The Battle for the Solar System (Complete Trilogy)

by Sweeney, Stephen

  The enemy had attacked the moment they had emerged from the jump points, meeting the allied forces head-on. Along with Kelly, Estelle had been far from the point of arrival, and had been rushing to join the allied group when the opening volley of fire had issued from the first wave of Imperial fighters to exit jump. Estelle thought that the allied fleet would’ve been more prepared for the entrance of their adversaries, having battled them so many, many times over the years, but there were clearly a great many casualties on the defence line within only a few minutes.

  The fighters had come first, followed not far behind by the capital ships. And towards the rear of the group Estelle had made out the vessels that had always been dearest to Zackaria’s heart – Dragon and Chimera. These days, the arrival of Dragon into a system usually meant only one thing – the Pandorans were preparing to destroy an entire planet.

  Estelle swallowed as she drove herself forward into another group of Jackals and Mantises, initially spraying the entire group indiscriminately with her cannons, electing to take down the ones that had been caught most unaware by her arrival. She kept her movements precise, acting instinctively to what was happening on her HUD. Her target would be boxed, another receptacle predicting its new location, based on its speed, heading and her choice of weapon. She would shift her heading over to meet it, adjusting her speed as needed, and loose off a barrage of plasma cannon fire that would eliminate her opponent within seconds. Her HUD would instantly then tag the next enemy craft to her and she would repeat the process over and over; though it always felt like no matter how many fighters she took down, she was barely even scratching the surface of the opposing forces, such was the strength of the army that stood against them.

  Only once had she ever seen how human pilots reacted to an ATAF’s interest in them, during a brief period of intense infighting amongst their own forces when people had chosen to run and hide, rather than fight. Fighters and militarised transits throughout the allied ranks would open fire on those around them, as though compromised by enemy forces. The truth was outed soon after, when the hysterical hijackers had threatened more destruction unless they were given the supplies and safe passage they wanted. They had been refused and so the violence had intensified, until the more determined groups of deserters had banded together and threatened to take control of one of the major warships. At that point Estelle had been ordered by Admiral Parks to eliminate them, before they caused more serious damage to the fleet. She had only argued briefly, before Parks had made himself clear and she had reluctantly delegated duties to the other Knights to do the same. They too had shown reluctance, but had obeyed. The human pilots had clearly panicked when the ATAFs had chased after them, choosing flight over fight. They hadn’t been able to run far.

  The Pandorans on the other hand seemed quite unconcerned by an engagement with one of the craft. They might have been a little more cautious and appreciative of the power that the starfighter possessed, but it did not particularly otherwise deter them.

  Estelle adjusted her heading once more, swooping between two allied frigates that were exchanging long distance fire with Imperial and commandeered Independent warships. One of the frigate’s shielding was already beginning to fail, quadrants permitting plasma bolts to penetrate through to the armour beneath and tearing it open. Two Mantises winged into her view as she emerged from between the warships, her HUD tagging the closest of the pair, prompting her to open fire on one after the other. They fell to her attack, their struts snapping off and spinning away before shorting out and exploding. She then targeted the Jackal directly before her, dispatching it quickly, before pulling up in search of her next target. She took in the scene as she went.

  Immediately in front and behind her was a cluster of allied warships, numbering at least twenty or thirty. There had been more when this had started, somewhere around fifty. She couldn’t believe so many of them had been destroyed already. They had moved up the field to meet the enemy forces head-on, attempting to catch the arrivals to the system early and deliver critical blows as quickly as possible, in an attempt to gain the upper hand. Nukes had apparently been fired deep into the enemy ranks, to speed up the process. They had only done so much, the enemy pushing forward as strongly as ever. Estelle hadn’t seen it, being too busy engaging the fighters and trying to clear a way for the allied missile boats to strike the advancing enemy capital ships. All she knew now was that the warships that had led the push were no more.

