“With all due respect,” said Daniel. “There’s no fucking way we can bring that target down, even with all our missiles and torpedoes. Their shields will eat them for breakfast and keep smiling at us.”
“I’m well aware of that, Lieutenant, that’s why I’ll have a full complement of torpedoes take a large bite out of their shields. For this to work, you need to stay on point, follow my instructions, and trust me. Can you do that?”
“I can,” said Daniel. “Chase?”
“Sure,” said Chase.
“I cannot stress this enough,” said Saroudis. “If you deviate from the plan, I’ll have to write a eulogy for both your asses and I would just plain hate having to do that.”
“Understood,” said Chase and Daniel in unison.
7
“Oh, I think I’m going to regret this,” Daniel said over the comms.
“No, you won’t. Tomorrow we’ll look back at this and smile at the whole thing.”
Chase and Daniel were sticking to the exact flight path leading them to their targets. Saroudis had not been kidding, the Destiny was saturating the area with cover fire, making sure any enemy fighter stupid enough to try and get to them would get obliterated. If either of them made the slightest twitch, they’d suffer the same fate.
A volley of friendly laser fire passed awfully close to both their ships, with a couple of stray shots passing between them.
“Please tell me you’re at the very least finding this as unnerving as I am?” asked Daniel.
“Sorry, pal, no can do. This is fun, but well, you know me, I live for this shit.”
“I was really hoping this crazy-suicidal attitude of yours was just something you brought to the simulator. That once under fire it would get somewhat tamed.”
“Who’s suicidal? In case I wasn’t clear earlier, neither of us are dying today; I’ll make it an order if that helps you get it through your thick skull.”
“Hey…We’re both of the same ranks, so technically you can’t order me around. And if one of us is ever making it to Wing Commander, we both know who that will be.”
“You’ll make a fine Wing Commander, Daniel, of that I have no doubt. But in the meantime, why don’t you grow a pair, stop whining, and concentrate on accomplishing our mission. Every one of our friends onboard Starbase Alpha Three is depending on us. If we fail, they could all be killed.”
“No pressure, then.”
“Just another day in service to the Star Alliance.”
They were approaching firing range. The target ship, a massive corvette that kept growing in size as every second passed, opened up on them with long-range artillery. Some of the shots exploded too close for comfort, rocking their ships and lowering their shields little by little.
“Redistribute power to your shields, you can even divert some power from life support,” said Chase.
“Did you ever ask yourself why they call it life support? That’s because you bloody need the damn thing, Chase!”
“Not all of it, what good will your oxygen be if your shields aren’t strong enough to deflect some of that heavy fire?”
“Hard to argue with your logic,” conceded Daniel as he mumbled something incomprehensible afterward.
“Alright, we’ve just entered firing range.”
“Locking all ordnance on the target. Ready to fire.”
“Don’t shoot just yet!” exclaimed Chase.
“What? We have to, Chase. Saroudis said to follow his plan to a T. We have to shoot now!”
“No, we don’t. Just trust me on this one, if we shoot now, we’ll miss the mark. I’ve got a visual on the Destiny’s torpedoes, they’re late to the party, we need another few seconds.”
Three rather sizable explosions rocked both their ships heavily.
“Screw this, you’re going to get us killed!”
“No, I won’t, Daniel. Get ready, in three, two, one…Fire!”
Chase and Daniel unleashed all their ordnance in concert toward the enemy corvette and veered to starboard shortly after. A total of eight missiles and four torpedoes left the Manticore wings and screamed toward the target. Meanwhile, the Destiny’s torpedoes were on course, all targeting the same area for maximum effect. They impacted and lit up the corvette’s shields. Chase and Daniel’s missiles were next, which smashed into the still lit-up shields, but they seemed to hold.
“Shit, it’s not working!” exclaimed Daniel.
“Have faith, brother.”
The first Manticore torpedo exploded on the enemy, and the remaining three passed through their shields, resulting in a trio of large explosions that split it in half.
“See, I told you it would work.”
Daniel swore. “I hate it when you’re right.”
“Get used to it, bro, I’m always right.”
“And so fucking modest.”
Chase chuckled. “Yeah, that too.”
Saroudis was only half surprised when the corvette exploded. Not that he didn’t trust his plan or the newbies to deliver. During his time with the cadets in the classroom, he had sensed both of them had great, if diametrically different, flight skills.
Daniel was a by the book, straight as an arrow, grade-A student, and Chase…well, Chase was a crazy-genius type. Both useful in a multitude of situations. But they had managed to follow their orders and even compensated for an involuntary delay in the firing of the Destiny’s torpedoes.
Impressive.
“Get Star Alliance headquarters on the line this instant, request any ship in the area to assist, and have them send the entire second fleet if they have to!” ordered Saroudis.
“Distress call sent,” answered the comm officer.
Meanwhile, Saroudis opened a channel to the heroes of the hour.
“Well done, Firestorm and Scorpion, now go back to the barn.”
“Understood, Captain. Thank you,” said Daniel.
“Mmmm…that’s a negative on your last order, this battle isn’t over,” said Chase.
