by SF Edwards
Blazer slammed his knees together in celebration when the explosion ripped off the fighter’s wing and threw it sideways. He watched the target for a moment to make sure it didn’t recover as it careened off into space. Fuel vented out of the sheared off wing and ignited as the expanding cloud of hydrogen fuel reached the plasma exhaust engulfing the fighter mere moments before it exploded.
Asteroid Shell Exterior, Monstero Nach 11
Arion cursed, his target had managed to evade his missile onslaught. With half its shields gone, the craft flipped about and ran for home, seeking protection behind the carrier’s heavy cannons. “You’re not getting away that easily!” Arion yelled as he punched his throttle and tickled his afterburner to give chase.
“Eight, Three. The bombers are clear. We’re coming in to cover. Don’t get too close,” Blazer ordered
Arion shook his head. I have this in hand. I don’t need Blazer’s help. The thrill of a kill flooded his mind as he closed the distance and opened fire. Plasma and EPC rounds tore into the fighter’s shields, shredding them before they began to strip the armor around the twin engines. Arion chewed at his lip as the fighter turned away to avoid his vicious attack. The maneuver cost the fighter valuable momentum and brought him right into Blazer’s gun sights.
Arion’s eyes went wide and the pit fell out of his stomach as he saw one of the carrier’s massive hyperplaser turrets line up on him. He squeaked out a gasp. Frag me, that fighter was shielding me from that beast. He tried to evade by pushing down on his throttle but was too late.
The blast from the massive hyperplaser washed past his fighter, obliterating his shields and reducing his port wing and engine to their component molecules. Alerts rang in Arion’s ears, his vision blurred by the g forces that slammed him into the sidewall of his cockpit. He managed to slap at his throttle and stick forcing the fighter below the turret’s firing arc before it could fire a second time.
Arion fought to keep control after the next plasma blast melted his starboard wingtip. He to fight to keep his hands on the controls to correct the spin he found himself in. I left my nice warm bed for this! The whole left side of his fighter was gone. The composite hull had melted shut over where his wing and engine had once been. His sensors were almost blind and as he looked out, he saw his momentum carry him towards the carrier.
Arion debated his options. If I stay in the fighter, I might crash into that carrier. But, if I eject, I lose what little armor protection this hunk of scrap still affords me. Wait a tick. He pushed forward on the stick and found he still had pitch control. He targeted the carrier ahead of him as a brilliant flash lit up its shields and watched a hole open before him.
“Father, please tell me your god is watching out for me,” Arion breathed as he pumped his throttle and pushed hard over on his rudder pedal to correct for the thrust. Despite his best efforts, he put the fighter into a flat spin. Thankfully the spin carried him towards his target. His fighter slipped through the hole in the carrier’s shields created by one of the Temblor’s torpedoes and into the open front of the flight deck.
Arion’s hearts threatened to burst as the carrier’s flight-deck rose to meet him and he dialed up his degrav generators to full. The repulsive force kept his fighter from pancaking into the deck but bounced towards the ceiling. He pushed hard over on the stick and rudder and began firing. Plasma and EPC rounds ripped at the carrier’s unarmored interior as he presented his belly to the ceiling.
“Just a little longer baby,” he pleaded before he rebounded off the ceiling and his remaining engine sputtered behind him, dying.
Looking up, he found the rear of the carrier approaching and keyed the emergency weapons and fuel releases. Arion’s remaining missiles ejected into the cloud of hydrogen gas venting behind him. He rapped at the throttle one last time and the fighter tumbled down the deck towards the back end of the carrier. The engine died before he cleared the rear atmosphere shield and his breath came in ragged gasps as he pulled the nose around with what little fuel he had left.
“Please let this work,” he gasped. The fighter turned like a slug, most of its maneuvering thrusters blasted away while the units in the nose sputtered. Still, Arion managed to get the nose around before he slipped through the aft shields and lined up with the cluster of missiles as they bounced off the deck. He smiled at the scene--the gas cloud still enveloped them. A smile on his face, he squeezed the trigger.