  A flurry of shapes were moving in the distance, the tiny blue glows of cyan engines from starfighters as they whirled around, engaging one another in combat. Various other colours were intermixed there, glows from plasma and particle cannon bolts, as well as beam weapons and explosions blooming and dissipating. She had no idea where Kelly was.

  Her comms popped. “Any accelerator-capable craft – UNF Talos is in urgent need of support! Please respond!”

  Estelle’s eyes darted around for Jennifer Bailey’s carrier, momentarily ignoring the Imperial fighters that were chasing after her. Talos was one of their few remaining starfighter carriers, and one of the more dependable at that. After Leviathan, Siren, and Cerastes, the rest were decrepit offerings from previous generations, dug out of retirement and pushed almost unwillingly onto the field. They couldn’t afford to lose Talos! She couldn’t see it immediately and turned to her radar, now hurriedly applying a filter and cycling rapidly through the results to help her pin down the carrier’s location. She found it not a short time later, in the midfield. A frigate and what appeared to be a lander were drawing up close to the ship. Very close. Their guns were silent. Estelle knew what that implied and swore she could already make out the reflections gleaming off the bodies of Leeches, the boarding craft.

  She had not heard Kelly respond. Maybe her team-mate had missed the call or was too entrenched in her own engagements to help. She could well have just discharged her accelerator and wouldn’t be able to assist until the wind-down/wind-up sequence had completed.

  “Any accelerators …” the request began to repeat itself.

  “de Winter here,” Estelle answered. “Moving in to assist.” She didn’t need any further information, she knew what she had to do. She broke off her engagements, ignoring the group of Imperial Scarabs that were directly ahead and began powering towards Talos. “I can take on the frigate, but might not have time to clear away the lander,” she communicated.

  “The Night Jesters bomber group are preparing for a strike run against it,” the same coordinator once again came back, “but they need that frigate and her escorts cleared first. It’s already cut down half of the Shadow Doves.”

  “Got it.” Estelle passed by sweeps of beam lasers and streams of cannon fire as she went, attracting considerable attention from scores of Imperial and hijacked Independent starfighters. Missile lock warnings sounded as she raced past them, falling silent as her ATAF fell quickly out of range.

  O’Neil’s Rest was the name of the frigate. It was clearly of Independent design and appeared to have originated from one of the more prominent nations. It was also in better condition than many of the other frigates that she had seen recently. Clearly that was the reason why it had been assigned this particular task. Estelle considered the strength of its shielding and armour as she brought the warship into her sights, waiting for the minimal firing range of the accelerator to be met. Sometimes the ATAF’s weapon was strong enough to break through those defences, at other times not. She hoped this wouldn’t be a case of the latter, certain another frigate would be moving up to join the O’Neil and assist with the hijacking of Talos.

  Her eyes flickered over the surface of the UNF carrier, seeing the scars in the armour that the years spent on the field had inflicted. Enemy fighters were circling the ship, selecting their attack points carefully, so as not to push the carrier beyond the point of usefulness or bring it down entirely. The many cannons that dotted Talos’ surface had been smashed, the few that were still largely intact spluttering their retu
rn fire. It was a sight that wasn’t at all new to Estelle.

  It hadn’t been long, but the lander was now well within range of Talos. Estelle saw more Leeches issuing from it, journeying over to the carrier and preparing to burrow their way through the shielding. Some looked to already be attached. Her computer systems jingled. She was in range. O’Neil’s Rest responded at the same instant, a number of cannons opening up along its starboard side, the angle of her approach. Estelle ignored the fire, allowing her shields to absorb the hits. She prepared to squeeze off the accelerator round when a pulse from the warship’s belly caught her eye. An instant later, a bright flare filled her vision, her cockpit blazing as something struck her head-on, her ATAF’s shielding reacting heavily. She shifted her course immediately, banking hard and accelerating to escape the blast. She saw the beam of the particle ray sweep after her as she did so, unable to quite keep up with the speed of her fighter.