Saroudis shook his head.
“Listen, Son, I like you, but this is not how things are done in the service.”
“I understand that, Captain, but you need us.”
“This war needs good pilots, alive. You don’t have any missiles left, and you’re about to catch the kind of aggro you don’t want to have to deal with. Do you get my drift, Lieutenant?”
“We still have laser cannons, which means we’re prepped and ready to dispatch enemy starfighters, sir.”
Saroudis stared stoically at his tactical holo-display, slowly stroking the bottom of his beard.
“I’ll only agree to let you in this fight if you’re both in agreement on this.”
There was a pause.
“Daniel?” inquired Chase.
“Lieutenant Athanatos is correct, sir. We still have cannons.”
Saroudis could tell Daniel was not exactly thrilled but his allegiance to his friend, especially under the circumstances, was commendable.
“Very well, then. I’m sending you a list of enemy targets to engage.”
“Consider them history,” said Chase.
l guess we’re about to find out if Chase is as brilliant as he is insane.
No matter the case, Saroudis had to admit that he respected the enthusiasm and courage under fire. Especially when considering that this was their first taste of war. Saroudis’ gut told him that it wouldn’t be their last.
Chase smiled as he blew up a third Obsidian starfighter in the last five minutes of engagement. He was running on thrills and adrenaline and loving every second of it. Part of him had wondered if his instincts would be as sharp in space as they were in the simulator. And he was surprised to see that they seemed to be even sharper with the threat of impending death weighing upon him.
“Nice shot!” exclaimed Daniel.
“Thanks, bro. Watch your six, you’ve got incoming.”
“I see him, let’s take that one together, shall we?”
“Gladly.
”
“I’ll get it to engage me and deliver it to you on a silver platter, just don’t let him shoot me out of the sky before then, please?”
“You got it.”
Daniel waited until the Obsidian bogey was on his tail to go evasive. He managed to dodge most of the shots and brought the enemy craft to Chase’s vicinity. Chase engaged the enemy with successive laser fire, draining its shields rapidly. If he had had missiles left, now would have been a perfect time to fire one, but instead, he waited until the enemy’s aft shields were down and switched to supercharged laser shots and sent a volley of them toward the target.
Bull’s-eye. The shots impacted with one of the ship’s engines and sent the fighter into a wild spin.
“Dan, finish him off, there are three more ships incoming. I don’t want them to catch us with our pants down. Rejoin me once you’re done.”
“I don’t like these odds, perhaps we shouldn’t split up.”
“We’ll be fine.”
Chase veered away and saw Daniel arc back toward the damaged enemy ship, he re-engaging and blowing it out of the sky before vectoring back toward Chase. By that time, the three enemy fighters had entered firing range and wasted no time showering Chase’s ship with heavy laser fire. Chase went evasive as best as he could, wishing he still had missiles.
“I’m going to get them to follow me, make sure you reduce their numbers with your first pass, otherwise I’m history.”
“Please don’t say things like that.”
“Ready?”
“Be careful. Ready.”
Chase smiled as he shot laser fire toward the incoming bogeys before breaking off, making sure to get their attention. As planned, they kept formation as they attempted to lock onto Chase. It took some pretty fancy flying to make sure they couldn’t get a missile lock. Meanwhile, Daniel engaged one of the fighters, but then it disengaged and broke off formation.
“Stay on the pair,” said Chase, “we’ll get that one later.”
“Roger that.”
Daniel lit up the second fighter hard. Soon, its shield went down. A few more shots blew it to kingdom come. He started pounding on the remaining fighter. But that one was avoiding incoming fire with much more efficiency, all the while managing to score hits on Chase’s aft shields.
“Get this fucker off my six, will ya?”
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder.”
“Not helping, Chase! He’s as annoying as you when it comes to crazy flying.”
“Was there a compliment somewhere in there?”
“Screw that, Chase, I’m serious, he’s bringing down your shields faster than I’m impacting his.”
“Fuck!”
Before Daniel could inquire about his friend’s swearing, he saw two missiles leave the enemy’s craft and sail toward Chase. Daniel reacted on instinct, disengaged the enemy, vectored hard to the side to get a better line of sight, and opened fire on the missiles.
He got one pretty quickly but missed the second one, impacting Chase’s shield instead.
“Sorry about that, bro!”
“Thanks for the assist but re-engage this sucker, please. I’ve got an idea.”
Daniel re-engaged the Obsidian fighter.
“Understood. Wanna keep me in the loop?”
“It’s going to be pretty self-explanatory.”
Chase got rid of the incoming missile by deploying countermeasures with perfect timing. Then he slowed his Manticore down. Daniel had witnessed Chase doing this many times in simulation, or so Daniel hoped, as Chase cut power to the forward engines and reversed thrusters at maximum. The pursuing craft didn’t expect the maneuver, and before he knew it, he now had both Chase and Daniel on his six.
Chase came so close to Daniel’s wing that they could literally wave at each other from their respective canopies. They looked at each other.
“You’re crazy,” said Daniel. “I never thought this would ever work outside of the simulator.”
