Star Crusader: Knighthawk Squadron

by Michael G. Thomas

  Yes!

  Nate was ecstatic as they flew past the wreckage, but as they cleared the debris, he felt a pain in his chest. The navigation orb showed the situation had gone from bad to worse. While they were busy in the dogfight, it was easy to forget what else was happening. In the minutes since the start of the fight, the enemy had sent in yet more fighters. Large numbers were now massing around their capital ships, and smaller squadrons broke away, making for Nate and his friends.

  "Crusader Three, we've got incoming," said Cassandra.

  "Yeah," replied Nate, "I see them...a lot of them."

  He moved out ahead of Billy and did a quick scan of the area. All five Alliance fighters were still operational even though three showed signs of light damage. It was the formation of nine fighters that worried him the most. They were coming from the enemy fleet, along with two distant groups of bombers.

  "Alert! Alert!"

  It was the fighter's computer. For a second Nate was confused. In the simulation everything was to hand, but this indicator was fitted inside the cockpit, and it took him another second to figure out it was the missile lock alert. He looked in all directions until finally spotting the approaching dots. The data alongside it showed it was actually a group of dual-band scanning missiles, weapons that had locked onto both heat and radar signatures. The calculated speed was incredible, and unless his timing was perfect, he knew they would strike him. He prepared to evade when he realised the lock was not on him, but further away and in the direction of Relentless.

  "Ship killer," Billy shouted, "and it's heading for Relentless."

  Nate had already altered his course to protect himself, but with so many fighters around them, he was forced to keep changing position. With every second that past, the danger to Relentless increased.

  "Crusader One. Rex, where are you? We've got more missiles heading for Relentless."

  Nate and Billy split apart as the fighters moved into a wild series of erratic manoeuvres. Both were now being chased increasing numbers. Nate had to be careful not to send his fighter anywhere near the massive column of flak extending out and around the hull of Relentless. Even so, he intentionally moved so close that at least one enemy fighter was damaged by the flank bursts and forced to withdraw.

  "This is Captain Galanos. Relentless is taking heavy fire from two of the enemy warships."

  Why only two? Nate wondered.

  As if to emphasise the seriousness of the situation, the audio and video feed collapsed for a second. When it returned, it crackled as the system built back up to full-bandwidth.

  "All fighters withdraw to the inner cordon. I require a close-range missile defence curtain, now!"

  "Affirmative, Captain. We're coming home," Nate responded.

  He used his retina to select and send the command to his squadron. In seconds they were spiralling around to return to Relentless, all while the enemy fighters moved in to attack. As they twisted and turned, Nate finally located Rex. He was not far from the assault ship. Both Rex and his prey jinxed continually as they moved ever closer. Puffs from the flak erupted all around them as they carried on into the maelstrom.

  "Rex, get out of there!"

  At this range, the defensive fire from the assault carrier was a danger to friend and foe alike. Once the shells left the railgun turrets it was impossible to stop them. Some consisted simple of timed explosives; others contained the specialised Sanlav rounds that directed metal shards ahead at a fixed distance. One thing each projectile had in common was that it attacked targets indiscriminately. Either Rex or one of the shells must have hit something critical because the bomber exploded in a massive flash that could have blinded a pilot if unprotected.

  "What the hell was that?" Billy yelled.

  "Calm down, Crusader Four," said Cassandra, "The warheads must have detonated."

  The IFF indicators flickered and then one vanished, dropping their number to four. Nate noted the change immediately, and his worst fears were immediately realised.

  Rex!

  He checked in the direction of the fighter and found it right inside the outer layer of Relentless' defensive curtain of fire. The area of space they were explicitly told to avoid. There was only one gap in the cordon, and Nate tagged it.

  "Crusader Squadron. Reform inside the cordon."

  As the other three continued onwards, Nate hit his burners and slightly altered his course towards Rex. It was only a subtle change, but it was enough to move him away from the others. Billy quickly understood what his friend and wingman was doing.