  Hell! That had been more serious than she had been expecting! The enemy really wanted Talos! A glance to her instrument panel revealed a not so insignificant drop in her shield strength. Lucky for her it hadn’t been an accelerator beam. Even so, she couldn’t afford to continue to be hit by that weapon. She adjusted her heading again, in case the operators of the O’Neil should terminate the beam and attempt to catch her predicted location. She then swung about, cut her speed and selected a new angle of approach, arcing up above the frigate and bringing herself out of the beam’s path. The Pandorans had never succeeded in capturing any of the allied forces’ combat worthy carriers, the ships being far too well guarded for that, the damaged and experienced ones proving easier targets. Now, it looked as though they were doing whatever they could to get Talos. Even at this late stage in the game, almost knocking on Earth’s door, the enemy remained as focused, driven and unrelenting as always.

  “de Winter, firing,” she declared, targeting the structurally vulnerable sectors of the O’Neil, slowing while unleashing the accelerator beam. Somewhat to her surprise, the defences of the frigate didn’t hold up as well as she had first expected, the eruption of splinters coming within only a few seconds, the concentrated plasma driving through the layers of shielding and into the body of the warship beneath. She made the practised, minute adjustments to her ATAF’s course, slicing the ship and severing sections. Exhausting the beam, she pulled away, seeing cannon fire from the O’Neil stopping.

  “First run complete,” she communicated. “The O’Neil’s Rest’s energy weapons are crippled, but it still has access to rockets and is still mobile. Accelerator winding down, preparing for second run upon recharge.”

  A barrage of fire came from around her, as the enemy fighters that had been pursuing her caught up to her location. Her computer system once again flared warnings of multiple locks, and this time she knew that they wouldn’t be dropping off. A group of Mantises streaked past her, metres from her ATAF, followed by several pairs of Fireflies and a Thunderhead. She maintained the same heading for a time, fearing a collision, before making a course adjustment. She was struck several times by cannon fire before she had time to do so, and not long afterwards she found herself fending off a host of intercepting fighters. Her attempts to drive off the O’Neil and find a way to prevent the lander from gaining any more ground on Talos was forced aside.

  Other friendly fighter craft arrived to assist her in her struggle, the pilots dividing their efforts between tackling the fighters and preventing any more of the lander’s boarding craft from attaching themselves to Talos. They put up a good fight, but many of those that were joining the fight to protect Talos were being taken down.

  Though not nearly as fast as usual.

  A fleeting thought ran through Estelle’s head. She was certain that the Pandoran forces usually fought better than this. There was no doubt that they were still overwhelming the allied starfighter pilots, and the opening moments of the battle had seen the allies taking heavy losses, but something seemed … off. The Pandorans appeared to be both flying and fighting a little more sloppily, slower and somewhat more recklessly. In front of her, she saw one Firefly take down another, the pilot capitalizing on their opponent’s indecisive manoeuvring. Her HUD briefly revealed that the victor of the engagement was friendly.

  “We’re breached!” a voice from Talos came over her comms. “We’re engaging boarders from multiple entry points! We’ll try and hold them off for as long as possible!”

  Flashbacks of Ifrit returned to Estelle. She felt powerless. There was nothing she could do. Once a ship was boarded the struggle moved to inside the vessel, the participants outside of it unable to do anything but look on and await the outcome. A particle beam swept across her view. The O’Neil was back in operational state. The crew must’ve somehow managed to re-route power to the offensive systems. She prepared to focus her efforts on it when a burst from Talos drew her attention. Something had blown a hole in the side of the ship, causing it to start venting. Objects that were quite clearly human in shape barrelled and spun out of the gap. Another blast followed.

  “Dear lord, some of these guys have gone berserk! They’re using high-yield weaponry and explosives at close range!” Talos communicated.