The sight of the resulting fireball made Arion hold his breath. The flight deck burst into flames, the explosion cooking off racks of missiles and detonating fuel carts. The blast wave slammed into what was left of his fighter, throwing him into his harness as it tossed his fighter out into the darkness. Despite that, he hooted in delight when the lights of the recovery control room above the flight-deck flickered and died before gouts of flame shattered the silicasteel casements.
Arion leaned back in his seat gasping for breath and laughed as Blazer and Gokhead’s fighters zipped past. He turned to watch as the bombers they escorted launched their torpedoes into the weakened ship’s turrets and exposed bridge superstructure. He chuckled, unable to contain himself before Blazer and Gokhead rotated about and fired their thrusters to approach him.
Killing their previous momentum, they glided past his wreck of a fighter. “Nach Eight, Nach Three. Arion what’s your status? Please be alive.”
“Did you see that?” Arion called back, laughing as he watched the fires fade and the bright flashes of light torpedoes tear at the ship’s hull.
“Yeah and I can’t believe you did that,” Blazer replied, unable to hide the relief in his voice.
Arion nodded his head. Is the link camera even still working, ah who gives a Shreg? He wondered, tapping the console. “Yeah, but this thing is,” he pushed on the stick to find no response. “It’s dead.”
“Copy that, One Niner; let’s maintain an orbit around Eight. I don’t want any of these Geffer bastards taking pot shots at him.”
Gokhead double clicked his link in response and a flight of four fighters rocketed past, firing at the trio.
“On the line!” Blazer called and the pair rocketed after them.
Arion watched, helpless, as the battle progressed and his fighter drifted out of the combat zone. I can’t just sit here and do nothing! Pulling out his macomm, he recorded as much of the battle as he could. It felt surreal, like he was watching a holovid.
He trained his macomm on the academy’s bombers during their attack runs, and grimaced. Only half of their warheads are making it through the shields. He learned much though. I didn’t realize that bombers fire their torpedoes in pairs to allow the first to disrupt the shields long enough for the second to slip through less than a cent later. He sat back in his seat, humbled, only a timing error allowed him to survive when two torpedoes impacted simultaneously, disrupting the shields long enough for him to slip through. Otherwise, at best he would have bounced off the shields and at worst, been cooked by them.
Arion felt lucky to be alive as Blazer chased a Phantom 4 past his craft. He jumped as rounds from the fighter pinged off his hull, piercing the armor of his starboard wing. Angered by that, he safed his ejection seat and opened the canopy. Climbing out onto the battered hull, he pulled his sidearm a moment before Gavit chased a Tiger Cat past. Seething, Arion fired off a few frustrated rounds at the fighter.
He missed. The fighter was far too fast for him to track.
What good will that do against a fast moving shielded target? He cursed himself a fool and sat back down next to his cockpit. Looking, he noticed that his weapons still had power. That gave him an idea. My degrav generators kept me from slamming belly first into the deck of the carrier, so the plaser might be undamaged.
Activating the magnetic locks in his boots, Arion allowed his curiosity to carry him to the underside of his fighter. He smiled when he found the Plasma Laser Cannons still attached. He found the barrel of one smashed beyond repair, bent up against the fuselage but the other appear
ed to be undamaged.
He looked back at the battle. He was awestruck as he saw the fighters engaged around him. The cadets were doing well despite the odds. Arion spotted Blue Brick squadron chasing the surviving Mosquito bombers out of the asteroid shell. His heart sank, however, when he spotted the debris of a Splicer 3000. Despite their best efforts, the Temblors were taking losses. A distress call from Seri drew his attention, however, and he looked up to try to find her.
Seri’s assignment was as Joda’s wingman along with her future WSO Railet but she had become separated from her group. “I need assistance! I have a bandit all over me! I can’t shake him!”
Arion’s helmet displayed his limited sensor telemetry and he found Seri. She was all by herself with the rest of her flight protecting their bombers from the Galactic Federation defenders.
