“Are we launching or memorizing the punter system from the inside?” Minh asked Oz as he came online. His squadron had completed a second briefing and been ready for over eighteen minutes according to his command and control unit. Sure he liked the chatter, most of the pilots with him got along fine, but they were all there to do one thing; fly. The exploration mission they were about to undertake was one of the most exciting things to happen on Triton excluding active combat.
It was also the first Triton based mission Minh was leading outside of a simulation. He had to admit to fighting some tension at the prospect of running into raiders. Infantry training helped him shrug it off, but three of his pilots had only seen active combat in simulations. They were hyper-realistic, but it still wasn't the real thing.
“We had a delay on the bridge. Everyone shows green on the flight deck, punting in thirty,” Oz replied.
“Was there drama? Don't tell me I missed drama.”
“There was drama. I'm sure it'll linger long enough for you to catch the tail end when you get back.”
“Why am I always as far away from the action I can get? I try to be exciting, but the ripples don't seem to radiate from this pebble, somehow I'm always at the far edge of the pool.”
“If I didn't know you so well you'd be impossible to understand sometimes,” Oz replied. “Punting in fifteen.”
“Shouldn't we focus on what we're doing?” asked Nathan, his Sensor Intercept Officer and copilot sitting behind him in the two seated Uriel starfighter. He had earned the call sign 'Slick' because he flattened his hair on his first flight from the Triton so his helmet wouldn't ruin his hairdo. No one had told him that they didn't wear a helmet with the vacsuits they used, which did cover their heads but generally didn't leave one's hair a mess.
“I'm multitasking. Besides, we've done the checklist three times.” The launch system catapulted them into the open space beneath Triton. Minh took direct control of his Uriel Fighter with his hands and feet, turning the ship into a skid, facing the asteroid field. His six squadron members followed his lead. “Good morning everyone, it's time to go see why this asteroid field is so damned quiet. There should be a whole bunch of eager traders here but for some reason we're not picking up so much as an active satellite. Oh, and we'll be passing through a magnetically contained obscuring field just to see what's on the other side. There should be raiders, according to some late intelligence.” Minh double checked the intelligence update by glancing at the appropriate icon in his head's up display and was surprised to discover Oz and Jason had just added more information. "So, if I can't make nice with 'em, we're going to be on pest removal duty."
"Make nice? With raiders?" Slick asked.
"Those are the orders, check it," Minh replied, sending the update to his copilot's main display.
"You're right. Well, I guess a trade is a trade when you're out here on your own."
"I think, and this isn't to say that we're supposed to do much interpreting on our own, but I think they mean we're supposed to make nice if it's too late to save anyone. That's what I'm going with, anyway."
"Good thinking."
Minh-Chu, or Ronin, as every pilot and Flight Command officer called him, fired the six engines sending it towards the nearby asteroid field. The other fighters followed, fanning out in a predetermined forward pointed V formation so they could coordinate and get a more complete scan.
The asteroid field was massive, hundreds of thousands of kilometres across and even though it had settled in a rapidly rotating plane it was still several thousand kilometres deep. They approached the edge of the field quickly, drifting out on course to pass across the seemingly flat top of the asteroid field.
“I was wondering, why doesn't the Triton do this? I mean, doesn't she have a better sensor suite?” Asked Jaime, coined 'Joyboy' because of his great big toothy grin, though he liked to tell people that the name was inspired by a few very memorable dates.
“Sure they do, but they're also a great big juicy target for anything that could be hiding in this mess. For all we know there's an EMP or nuke trap hiding in this mess.”
“So they send seven fighters. And here I was thinking we were too important to be expendable.”
“If it makes you feel any better there are another fourteen fighters and a gunship ready to launch on my say so. Hey Tempest, you're drifting too far to port. Get back in position,” Ronin ordered.
“Aye, sorry sir.”
“All right, we're moving on to formation two. Forty two hundred kilometres apart in a lateral V. SIO's coordinate so we're getting complete readings. Our top priority is finding signs of defence platforms, transmitters, outposts and anything else that could cause a problem or be worth communicating with,” Minh ordered as he looked at the grey, white and blue expanse of asteroids ahead. There were no operable monitoring posts or other pieces of technology above the field. A few long shipping containers and the wreckage of several old ships had been picked up by the Triton, but they were nowhere nearby.