  Estelle refocused. Her accelerator was almost ready to commence its wind-up cycle. She would have to pull back in a bit and allow her shields time to recharge. She ignored the fighters as she prepared to take on the O’Neil once more, bringing it into her sights and preparing to lock it with micro-missiles.

  “Invaders have taken the engine room! They’re almost at the br—” There was a pop and the communication from Talos died.

  “de Winter, this is Leviathan, please respond,” the voice of one of the carrier’s operators came.

  “de Winter here,” Estelle replied.

  “Commander, Commodore Meyers has requested that you lend support to Prospector and Harlequin, to enable them to pull back with the rest of the fleet.”

  Pull back? “Leviathan, please repeat instruction.”

  The operator did so, this time a little more verbose.

  Move back to the far side of Sky? That was where they had decided upon the evacuation jump zone. Leviathan might be telling her that they were preparing to fall back, but it sounded more to her like they were preparing to retreat. She hoped that that was not already the case.

  “I am currently assisting Talos—” Estelle started.

  “The carrier is lost,” Leviathan interrupted. “Captain Bailey has initiated self destruct procedures.”

  Estelle started. “Let me speak to Commodore Meyers.”

  “You have your orders, de Winter,” Meyers returned, immediately. He must’ve been anticipating her contesting of his instructions. “Bailey is doing so to ensure that the carrier does not fall into enemy hands. Now, please pull back.”

  “Yes, sir,” Estelle said, clicking through her radar as she swung around and powered away from Talos, the O’Neil, and the lander. She saw as she did so that what remained of the Jesters were deploying missiles against the lander. The action seemed pointless now.

  “Kelly, where are you?” Estelle asked.

  “Between waypoints two and three,” Kelly returned.

  That was just above Sky, where they had previously overseen the evacuation. Estelle filtered her radar, finally locating her team-mate. Kelly was almost lost amongst the chaos of battle, even when Estelle stripped away the enemy craft markers and zeroed in on the ATAF’s position. The display was swollen with friendly craft, a good number of them the colonists that were trying more desperately now than ever to escape the system.

  “The Midnight Runners and I are trying to keep those bastards away from the colonists,” Kelly said. It didn’t sound as though she was having much luck. Estelle wondered as to the memories that that might be dredging up in the woman. “We could use some more support over here,” Kelly added.

  “You’re going to have to cope on your own for a bit,” Estelle said. “I’ve just received a request to assist Prospector and Harl
equin.”

  “No wait, it’s okay,” Kelly suddenly corrected. “The colonists are going to attempt a jump. Okay, off they go …”

  Somewhere in the distance, Estelle saw splits appear as jump points swirled into existence, the barely-visible forms of vessels accelerating into them, the portals closing swiftly soon after. Kelly then swore.

  “What happened?” Estelle said.

  “A group of Imperial fighters followed the colonists!” Kelly replied.

  Hell. Those colonists would never make it to wherever they were trying to get to. And even if they did, they wouldn’t live too long afterwards.

  “There’s nothing we can do for them,” Estelle said. “Concentrate on getting the others up from the surface.” She swung back around to the scrum of warships and fighters, powering forward into them and using her radar to help her more easily locate the pair of frigates Meyers had tasked her with assisting. It didn’t take her long to find them, realising that they were in fact the two frigates she had gunned past earlier, on her way to assist Talos. A swash of fighters were circling them, some allied, some enemy. Estelle notified the group of her approach as she closed ranks with the enemy squadrons.

  Noting her arrival, a number of the enemy fighters turned their attention away from the two frigates, looping around to meet her approach. The too-familiar blare of warning sirens sounded in her ear as missiles were locked on to her fighter and loosed moments later. She instinctively reached for her countermeasures, knocking the missiles off course and silencing the lock warning, before returning fire. It occurred to her very quickly that she was never going to be able to clear the way for the Prospector and Harlequin completely. There were far too many fighters for that. Even so, she did manage to cut down on the amount that were attacking the pair, granting them the chance to begin pulling back.