  "Nate, get away from flak!"

  "Stay on course, I need to check on Rex."

  The fighters quickly made it to the narrow gap and into the defensive bubble created by the myriad of gun turrets. Unlike other classes of Alliance ships, Relentless was designed to operate independently of escorts. This was one of the reasons for her heavier than normal armour and large number of turrets.

  "How can anything make it through this?" asked Cassandra.

  Matilda replied in her usual matter of fact tone.

  "The turrets make the gunnery look more effective than it actually is. The debris corridors contain a density of material that is less than seven percent at its peak. A missile has a chance of making it through, even at the thickest point."

  "Got one," said Billy.

  The young fighter pilot tagged the approaching missile and then hit his own burners. It was less than eight kilometres from Relentless, and that gave him a window of only a few seconds. As he rushed off, two more segments cleared as the guns stopped firing and began their reloading phase.

  "Crusader Squadron," said Lieutenant Higgins, "We've got breaches in the defensive screen. Plug them!"

  The fighters broke formation and each of the three moved to the gaps. Shells were now pouring through them, leaving only the smaller turrets to try and intercept them. Some were hit, but at this point, anything that made it through the shrapnel had a good chance of striking Relentless. As they moved away, Nate reached the remains of the Byotai Komodo bomber. It could have been any kind of spacecraft based on the debris pattern, and as he arrived, his fighter was almost destroyed by a nearby flank burst.

  "Crusader One, where are you?"

  Nate hit the lateral thrusters and twisted about to avoid more incoming fire. Then he found the problem. Rex's fighter had jammed two of its port winglets in a section of the bomber's fuselage. For a moment he thought Rex was gone, but then the thrusters on the damaged fighter fired again, to no avail.

  I can do this.

  "Hold on, Rex..."

  Nate took careful aim at the point where the two craft were joined together and then fired. It was a short, half-second burst, and it cut through the twisted metal with ease. Rex spun off and then with a gentle boost of power he moved away and back towards Relentless. The cockpit canopy faded to transparent so that Nate could see inside. There was Rex, holding up a hand in a thumbs-up position. Nate sighed in relief.

  Thank the gods for that.

  Religion was not something Nate had found much time for. In the Alliance it was different on every world and even throughout individual cities. His homeworld of Kerberos was one of the more forward thinking of the colonies, and religion had slipped away from public life. That wasn't to say that people didn't practice all kinds of religions, but it was done privately and out of public gaze.

  Nate was one of those that had lived in a prosperous and modern city, with a family that were part of the intellectual elite. The predilection for those in his position was to follow one of the many popular philosophical or humanist groups. Even those were of little interest to Nate. Nevertheless, as the bullets flashed by at an ever-closer distance he wished there was a God, one that could keep him safe for the violence all around him.

  "Fighter!"

  He didn't even know who was speaking, but as he turned his head to the side, Rex moved his fighter. Had it not been for his quick starboard roll, Nate might never have noticed the shape of th
e Byotai cruiser off to his flank and enveloped in gunfire. Somehow it had arrived from the Spacebridge and to a position little more than fifty kilometres away, but from here it looked so much closer. The new arrival opened its gun ports but did not fire, even though it was well placed to launch a massive broadside against Relentless within seconds of appearing. Two additional smaller ships moved alongside this vessel, and again neither opened fire against the single Alliance ship.

  "Crusader Squadron, reform to me."

  Nate could think of little else to do. They were outnumbered and overwhelmed, but still they would fight on. As he turned his fighter around, his four friends moved towards him until they were in a loose line. He could see that none of them had escaped unscathed. All five fighters were damaged, Rex's having suffered the worst.

  "We work together in two groups. Find gaps and plug the holes. Ready?"

  The other four acknowledged him.

  "Then let's do this."

  The group split up. Nate and Billy moved above Relentless, while Cassandra, Rex, and Matilda moved away in a staggered formation.