“What about composition analysis or scouting for dense material for Triton’s manufacturing systems?” asked Sprocket, so named because Mia had qualified as a pilot after being on the maintenance team ever since Triton was taken.
“Our uplink to Triton is feeding all that information to people there who can analyse the data better than any of us,” Slick answered from behind Minh-Chu. “Now keep your eyes on what's important. There should be some kind of defence perimeter ahead.” Minh's SIO sighed and spoke exclusively to him. “I can't wait until they finish rebuilding the analysis and status software without the AI components. I have to admit, I wouldn't mind being out of a job and taking the stick.”
“If you're trying to distance yourself from me it won't work. You're already slotted as my wingman,” Minh flipped the Uriel fighter upside down, continuing in a straight path towards the centre of the asteroid field. "Maybe even as a Squad Leader if you can get your scores up a little."
“With your cover and kill record I don't much mind. All I ask is that you try being a little more predictable.”
“Ha! Fat chance!” Minh burst as he looked across the churning, level field of asteroids. The group of fighters were starting to drift to the right, slowly matching the spin of the expanse of ice and stone. He watched for anything that didn't seem to belong, for something to lock his focus on that might tell him what happened before the Triton arrived. “There should be a ton of traffic if the information Alice included is even half right. She's the only one aboard who knew anything about this spot.”
“I just think it's amazing that she even found this place. There's got to be a story behind that,” Slick added from behind Minh as he looked through sensor data.
“I'm sure she'll be happy to tell you all about it as soon as she wakes up. Until then I'm just glad she found us a cool place to park while Triton makes repairs.”
“How long did they say it would take?”
“At least two days to rebuild the engines, the rest is mostly minor structural stuff so it'll be done before the rebuild.”
“Damn, they really knew where to hit us. I saw the damage they did to the engines, they're a write off. If we didn't have our own manufacturing systems we'd be down to two engines indefinitely.”
“You've got that right. Triton used to be Wheeler's ship so he knew exactly where his shots would count. He manned her with about a hundred people and a ton of automation.”
“I believe it. Sprocket was saying that they're still finding looped circuits and control taps. She couldn't be happier to be out of maintenance.”
“She earned it. Mia's a steady stick.”
“Her name is Mia? I always have trouble getting to know people by their civie names.”
“To know a thing's name is to have power over it,” Minh muttered as he scrolled through his threat assessment interface. The overlay on his vacsuit faceplate found no identifiable threat so he paid more attention to the formation of his fighter squad. Everyone was in place, doing a broad scan and gathering a fantastic amount of data, most of which would be reviewed in the Triton flight control Centre.
“I thought that's what rank was for?”
“When someone's starting to panic they might not answer to a call sign, so it's important to know their real name. They didn't cover this when you trained with the military?”
“Well, they did in basis psyche, but that was a long time ago. That, and I'm an infantry field analyst. I'm still learning to apply that to being a Sensor Intercept Officer.”
“Funny thing, I was in the infantry before I discovered the wonders of being a pilot. How goes the scanning?”
“A few terabytes of data. I'm seeing a lot of heavy metals, there really should be some kind of defence systems down there but there's nothing bleeding power or registering on thermal.”
“Check your silhouette recognition,” Minh advised, bringing a small display up and starting the software up for himself.
“Here? I mean, there's got to be a few thousand objects per square klick.”
“I bet we'll find something before the barrier,” Minh said as he brought up a shape and cross referenced it, manipulating the interface with nothing more than his eye movements and nerve impulse sensors in his vacsuit's headgear. “There, an armed hauler. It's right behind us, got twisted up in the asteroids.”
“Scanning. You're right, and it was badly damaged by energy weapons fire.”
“This is Luckshot, my SIO just found two disabled perimeter cannon emplacements. The blast profile she picked up on one of them matches Eden Fleet. The damage is dead cold though, so it happened at least a week ago.”
“Good work. This is Ronin to Flight Operations.” Minh addressed. “We have evidence of Eden Fleet here. Looks like they've been and gone though.”
“I show you just about to breach the obscuring field. Proceed with caution. I want to know exactly what's in there. Remember, our resident astrophysicists said there could be a class two giant planet in there, so you could run out of space real fast,” Oz replied.
Minh momentarily cleared all the secondary displays from his viewpoint and looked at the field ahead with his naked eye. The vista was blurred severely, but he was certain that there was a lot of empty space ahead. “I'm eyeballing the field and I'll bet my oversized officer's quarters that we'll just find a really thick rock in the middle of this.”