Arion turned to Gavit and his flight group as they closed on her but she had a Tiger Cat and Phantom 4 all over her.
“On our way!” Gavit called out.
Arion gritted his teeth. There’s no way they’ll reach her in time. She dodged left to avoid a volley from the Tiger Cat and flew right into the path of the Phantom 4 as it fired a round from its hypervelocity ventral gauss cannon at her. Arion zoomed in to get a better look and caught the impact. Two of Seri’s own missiles cooked off from the impact as the slug ripped through her wing. The whole wing detonated.
“Nach one heavily damaged and need assistance!” Seri pleaded.
Arion turned to Gavit as he entered weapons range. A pair of missiles rocketed from his launchers. Both of them found their mark in one of the Phantom’s wingtip mounted engines. Arion tensed as the dorsal missile pack exploded, shattering the fusion bulb. The engine shattered in a brilliant explosion that sent the fighter spiraling off towards the cruiser. The pilot ejected moments later and his craft slammed into the armored hull, slipping through a massive hole in the ship’s weakened shields.
Arion’s stomach twisted when he looked back and the Tiger Cat finished Seri off. He felt powerless as he watched, its plaser cannons chewing away at the armor of her fighter before one of its rockets pierced the crystallic fusion power core. Arion shielded his eyes from the flash despite his helmet darkening in response. He peered out between his fingers with dazzled eyes as the light receded and looked back at where Seri should have been. Nothing remained of her or her fighter except a few bits of debris. Arion scanned for her ejection beacon but there was nothing. She didn’t have time to get clear.
Gavit roared over the link as he, Deniv and Bichard engaged the craft as one. Arion willed them to avenge Seri as their cannons tore the Tiger Cat apart. Humbled, he sat back down as the craft broke up under the onslaught. Here he sat on the ruined wreck of his fighter, a floating target drifting out of the battlefield. If he waited here he might be safe but their squadron commander was dead and he had to act.
Arion looked around. Two more beacons from their squadron illuminated his helmet. They’d managed to escape the destruction of their craft in their ejection pods. That was at least some good news. When a Mosquito Bomber zipped past him, he decided they wouldn’t take him so easy.
Blazer raced past Arion’s floating craft a moment later, rounds from the bomber’s turrets bouncing off his shields. Arion’s resolve hardened. I’m not going to let Blazer get himself killed protecting me.
Arion turned about and tore into the armored casing of the plaser cannons. He snapped open the maintenance latches and tossed away the cover. There lying before him sat the core consisting of the plasma accelerator and exciter. He didn’t need the extra range and accuracy the long barrels provided and snapping open the latches, he pulled out the core and the three metra of cable attached to it.
Arion thought back to his studies. The fighter’s manual described this as a feature for downed pilots. It allowed them to use the cannon to fight off enemy forces if they came down with their craft. He activated the gun’s targeting reticle in his helmet and the bore sight at the rear of the plasma exciter. It proved difficult to aim but he braced it against the fuselage, and setting the firing control to voice command, he twisted about to find a target.
Arion soon found one. The Mosquito that had buzzed him earlier had raced back into the fray. Blazer and Gokhead were in hot pursuit but the rear turrets kept them from getting a good shot off. Arion glared at the craft, he had to do something. So as the fighter came into range, he pulled his makeshift weapon around and lined up the reticle on the fighter bomber.
“Fire!” The recoil shoved him back into the fighter, but the blast proved on the mark, slamming into the mosquito’s forward shields with a noticeable spark and he called out again, “Fire! Fire! Fire!”
Round after round speared the darkness, ringing off the Mosquito’s shields before he breached them and tore a gash into the forward armor. Arion continued calling out, firing again and again as the weapon heated up in his hands. It threatened to burn a hole in his flight suit with each shot. The removal of the core disconnected it from the cooling system that vented into space behind him. He continued firing, however, and the mosquito jerked away hard to avoid its unseen attacker.