  They rushed about, chasing fighters, bombers, missiles and torpedoes, and with every minute the battle became more and more hopeless. For all the carnage, it was blatantly clear the enemy had still committed less than a quarter of its strength. The Byotai could have sent in all of their capital ships, and the battle would have been over in ten minutes. Instead, they sent in small groups of fighters to harass the Alliance fighters, and only a couple of the capital ships fired on Relentless.

  Even with the half-hearted battle, after only six more minutes Matilda was forced to land, and Rex's fighter belly landed inside the hangar, causing damage to the waiting spacecraft. This left Nate, Billy, and Cassandra to hold off the Byotai ships; all of which had changed course to put them in a crescent shaped formation, with ships in front, above, below, and to the flanks of Relentless. Nate called on his comrades to regroup and redeployed six kilometres in front of the ship's bow. The entire hull of the assault ship was now pockmarked with red and black where she had been hit so many times. That was when the audio returned from the enemy ships.

  "An impressive fight from a cornered animal. We have given you many opportunities to surrender. Ten more seconds is all you have, then it will be time to end your ship."

  "Spread out, five hundred metre gaps," Nate ordered.

  The fighters split apart and created a thin skirmish screen. The Byotai fighters withdrew to the safety of their capital ships. At the same time, hundreds of gun ports opened as each of the massive vessels prepared their weapons to deliver the coup de grace. Nate was surprised to see the partially corrupted image of Lieutenant Higgins projected onto his visor. He then heard the voice of Captain Galanos.

  "Crusader Squadron, you have done us proud. Our engines are off-line, and we have a lot of damage here. We cannot hold much longer. It's time to..."

  "Captain," Nate interrupted her mid-sentence, "We can't just surrender to them."

  "One day, if you have a command, you'll understand. The Captain has more than the ship to worry about. It is..."

  The audio stopped and vanished with digital decay as the Byotai ships opened fire. Three were now shooting, and the guns from the others began to add their own fire to the brutal bombardment. The impact along her hull must have interfered with the transmission. The Byotai fighters were now well out of the way as they initiated a terrible assault against Relentless. Captain Galanos continued to move the ship's flanks away from the worst of the fire, and did her best to take as many hits as possible against the heavily armoured bow. Nate instinctively hit his burners and pointed his noise at the nearest of the cruiser class ships.

  "Attack them!"

  As he moved his fighter straight at them, he noticed something in the direction of the Helion Nexus Spacebridge. Nate's eyes drifted towards it, fascinated as it flickered and flashed as though it was about to explode at any moment. He physically shuddered as the tear in space-time fully activated, giving the impression of a truly terrible and powerful force of nature. Tendrils of energy lashed out like tentacles, and explosions of matter lit any ships nearby like solar flares. The canopy of his fighter automatically darkened, just as his visor did the same, a simple but effective safety measure.

  "Nate, look," said Cassandra.

  The young pilot's voice was softer than before, with a hint of awe to her that was unusual in the middle of a battle.

  "What is it?"

  The whirlpool at the centre of the Spacebridge flashed once more, and then came one ship after another. He almost choked as he watched them swoop in towards the left flank of the assembled Byotai fleet. At first, it seemed to be three or four ships, but more kept on arriving until Nate lost count.

  "Thirteen ships. Can you believe it?" Billy said.

  Nate shook his head in astonishment, but his disbelief was barely contained as the fourteenth ship arrived. This one was truly gigantic, a one kilometre long behemoth that made Relentless look like an escort cruiser.

  "Warlord," he said under his breath.

  "This is Admiral Churchill of the Alliance Battleship ANS Warlord. Withdraw, or be destroyed."