“He says refraction could be to blame for black space. Just be careful,” Oz retorted neutrally. “It'd be pretty embarrassing to nose into a big rock on your first mission.”
“You speak the naked truth, my friend.” Minh checked the weapon systems and powered down the three particle accelerator cannons he'd loaded onto the fighter, leaving two missile pods, a pair of 21mm rail guns for him and another pair on a turret for Slick. “All right everyone, passing through the barrier. Redirect everything you can to your shields. We don't know what's waiting for us.”
He watched the small flight status display at the bottom of his visor as the other six fighter crews followed orders. One of them had loaded themselves with energy based weapons and he shook his head. “You're no longer allowed to determine your own loadout Finger. Looks like you need babysitting.”
“What? What'd I do?”
“You need to load at least two hull piercing weapons that can fire on reserve power alone. You knew it, you ignored it and now you'll be leaving yourself unarmed every time you shunt all power to shields.”
“I can take a few shots on what's left in the-”
“One more word and you're on your way back to Triton,” Minh said firmly.
“Yes sir.”
“Man, meeting you in the sims I'd never think you could be so serious,” Slick mentioned off the squad channel as he ensured the ship's shields and power generation were set as high as possible.
“It's the price of doing it for real.” Minh watched as the space blurred by the obscuring field loomed so largely that he couldn't see around it. His ship punched through, the energy shields around his fighter protected them from any electromagnetic interference. His eyes went wide.
Around a grey, brown and white dwarf planet were arranged a massive latticework of docking platforms, factories, refineries, living sections, defensive systems, solar collectors, factories and other less notable subsections. Spaced evenly out across the dwarf planet's equator were five large installations with pylons extending out like fine silver thorns. They were moving before their eyes, slowly shifting in waves around the top of the station's circular bases.
As Minh looked closer and checked his threat scanner he noticed that there were very few power readings coming from the station. The defence systems were all marked as inoperable. The remnants of hundreds of other ships, most of them long range haulers, were adrift, dead in space.
As two of his squadron moved through the barrier behind him he noticed what was keeping everything within the obscuring barrier that surrounded the dwarf planet. “I have at least nine cruisers, all different profiles. There are other active ships as well,” Minh announced.
“Confirmed. Nine ships varying in mass, all armed. A couple are modified galleons, the others are cruisers. I see one carrier, looks like the command ship. There are about thirty other ships, between twenty five and ninety meters in length. Looks like one of the cruisers is launching fighters. Half of them don't match anything on record. Wait-” Slick worked his comm controls for a moment, fine tuning and trying to filter out a layer of wavering static. “I have an emergency transmission here, looks like it was from a boosted personal comm. It's a digital stream of text that says the miners are holed up in the central complex. They were attacked and disarmed by Eden Fleet and a group of raiders just rushed the station. They don't think the two groups are connected, but they've been fighting a losing battle. The text is recent, seems to back up our intelligence.”
“Eden Fleet and then raiders. That's epic bad luck. Are we getting a ping from Triton?”
“No. No two way comm through the barrier and I can't raise the installation.”
“All right. Finger, take your scan results along with the text from the installation and head back through the barrier just far enough to get a message to Triton.”
“Aye!” he replied as his starfighter spun and accelerated in the opposite direction.
“This is RAD comm. We have laid claim to this salvage. If you do not leave immediately we will interpret your actions as a challenge and will force you out of our space,” came the communication from the largest vessel, the Palamo.
“First, what's a RAD comm?”
“We are Royal Acquisition and Distribution, a licensed salvaging operation.”
“You've laid claim to this entire space?”
“Yes. You read as Triton intercept forces. Please confirm.”
“We're only here for safe harbour and trade. We could use some raw materials and would love a visit to the gift shop.”
“This is a salvage operation. We will fire upon you if you proceed.”
“All right, don't get testy. Before I go, I'm wondering if you have a claim ticket or license number I can pass along to my carrier's command deck. I need something to go back to Captain Valance with and if this is a legitimate claim, well, you should have some kind of fifty digit number or something, I can try to remember it. If not, well, I can't speak for myself, but the Captain might have an issue with you claiming all this for yourselves while there are still people aboard the station. I mean, look at it all! Using the ships you have it's at least a hundred trips back and forth between here and wherever you auction your crap off,” Minh grinned.
