let me… Got ’em! On my way,” Gavit responded after he splashed the fighter that disabled Chris.
“Oh, Shreg!” Rudjick called out. Masked by the mass of the freighter, he came around to find two of the Explosions coming towards him. Their guns blazed away at him. “I’m done,” he called out as his shields collapsed under the barrage.
Blazer checked his sensors. That left the Blade Force with six fighters still operational. They had done some major damage to the enemy. Only a few of the Explosions’ fighters remained. If they went back now they had a chance to finish them all off. Blazer looked over his own forces. They were battered but he was confident they could make another go of it. “All Unit Leads…”
“All Units, Monstero Nach Zero Zero. Exercise is terminated. Return to base,” Joda commanded.
UCSBA-13, Briefing Room 3
Blazer collapsed into his seat in the briefing room a little over a hect later. Sucking at a bottle of electrolyte juice, he looked around the room at the others. Most did the same, the supplies in their suits long since exhausted. He felt good about the mission and actually looked forward to the debriefing.
“Squadron leader, take your seat,” Joda commented as he took his place behind the podium.
Seri said nothing and sat down in the front row.
“We will start with the Blade Force’s defensive engagement. I will debrief the Explosions later. In the defensive engagement, you lost Freighter Delt to enemy fire. Char lost seventy percent of its cargo and Brave ten percent. Overall, you lost forty-five percent of the cargo you were tasked with defending. That is an unacceptable loss. This being your first such engagement though it is not a surprise. It must be improved upon.
“During the attack phase you fared better. You successfully destroyed Freighters Alph and Brave. Damage to Freighter Char would have resulted in an explosive decompression that destroyed half its cargo. This is an excellent result and can only be improved upon.”
Blazer couldn’t help but smile at that news.
“However, the lack of communications discipline and defiance of orders needs to stop!” Joda roared in disgust.
Blazer shrunk under the hard stare Joda fixed him with before he turned his attention to Zithe.
“The damages you suffered are a direct result of the breakdown in your command structure. Pull that same garbage in a real engagement; we might not even be able to grapple your corpses home.”
Blazer kept quiet. He had done a competent job on their attack but had lost half the squad before he ordered their retreat.
“Had Blazer and his element followed my orders properly then we would have taken out the element that came at us from behind,” Zithe retorted as Joda paused to open his flight suit and let cool air in. “Then we would have had plenty of time to engage and successfully destroy the rest of the attackers.”
Blazer had had enough of that. Even in the lift tubes down from the hangar, he could hear Zithe complain and blame Blazer for every fault. “How do you figure that?” Blazer asked. “That element was a decoy and had I followed orders it would have left two transports completely undefended.”
Joda shot Blazer a questioning look and brought up a holographic mission replay. “Explain?”
“Element Three has our three strongest pilots and he sent them off on a snipe hunt that turned out be another decoy.”
“So then who would you have sent?” Zithe shot back.
“I wouldn’t have sent anyone. It exposed us and left Freighter Char without its escort.”
“That was the plan. Use Char as bait to draw the enemy in. Then the rest of us would pounce.”
Blazer shook his head. “No! You never expose any escort without giving it additional coverage.”
“Cadet Zithe, your plan had a certain logic to it,” Joda replied and Blazer couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “However, there was a significant flaw.”
Zithe’s gaze turned wrathful on Joda. “What flaw?”
“You knew the Explosions would be attacking from the shell. Knowing that, you should have hidden the escorts for Freighter’s Char and Brave in their mass shadows to make them appear undefended. That way the remaining fighters covering Freighters Alph and Delt could engage without crossfire.
“And, before you say anything, Cadet Vaughnt is right. The fighters that came from behind were a decoy intended to pull more of your fighters away and leave two freighters exposed.”
Blazer didn’t even realize he was smiling as he listened, Joda pointing out every flaw that even he saw in the plan.
“What about you, Blazer? What mistakes did you make?” Seri asked.
Blazer considered that. I’m not blameless here. “Well for one, I should have stayed with Deniv and given him cover.”
“As hard as this might be to hear,” Joda interrupted giving Deniv an apologetic nod. “It would have been better to sacrifice Cadet Deniv after you took out that element’s lead fighter. Had you returned at that moment, you might have been able to save Freighter Delt.”
Deep down Blazer knew that he was right. It just sat wrong with him to leave a comrade behind. Worse, he never hesitated to make that exact decision in the simulators. He allowed his personal feelings to intrude on his decision-making and that would get people killed. Personal experience taught him that already.
“Attacking the lead freighter the way we did was a mistake,” Zithe commented. “We should have attacked en-masse.”
“How would you have done it?” Seri asked.
“Like any smart pack. I would send out a scout element to watch over the target and act as a decoy to draw the defenders away. Then I would have the rest attack from the rear to eliminate the rear freighter and work our way forward.”
Joda nodded in understanding. “That could work, but do you really think that the Explosions would fall for a decoy ruse like they’d just used? No. Cadet Vaughnt’s plan made the most sense. Attacking from four different vectors worked well. Elements One, Three, and Four attacking from different vectors out of the asteroid shell allowed your element to attack unmolested from coreward.
“That gave you an exposed backside to those freighters while the rest of their forces were engaged. You took out two of their freighters before they knew what hit them. Then the other two had to vector around the dead craft, causing even more confusion. You would have done even more damage if I hadn’t ordered the exercise over.”
“But we lost six fighters in the process,” Zithe bit back.
“And that is something that we’ll have to work on,” Seri replied.
“And then we ran away with our tails between our legs.”
Blazer had had enough of Zithe’s attacks. “We were regrouping for another attack,” he shot back. “Had Joda not called off the exercise, I was getting ready to reform the unit into two new elements and press the attack. They were disorganized and without a clear leader. If we reformed fast enough we could have taken them all out.”
“I see no problem with that. There is a lot of logic behind that simple strateg
y.” Zithe conceded, emphasizing the word “simple”. “But we won’t always have the asteroid shell to hide in.”
“You are both right and you are both wrong,” Joda interjected. “But right now you are once again demonstrating the issues with unit cohesion I addressed earlier. I have to go debrief the Explosions so you are dismissed. Squadron Leader Amare, please come with me.”
Blazer hung back as the rest of the team filed out of the briefing room and pulled Zithe aside. “I didn’t want to disobey your commands out there, Zithe.”
“Then why did you?”
“I was placed in charge of Element Four and I had to make sure that my responsibilities were covered.”
Zithe thought about that for a moment and scowled. “I allowed my bloodlust to cloud my judgment.”
“I’m surprised to hear you say that. Look, Zithe, I…”
Zithe held up a hand to stop him. “I won’t say this twice. Seri made a mistake. You were better suited to lead the defensive mission. Had I led the attack we would have taken out all four of the freighters.”
Blazer shook his head and scoffed at Zithe’s confidence. “Don’t downplay how well we did.”
“I am an attacker, not a defender. Had you been in charge of the defense we might have,” he stopped for a moment and took a breath, visibly uncomfortable. “We might have had fewer losses.”
“I think you might be a little overconfident there, Zithe.”
“We must be confident. If we doubt ourselves, we fail.”
Blazer sighed. “We can’t have leaders who only know one attack or defense. Look, I’ve watched the holos of your games back home. You were always on the attack, constantly on the other team by pushing harder and harder. But when they managed to break through, your defense was token at best. You can’t do that out in the field,” Blazer motioned around. “You have to find a balance in attack and defense.”