  A wide grin spread across Nate's face. He'd watched footage of Warlord in action in the Biomech war. Few ships had earned a reputation as great as this feared ship. She was the only battleship class vessel in active service, and built as an emergency measure due to mounting losses amongst ship crews. Rather than build the ship from the ground up, the Naval engineers had hit upon a simple idea. They took two half completed Conqueror class battlecruisers and joined them together flank to flank. The dual hull design shared a more powerful engine system, yet only two-thirds the crew required for the pair of ships. Experimental versions of the latest particle beam and kinetic railguns had then been installed, making her the single most powerful warship in the entire sector.

  "This just got interesting."

  Nate chuckled nervously.

  "Yeah, Billy, you can say that again. Head back to Relentless. They don't need us for this fight."

  The three fighters circled around and moved away from the enemy force at half speed. Nate expected the Byotai to withdraw, or at the very least stop firing. But to his surprise, the ships began to form into a dense line, their flanks pointing at Relentless. This way they could keep their bow-mounted guns facing the new arrivals, and their flanks would provide overlapping arcs of fire against Relentless. There were now eight of the enemy ships, and Nate's computer had already calculated that the Alliance warship would be able to hold for three minutes, but no more. The previous phase of the battle had clearly been designed to intimidate the crew, presumably to force surrender or for the Captain to abandon ship.

  Now the gloves are off, Nate thought.

  This time the ships had opened their main gun ports and were firing with the intention of causing maximum destruction. As they hit the battered assault ship with their heaviest guns, the results were immediate. Multiple shells smashed into the starboard engine mount and set off a series of explosions. This was a wing section that extended out near the stern of the ship and carried a single high-performance thruster as large as a small frigate.

  "What now?" Billy asked.

  Al three of them watched in stunned silence at the dotted lines moving back and forth between the ships. Relentless was clearly outgunned, but she was built to take punishment and was not going down without a violent response. Cassandra and Nate were silent for a moment, before finally Cassandra spoke.

  "We draw fire from Relentless. Whatever we can do will help."

  "Agreed," said Nate, "Follow me."

  The three tiny spacecraft accelerated towards the enemy, so close that they might have seen the crew inside if there had been any discernible windows. The three fighters spun around and strafed the nearest cruiser. It was little more than harassing fire, but it did manage to draw at least a handful of turrets off the barrage striking Relentless.

  "Nate, get back!
" Cassandra shouted.

  They had trained together long enough to be used to tone. More important, the five could trust each other, even in a situation as deadly as this one. Nate rushed away from the ship and looked back. The bow of ANS Warlord was moving between Relentless and the enemy vessels. Some of the Byotai guns switched targets, but so far, Warlord had not fired shot.

  "Well spotted, Crusader Five. Follow me around her flank. Keep out and away from the Byotai turrets," said Nate.

  As they moved out of danger, the massive battleship slowed and then opened every single one of her starboard gun ports. Two squadrons of Prometheus Pattern Lightning fighters came in to protect her flanks, and a single squadron of the larger Hammerhead assault gunships made for one of the escorts. A warning flashed up, but Nate had already seen it.

  "Three hostiles, seven o'clock. Break and engage!"

  The numbers were even, and as they split apart, the six fighters tried to gain an advantageous position. These were the same design as those that attacked them earlier, but their pilots were either more experienced, or the cadets were worn out and exhausted. Nate dropped behind one, but as he pulled the trigger, another appeared on his starboard rear quarter.

  "Damn it!"

  He rolled the fighter twice and then hit the burners. He was away just as the fighter opened up on his engines. The gunfire missed him and narrowly avoided striking one of the other Byotai fighters. He then applied pressure to his thrusters and rolled in the opposite direction to move back into position.

  "Got one on my tail!" Cassandra cried.

  Where are you?

  The visor showed the position of all nearby objects, from fighters and warships to the nearest celestial phenomenon. Coloured markers moved back and forth as both sides jostled for position. Cassandra was the nearest, and she was desperately trying to throw off her pursuer. Cassandra was the cool headed one in the group, but even she panicked when things began to fall apart. No matter how hard she tried to get away, it simply didn't work, and the enemy gunfire was getting painfully close.