“We-” the RAD officer started before unceremoniously closing his end of the channel.
“Are you seriously taunting this guy? They've got forty three ships out there right now,” Slick said from behind him in an alarmed whisper.
“Shhh, daddy's picking a fight,” Minh whispered back. “If these are claim agents I'm the Bad Luck Bear. I might not have much time out here on the raggedy edge, but I know Captain Valance wouldn't want to trade with raiders while there are station workers ready to be saved. There's nothing like a gratitude discount when you're trading.”
“Please power down and prepare to be boarded,” retorted the RAD communications officer.
“So you're raiders!” Minh laughed. “Should have said so. I'll be right back.” He cut communications and flipped his starfighter end over end, angling all engines to fire in the opposite direction, towards the barrier. “Okay, order everyone to head outside the barrier. Tell them to be ready for pursuit,” Minh instructed Slick.
They passed through the barrier and Minh immediately heard Oz's voice. “-thirty five percent diamond.”
“Say again?” Minh asked.
“That planetoid in the centre of the mining facility, it's over thirty five percent diamond according to the readings Finger relayed to us.”
“I've spoken to a representative of the small fleet hiding inside the barrier. They call themselves RAD, Royal Acquisition and Distribution. Asked them for some kind of formal documentation and they choked.”
“That confirms it, raiders. That organization doesn't have a listing in Triton’s computer, and the only references we see on the Stellarnet update point to a bunch of commercial Starliner and warehouse robberies.”
“I think we can scare 'em off.”
“Hold position outside the barrier. Fire only if fired upon, we've got to play this right,” Oz replied.
Oz turned from the main Flight deck console and looked to where Captain Valance was coming down the bridge ramp, he could see Ayan in the command chair above. Something was wrong, he could tell, but it wasn't the time to bring it up. “What do you think? I'm sure if we released all the information we had Minh would make the right decisions.”
“No. We run this like they're raiders, nothing more. I'll tell you when we can change tactics."
“Excuse me,” interjected an older fellow with grey-blond hair. His brow was deeply furrowed. “That planetoid in the centre has twelve earth masses in less than a tenth of the space,”
“We know, you already interpreted Finger's scans and forwarded them to my station, thank you Edward.” Oz replied.
The older gentleman waved him off and went on; “Listen. Just from these crude scans I can see this was a dwarf star that burned out leaving the diamond core behind. If you were to look at the station surrounding it you'd see that there's a gravity mill built around the main installation and right in the middle of that there's a firefight going on.” He selected a small portion of a large circular segment in the middle of the station and enhanced the image. “They could be the station's proper owners defending their installation and these raiders as you call them are probably still fighting to take the station.”
“All right, that's all I need to know,” Captain Valance started, turning back towards the semi-transparent bridge ramp.
Edward caught his arm. “That's not all you need to know Captain. If we could save the people in there they could give us all kinds of information about this station and they might even trade with us. Furthermore, you might be able to convince them to give us enough raw diamond material to say, enhance our manufacturing processes for two months. It would only take half a ton and with the process I see them using that's nothing to them if their cultivation systems are still operational. It's important that your people don't do any more damage to the main installation than-”
Jake brushed the man's hand off. “I heard you. Return to your station. Forward completed analysis and situation data up the chain of command.”
“What? I'm providing vital information here! I have to make sure you give my contributions the attention they deserve, that you don't just go blasting in and render the whole operation useless! As the only trained astrophysicist here I'm uniquely qualified-”
Jake gripped his shoulder, looked him in the eye and spoke firmly, quietly; “No one has time to inflate your ego or consider your pride. Work within the chain of command from now on or I'll have you removed from the command deck permanently.”
Edward turned red and stormed off the flight control deck, pulling his command and control unit off his arm and throwing it against the wall.
“Thank you,” Oz said as he watched the changing status of the fighters holding position outside of the obscuring barrier. Their reinforcements were almost finished launching and about to start towards the energy field.
“Do we have any contact from either side of the fighting on the station itself?”
“Just the old text alert and the message from the Palamo. I'm thinking they lost access to whatever they jury rigged to send that distress message shortly after it was sent.”