“When will you learn to trust me,” Chase said, a big smile spreading across his face. “Now, let’s blow this asshole to bits.”
They both rained down their laser fire, and while the pilot was extremely skilled at evasive maneuvers, he couldn’t dodge them both. Eventually, its shields went down and both Daniel and Chase’s lasers simultaneously impacted with its hull, turning the Obsidian ship into a fireball before it disintegrated completely.
“Who’s getting credit for that kill?” asked Daniel.
“You can have this one, brother.”
“I don’t need your charit—”
But then something went terribly wrong. Daniel was hit with a missile coming out of nowhere and spun uncontrollably.
“Daniel!!”
8
Daniel’s ship spun so wildly it impacted with Chase’s. Both their shields lit up, but Chase was able to regain control quickly. Daniel wasn’t so lucky.
“Talk to me, Daniel?”
“I’m hit! One of my engines is acting up, I can’t seem to get out of the spin. Shit!”
“What?”
“That motherfucker has locked another missile on me.”
“Hang on tight.”
“Well, you’d better do one of your magic tricks ‘cause there’s no way I can get rid of that missile. I’ll be lucky if I don’t pass out. The damn engines won’t let me get out of this spin.”
“I got your back. Turn off your engines now and reactivate them full burn when I tell you.”
“Turn my engines off? What for?”
“Just do what I say.”
“Roger that,” said Daniel.
His engines died off, and the ship continued to spin. Chase had to act fast as he would only have one shot at this. He diverted all the power he could from secondary systems to the thrusters and shield and vectored straight for Daniel at max burn.
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” said Daniel.
Hang on my friend, I’m coming. With any luck, I won’t blow us both up.
Chase almost froze at the thought. His best friend’s life was on the line. If his crazy idea didn’t pan out, would he be able to live with the consequences of his actions? Fear started to creep into Chase’s heart. But then he heard the sweet female voice again in his mind.
Trust your instincts, Chase, they never fail you.
Chase was a little worried about hearing voices, but perhaps his subconscious was telling him to hold to his guns. He wondered why it would address him as a female, but right now he couldn’t worry about that.
“Alright, I’m going to graze you ever so slightly.”
“You’re going to do what? Have you lost all your marbles?”
“I know what I’m doing.”
“Alright,” he said, with doubt creeping into his voice.
“Activate your engines at full burn on my mark.”
“Standing by.”
Chase’s instincts told him what trajectory to take to generate enough force on his fly-by to mitigate Daniel’s current spin and allow him to regain control of his fighter. Of course, that was half the battle, there was still a missile on approach. He needed to take care of that as well. A quick glance at his instruments also allowed him to keep an eye on the enemy ship that had fired the missile; if he survived the next part, he’d have to take care of it too.
As Daniel’s ship got bigger on his visuals, Chase took a deep breath and held his breath.
“Mark!” he shouted.
Chase saw Daniel’s engines powering up as he reached his position a fraction of a second before the missile, which was locked and ready to claim his best friend’s life. The moment Chase grazed Daniel’s Manticore, the missile locked onto his engines because Daniel’s weren’t emitting enough energy, and Chase had passed right into the trajectory of the missile, forcing it to follow him.
Daniel’s engines took a second to power up to full burn, but by then both Chase and the missile were gone and grazing his shields with Daniel’s had stabili
zed Daniel’s spin enough that when the engine kicked off, he managed to get out of the spin.
Chase let the air trapped in his lungs escape as his comms crackled.
“You’re one crazy-talented pilot, thanks for saving my hide. I wish I could say I would have done the same if our positions had been reversed...but—”
Chase didn’t even understand how his brain could show him what to do in these situations, he was acting on pure instinct and had learned to trust it over the years. It had yet to fail him.
“You’re welcome, Dan. While I do appreciate the intention, we both know that if our situations had been reversed, you’d just have killed the both of us a second before the missile hit.”
Daniel chuckled. “Ouch. But probably true.”
Chase still had to get rid of the missile gaining on him. Fortunately, he was flying at max burn when he deliberately confused the missile to follow him instead of his friend. But he only had a handful of seconds to get rid of it before he was blown to pieces. The near miss maneuver to save Daniel had lowered his shields enough that he wasn’t sure he would survive the impact. Not that he had ever planned to let that missile impact his Manticore.
Chase vectored toward the fighter that had launched the missile in the first place with a vengeance and activated a short-range jamming field. For his plan to work, he would need the enemy pilot’s instruments to go blind.
I’ll teach you to try and kill my friends. Pray to whatever gods you believe in.
Chase aligned his Manticore on a collision course with the enemy and opened fire with his lasers, scoring hit after hit on its frontal shields. The Obsidian fighter did the same, but Chase put his fighter into a variable barrel roll to dodge a good half of the incoming fire. His shields still lit up every other second.
When they grew closer, Chase deployed countermeasures, with the missile so close to his Manticore now he knew there was almost no way they would work, but he needed to distract the opposing pilot more than the missile itself. Chase then veered away, feinting to break the standoff, hoping it would keep the Obsidian pilot on his course for just another second or two. And, it did.
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 5