That allowed Blazer to get a few rounds off into the weakened forward shields piercing the cockpit and killing the pilot. The craft shot off out of control before the co-pilot could take control, leaving the turrets unmanned as it rolled around. Blazer continued to fire, ripping away at the shields as several rounds ripped into the belly armor.
Arion smiled, the rounds stripping away the launcher doors from the ventral missile launchers and piercing one of the warheads inside. The resulting detonation set off of the rest of the missiles and shattered the craft.
“Nach Eight, was that you?” Blazer called out, vectoring away from the explosion.
“Sure was,” Arion replied with a growl. “Find me some more targets.”
Before Blazer could bring another target in range, Arion twisted around to find a Tiger Cat bearing down on him. Shreg! Looks like someone else noticed me shooting as well. Arion swung the weapon around in a panic and began to fire as Blazer and Gokhead twisted their craft around to engage. Even at full afterburner, they have too much momentum to overcome and reach me in time. That left Arion on his own as they fired wide of the craft.
The fighter kept coming as Arion continued to fire. The blasts pierced the shields and the pilot pulled up to avoid colliding with Arion but he didn’t relent. A breach in the ventral armor caught his eye and he hammered at it. His next two shots punctured the breach and the fighter’s reactor core exploded.
The resulting fireball expanded rapidly, carried by the fighter’s momentum.
Arion’s eyes went wide. He attempted to shield himself before it washed over his wrecked craft. He clung to the fuselage as bits of the debris rung off his hull. The heat was the worst and he swore to never broil anything again before it subsided and the cold of space flooded him.
“You smoked him, Arion!” Gokhead hooted after they managed to overcome their momentum and race by.
“Smoked me too,” Arion replied and checked his radiation dosimeter as fast as he could. His suit had absorbed much of the blast but it had paid the price. It was blackened and scorched. How is it still holding pressure?
His dosimeter was more worrying. “Dear God!” he gasped. The needle on his chest pack told the tale; buried in the red zone. To anyone else that meant that unless they sought immediate radiation treatment they would die. His self-healing abilities would buy him some time, staving off death. Still, he had a few hects at most to get treatment. “Looks like your god watched out for me after all father.” I’ll be heading straight to medical if I survive this.
Admiral Sares came over the link. “All units. Academy Thirteen Actual. Mop up the remaining fighters. Confederation reinforcements are en-route.”
Wait, why isn’t Joda relaying that? Arion wondered and scanned the skies. His helmet HUD blinked, almost dead but he found his answer. Joda’s gone. He said nothing and watched the
three squadrons make quick work of the remaining fighters. The big ships had been defanged.
Humbled by the loss of Joda, Arion sat back down and to his amazement watched the carrier twist about to try and escape. Its damage was immense; streaming atmosphere from multiple breaches, one of its engine nacelles lay blasted open as plasma fires burned along its length.
The cruiser had fared little better. Three of the engines had been destroyed, its shield generators weren’t functioning, and its turrets had been disabled or destroyed. Might as well be dead in space; like me.
GFS-Nosferat, Battle Bridge
Captain Delgado felt numb. His fighter force decimated, the Bathory destroyed, and his own Nosferat disarmed. Despite his orders to their fighters on how to respond to the academy’s defenders, they’d been routed and while many had ejected, over half of them were now dead. A movement on the viewer caught his eye and he watched the Dracula attempt to limp away.
Behind him, the commander tried to assess the damage and find a way to escape. It was plain to the captain though that hope was escaping the commander with each breath. One of their reactors had been breached in the attack, venting plasma into the interior of the third saucer. The engineering crew had died before they could close it off.
The commander slammed his fist into the situation board, contempt in his eyes at the debacle this battle had become. "Sir, the last of our fighter defenses has been destroyed. Our shields are down and we have hull breaches across decks three through ten. These were no rookie pilots! You walked us into a trap!” the commander accused as he relayed the reports on the battle and their ravaged ship.
"Status of the enemy forces?" Captain Delgado asked. His voice quavered and the color drained from his face as he stared at the status board. Denial filled him. My intelligence couldn’t have been so wrong. The Confederation must have reinforced this position. That has to be it.