Jake stared at the holographic representation of the tactical area. His eye was drawn to the pair of fighters that wove in and out of the obscuring energy barrier. They were marked Ronin and Finger. Why doesn't it surprise me? We're getting enough sensor data from Finger and his SIO, Minh doesn't need to risk himself to supplement. Two scans are better than one though, I have to admit the picture is clearer thanks to the pair of them. He thought as he shook his head. Good to have Minh back. He looked over Oz's shoulder where he was reviewing a more detailed scan of the station's central processing centre.
Many of the hallways to either sides of the main structure had been decompressed and from the visible heat silhouettes he could tell there was an active fire fight taking place. The computer had already marked the combatants by obvious sides but he watched to make sure it had gotten it right. There were twenty five hold outs, most likely station workers or stake holders versus forty two attackers.
“What's the word Jake?”
“Let's get in there,” he read the damage report on the station at a glance and recognized that most of the damage to the structure's defences had been done by weapons with Eden Fleet characteristics and nodded to himself. “Recognize the energy signatures?”
“They come up as Eden Fleet. Looks like these raiders didn't take the station, they came in after the bots did a number on it.”
“I've seen it happen before, they jump in, disable engines, weapons, power sources then get out. Regent Galactic forces showed up in Enreega a few hours after it happened there. I say we get in, rescue whoever's holding out in there and trade or salvage.”
“Better us than them. Ronin and Finger have started taking fire, it's small and they're not taking major hits. Looks like we got their attention,” Oz smiled, setting the orders for the gunships and sending them out. “Alaka's going to like this.”
“He's leading one of the teams?”
Oz nodded with a grin. “He volunteered before I had a chance to offer it to him. Anything to get some time away from his eleven kids.”
“I could imagine,” Jake laughed as he started back up the ramp.
“What do you want to do about the raiders?”
“Seek and destroy until they power down and surrender. We have no choice. The more expensive we make things for whoever's running the show the faster he'll stand down."
"But if he starts blowing his people in our faces as a last resort…" Oz whispered.
"I know, this is only going to get more complicated. We don't have a choice. We're in hiding, nothing can leave the area and if we want to save the station so we can trade with whoever's left we're going to have to risk our people. If they get control of the station or get clear and make it into hyperspace we'll have to find another place to hide and we can't repair our engines while we're on the move.”
“Aye. I'll tell Chief Vega to get boarding crews ready. We're in it now.”
Oz couldn't help but crack a smile as he overheard Jake order; “Take us to point three by twelve, best speed. Load torpedo bays and restrict the gunnery deck to seeker rounds. We're playing a supporting role, let the fighters do the heavy lifting.” His Captain was more assertive and confident than he'd been on the First Light, but he was without a doubt his Captain. Being back on his bridge was like returning home after a long absence. It didn't matter which ship, which bridge, it still felt like home.
He looked up just in time to catch Ayan's reaction to Jake sitting down beside her in the Captain's seat. She was making a point of ignoring him, and he was trying not to look at her.
Oz returned his attention to the larger tactical display and scrolling general status message. Alaka and the flight crew of the Clever Dream marked themselves as loaded and ready while the Cold Reaver was still taking on soldiers. Fighters were launching from the punter hatches alongside the keel of the ship, their pilots reporting ready as they got clear and took up position just in front of the broad carrier.
He almost wished he was going along with the Clever Dream or Cold Reaver boarding crews, but Jake had assigned him exclusively to Flight control. He knew where he was most needed; in command of the entire effort, coordinating with one of his fondest friends; Minh-Chu Buu, the crazy pilot.
Minh's fighter spun out of the barrier, dodging a few small plasma shells before he accelerated back down towards the asteroid field. “Breakfast staying down?”
“Barely. Where did you learn to fly anyway?” Asked Slick.
“Long story, maybe another time.”
“Heads up, mission profile just changed. We have fourteen fighters, the Clever Dream and Cold Reaver incoming. Triton is taking position to box the raiders in. No one leaves. Our new orders are to seek and destroy unless we see a white flag or no power readings.”
“All right, we'll hold for reinforcements out here, tell Finger to stop weaving before he gets slagged. When the Clever Dream and Cold Reaver arrive we'll cover them then break off to harry the raiders into shutting their engines down and surrendering or fleeing the station's orbit so Triton can cut them up.”
“Passing that on to all fighters,”
“What? Why not just fly in and soften them up before the reinforcements arrive. They can't be very good shots if they can't hit Finger.” Joyboy exclaimed a few moments later.
“We go in firing as a group. We're looking to cause as much terror and trauma as we can manage in the first few seconds so they turn and run into Triton’s field of fire.”
“They'll have a greater chance of hitting something if they're firing into a group,” Finger retorted.
“Didn't you hear me the first time? If they think we're doing too much damage in the first few seconds they'll bolt and we can rip them up from behind. Man up, buttercup, this is how we're doing it,” Minh ordered with a finality that surprised several pilots.
Slick burst into laughter the moment the communication line closed. “That's it, I'm calling Finger 'Buttercup' from now on, that's too rich. We have incoming. Marking targets; two small ships and three fighters.”
Minh selected one of the larger, eighty meter long ships as his target and directed his fighter to intercept. “Mark your targets and break. Don't give them an easy target, hit them as hard as you can and watch your spacing.”
He watched the combat display as the six fighters with him selected their targets and broke to attack. His missile systems locked on to the vessel and he rapid fired a volley of a dozen of the small, high speed projectiles as he side slipped. They scattered and interwove, accelerating at an incredible rate. Before they struck he released the safety on his guns and opened fire, strafing the length of the jaggedly designed, pointed ship from stem to stern. As he slid behind the enemy he focused his fire on the engines.
His target's three turrets returned fire, unleashing blurring yellow blasts of energy. Several shots struck the shields and Minh whirled and zagged into the energy barrier for a few seconds before punching back out again on an altered course. It took several moments for the gunners aboard the enemy ship to correct their aim and he took advantage of the time.
Most of the missiles struck the port side of the vessel, reducing its shields to only a few megajoules and Minh opened fire on its engines. Great chunks of the vessel's armour flew off as his rounds burst through. Half the ion engines began to cool down and vent fuel, no longer operable. He could see the hull emitters running down the length of the vessel begin to power up, shading the rough armoured plates in red.
“They're about to head into hyperspace,” Slick warned.
“No, they're not,” Minh opened fire with all his active guns and brought the engine power up to full as he slipped behind the larger, less manoeuvrable ship. The rounds dug at their propulsion systems, sending bursts of fuel and shards of shrapnel spouting and spinning off in all directions. At the last instant he launched half a dozen high yield dumb fire missiles. Three of them struck, enough to cause a mass decompression at the rear of the ship and completely destroy their main thrusters. Its turrets stopped rotating, guns stopped firing and lights flickered out as the hulk drifted lopsidedly.
Minh didn't take the time to comment on his first victim of the day but switched his target to the nearest fighter and took note of Joyboy's position. He was firing at a thin, fixed wing fighter with his pulse cannons, cutting across its rear and turning the main body of his vessel to keep making sweeping attempts at hitting the enemy ship. Minh activated his particle acceleration cannons and took careful aim with his 21mm guns. “What's that fighter tracking? Anything?”
“He's trying to lock on to Sprocket,” Slick replied.
Minh's particle cannons finished charging. He rechecked his aim, making sure that he wouldn't overshoot the fixed wing fighter and opened up with everything but his missiles. He directed his fighter into an upward skid as the enemy spun and tried to turn back towards the barrier. After only three seconds of firing the fighter disintegrated. “Watch for an ejection and mark it for rescue,” Minh instructed as he double checked the combat screen.
There was one fighter left and he looked just in time to see Sprocket fire a volley of seeker missiles at it at minimum safe distance. The projectiles crossed the distance between in an instant and the enemy fighter was destroyed in a violent burst of colliding metal and expanding gasses. Sprocket's fighter careened through the better part of the wreckage at high speed, coming out the other side spinning.
“This is Dent! Declaring an emergency and ejecting!” Sprocket's Sensor Interception Officer announced. An explosive plume erupted from the Uriel fighter and a flashing red marker designated Dent's ejection seat for immediate rescue.
“You have him Oz?” Minh asked.
“I'm sending a rescue equipped Uriel now. What about Sprocket?”
Minh verified her status. Her vacsuit had logged devastating crush damage to her head before losing all function. “There's nothing to rescue,” he replied as he forwarded the information and returned his focus to the combat display. There were no targets to monitor but it was better than looking at the cold verification of Sproket's death.
“Roger,” replied Oz stiffly.
“The boarding crews and their escorts are almost here,” Slick reminded.
“All right,” Ronin addressed the rest of his fighter group, “start accelerating in a parallel trajectory and keep up with me. Change of plans, we're checking the field before they arrive. As soon as you hit the obscuring barrier split up.”
Ronin didn't hesitate at the controls, whipping the engine pods and fuselage towards the barrier and firing his thrusters so hard that his starfighter could be seen for thousands of kilometres as a bright flare. As he approached a shadow drifted across their path on the other side of the barrier.
“Obstacle spotted! Reverse thrust!” Slick shouted over his shoulder.
“Too late,” Minh gritted his teeth as he tried to redirect the Uriel fighter into a turn. They careened through the field and saw that a line of old cargo containers had been sent to drift along the inner edge of the barrier and straight into their path. Their fighter collided hard enough to overwhelm the inertial compensator systems and both Ronin and Slick were jostled hard in their seats. Weapons' fire streaked across the cockpit as the small gunship spun wildly, hurtling through a field of darkened, damaged vessels.
“We lost engine three, trying to realign the controls!” Slick announced, near panic.
“Stop! You'll only screw up my interface with the ship! I'll get us out of this,” Minh retorted as he struggled with his hands and feet to compensate for their wild spin and regain control of the fighter. Old reflexes had returned, and he looked into the direction of the spin, watched the orientation of his pod engines and shut down the stationary thrusters built into the fuselage.
A missile warning sounded.
“God dammit!”
“Countermeasures launched!” Slick announced as several high heat, signal emitting decoys were launched from the rear of the vessel.
Minh reduced all the thrust generated by his engine pods to zero, rotated them manually and reactivated them at half power at counter angles to the spin and in under five seconds the fighter was stable.
A missile struck sounding a muffled thud against the craft. “Shields are down!”
Minh nodded and opened the throttle up to full, directing the craft towards the wreck of a massive barge.
The fighter rattled and alarms sounded as impacts pinged and hammered against the hull. “Get our shields back up!” Minh ordered.
“It'll take a few seconds, get us under cover. Joyboy and his SIO are out of the fight, marked for rescue.”
The fighter accelerated towards the drifting barge ahead under the power of their three remaining engine pods. Minh rotated the fuselage and marked the enemy fighter who was flying parallel above them, skidding sideways as he burst at them with his guns. Several more impacts struck their hull, one of the main engines flashed a damage warning.
In one breath Minh verified his target and ensured that his line of fire was clear of allies. In the next he opened fire. The enemy fighter was flying in the open, too eager to take shots at Minh and his copilot. At the last second he tried to thrust for cover. It was too late. The particle weapon and 21mm guns erupted with deadly force, ripping through the simpler, more lightly armoured fixed wing starfighter and tearing it to shreds. As he spun the fuselage back in line with their course he checked the tactical display. They were down to five fighters and the reinforcements were on their way in. “Send a transmission buoy outside the field with a warning, the raiders have stirred up a bunch of wrecks and a few larger meteors.”
“Already programmed, launching.” Slick said as the rear utility launcher, used for countermeasures, mini-probes and small buoys clicked and popped.
“All right, convey orders to our group; take shots at the larger ships whenever they don't have a clear shot at an enemy fighter. They are to use this cover against the enemy as they hunt down fighters and smaller vessels. I'm taking the lead, we're hunting in a pack. Relay those orders to the second fighter group as they make it through the field, the third fighter group is to stay with and cover the Clever Dream and Cold Reaver.”
“Got it, transmitting.”
Minh marked one of the larger, seventy meter ships with several active turrets and entered a formation for the four other fighters in his group to follow. “How is our ship?”
“I'm shutting down main engine two and we've lost a dorsal armour panel completely. Shields are recharged.”
“Better than expected. Get ready to control the belly turret, targets of opportunity. Have fun Slick,” Minh chuckled.
“I was wondering when I'd get a chance,” Slick took aim at a distant corvette class ship and fired as they broke cover momentarily.
Minh's fighter group fell in line behind him and they swerved between several dozen battered cargo containers before breaking into the open, approaching the port side of the seventy meter long ship ahead. The five fighters opened fire as their prey tried to fend them off with four double turrets. One of the weapon emplacements burst apart while a rear compartment decompressed in a rush of gasses, expelling several crew members.
As Minh's group of five fighters crossed above the medium sized ship their fuselages rotated so they could keep the damaged vessel in their sights and continue their relentless attack. Lights flickered through the portholes. “Maintain fire, have your SIO's use the belly turrets to open fire on those approaching fighters. Let's bloody their noses.”
Their reinforcements arrived, emerging through the barrier like a fire storm as they narrowly avoided drifting wreckage and opened fire on any targets of opportunity. “Buster here with 2nd squad. Orders are to pack hunt on smaller vessels and to take shots on larger targets of opportunity,” reported Sonya, one of Minh's squad leaders.
“Welcome to the show Buster! I'm marking a nice, juicy target for you,” Minh said as he marked a one hundred nine meter long, half octagon shaped vessel closing on his fighter group. There were four fighters flying in formation with it.
“Got it, the Merry Cooper and fighter escort. Thanks Ronin, you know how I love cracking ships with bad names.”
Minh watched as his target suffered multiple decompressions and its cannons ceased to function. Energy readings from the ship dipped suddenly and he marked the pair of fighters that had come to its aid as his squad's next target. His squadron followed his lead as he swung around a small group of meteors. Minh's cockpit lit up as they all opened fire on the older pair of fighters. They flew to pieces in seconds.
Minh looked at the tactical screen as he directed his wing behind a broad, detached solar arm that had been blown off the station in a previous firefight. “I see a fighter recall underway, what do you see?”
“All the remaining fighters are turning towards that ship,” Slick highlighted a large three hundred meter carrier, the Viscount's Pride.
“Oz says no one escapes, so no one escapes,” Minh said with a smile. “All right, this is the one that got Joyboy and his SIO. We're going to use all our dumb fire missiles in the first volley towards their aft dorsal section. Make sure you don't fire them right into their engines or they'll burn up before they hit. Strafe behind cover and focus fire guns on their port side until the missiles strike then widen the hole.”
“This is the Clever Dream. We'll have a clear line of sight in a few seconds to support your strike. Expect a few extra missiles,” reported Lieutenant Garrison, a senior security officer assigned to command the Clever Dream for that boarding action.
As soon as Minh's fighter group broke cover dozens of missiles burst out of their pods. The group slipped sideways after emptying their launchers and took several hits themselves before reaching cover.
“I'm done, three engines down and I'm on backup power,” reported Tempest.
“Can you make it back to the Triton?” Slick asked.
“I can.”
“Good, stay under cover while heading for the nearest barrier edge. Launch a buoy ahead of you to tell them that you're coming in damaged.”
“Aye, sorry.” She seemed genuinely disappointed and regretful as she closed the channel.
The remainder of Minh's group broke cover in time to see a hail of larger missiles zig and zag rapidly towards the Viscount's Pride. “Those are Screamer Missiles, I love that ship,” Minh whispered as his fighter group opened fire with all their cannons. The enemy returned fire in vein. Their shots were absorbed by his squad's shields or blocked by the nearby meteorites and damaged hulks they used as an intermittent defensive wall.
“That'll cause some damage,” Slick chuckled. “Oh man! That's about fifty hits!” he exclaimed as he watched the squadron's volley of dumb fire missiles strike the rear shields of the slow enemy vessel. The power levels of the shielding dropped drastically then the screamer missiles impacted squarely against the aft lower hull. The fighter's sensors reported the Viscount's Pride's shields were completely down.
Minh opened a channel broadcasting on all bands. “You will not be allowed to escape alive. Surrender,” he warned.
“Should we cease fire Ronin?” asked Finger.
“If we cease fire they might not take us seriously,” he replied.
The next time his squadron broke cover, drifting between two collections of larger meteors they dug into the rear of the ship. At first there was little apparent damage, but before they moved behind the next collection of stone and metal a large burst of white and grey erupted from the rear compartments.
“This is Viscount's Pride, we surrender. Powering down weapons. Request permission to take on damaged fighters.”
“Are they actually powering down?” Minh asked Slick.
Slick watched the ship's profile on his sensors for a moment before answering. “I show less then one percent of their former power output. I don't think they had a choice, we hit something important.”
“All right, tell them they're clear to take on their fighter compliment and watch for any extra power readings. Tell Buster to offer similar terms to her target.”
“She's chasing them out of the barrier now.”
“Oh that's a bad day waiting to happen. Triton’s going to cut them to ribbons. Too bad we'll miss it, I've wanted to see that gunnery deck in action since I took the tour.”
“You and me both.”
“This is the Cold Reaver, we're touching down on the station.”
“Clever Dream touching down in ten seconds.”