Authors: Max Feinstein
“New high speed ordinance separation detected,” Regela
informed seconds later.
“Great! More Vortex missiles!” Admiral
Singh groaned.
“Negative, reading twenty
Brimstone missiles and a similar number of Kibas. It’s Trident and Ranger Squadron, sir.”
Achyuta cursed at himself for not noticing those squadrons sooner. He blamed himself, but also recognized the effects that the mental punishment was having upon him.
When the enemy ships had jumped closer the two
Regal
assault squadrons ended up behind them now. This in turn actually gave them a big advantage. They were able to approach the much less defended rear quarter of one of the alien ships to a closer distance before launching their weapons. Both squadrons pulled away right after in order to target the second vessel as their missiles raced in, taking advantage of the limited rearward facing laser emitters. Some of the ASMs were knocked out, but the majority slipped through and struck the ship.
The admiral watched
the zoomed in image of both approaching vessels focus tight just as the right most enemy ship disintegrated under an intense wave of explosions. The Brimstone missiles were some of the most powerful weapons abled to be carried on Federation bombers. They managed to earn their namesake many times over, through multiple engagements with enemy forces over the many years of their service. Being older weapons did not make them any less powerful as was evident by the rapidly expanding field of debris from the enemy frigate sized vessel. Taking notice of this destruction the second alien ship quickly adjusted course to bring more weapons to bare on Achyuta’s fighter and bomber squadrons.
He had no
time to watch further as his attention was shifted to the incoming alien missiles. These were fast approaching from their close in launch point giving the Federation ships very little time to react. Achyuta felt the
Regal
begin to turn again, but its acceleration was slower than before due to the damage to her thruster banks. Other ships of the fleet damaged in the previous assault took longer as well. Admiral Singh’s mind cleared just enough to know that there was only one remaining maneuver they haven’t yet tried.
“Activate
gravitic fields,” Achyuta ordered Regela and leaned forward in his seat, already feeling the restraint fields activate around his seat. These activated in preparation of missile impacts in order to keep him from falling out of his command chair should anything happen.
“Powering up gravitic fields,” Regela complied without question and transferred similar orders to the rest of the battle group.
Activation of the fields became evident within seconds as Achyuta felt his entire body tingle
and is hairs stand on end. With that came a sudden registering of a decrease in his mass. It was not to the point of weightlessness, but almost. The same effect occurred throughout the whole ship, lowering its mass to only a fraction of what it was in reality. This in turn allowed the vessel to accelerate faster and turn harder as if it was a tenth its size. Admiral Singh’s body compressed into the back to the command seat as the
Regal
picked up speed faster than normal and turned away from the incoming missiles. Its escorts moved at the same time in order to keep formation. The maneuver took place in the nick of time as the warheads reappeared all along what had previously been the battle line, almost at the exact positions of the Federation ships.
Something finally went right for the defending force when in consequence to the gravitic fields the alien missiles continued to track their targets without phasing back out of realspace.
For the moment no one could explain what was happening or how, but that did not matter. Regela’s response was immediate to the instantly visualized threats and within seconds multiple explosive flashes appeared in contrast to the black surrounding space of the missiles being intercepted. Unlike earlier, the anti-missile systems throughout the CBG finally began to accurately find their mark over and over again even in the midst of a high speed turn. At the same time another high energy beam fired off by the enemy cruiser also missed its target as the destroyer
Sirius
accelerated away from its position.
Achyuta was about to breath out a sigh of relief, but was stopped short by the sight appearing in front of him. On the large projection displays he began to see a new formation of
three enemy vessels now directly in front of his group. These had been the same ships that had earlier engaged the
Odessa.
He let out a breath of resignation as the zoomed image on the screen before him began to show the bow of one of these large ships alight with a swirling energy sphere ready to fire and seemingly directed straight at the
Regal
.
“GET READY
to launch Knights!” Styker Telwin called out to his squadron as they jostled in space while trying to avoid the intensifying defense fire directed against them.
Getting more visible in front of them, now surrounded in waves of orange colored laser discharges, hung
five enemy ships of various classes. As Knight Squadron approached these ships began to turn away to starboard. While they brought more weapons to bears, the enemy also made themselves larger targets. Since punching through the enemy fighter groups the Knights had accelerated to full attack velocity in their sprint towards the alien capital ships. For a moment they had flown in a sphere formation with four Dragonfires in the middle surrounding on all corners by the three other remaining members of their squadron. Another of his squadron had been too damaged in the breakthrough to proceed with them and was on his way to the
Regal
for a combat landing,
These
outside fighters would occasionally flip themselves backwards towards the pursuing alien craft and engage them in mid-flight in an effort to slow them down further. At the same time the surviving Pegasus combat drones dove into the enemy from behind, giving them something else to think about.
After a few moments, however, t
he flip maneuver became unnecessary as the AF-103E Dragonfires proved to be faster than the enemy fighters and those rear facing pilots flipped themselves back to join the rest of the group. The whole squadron of seven remaining fighters began to pull away from the opposition at a faster rate. As a highly trained unit the pilots maneuvered together as one in their effort to throw off the enemy gunners aboard the warships they were now quickly closing on. Each pilot was now thankful for all the time spent inside the simulators prior to the battle. While they had all complained before to Commander Telwin, insisting that the jammers would take care of the enemy mind attack weapon. Now that those same jammers were of no use to them the training Styker had forced them to complete was kicking in, allowing them all to concentrate on their mission despite the increasing pain throughout their body and the special distortion they all felt around them. The infused meds now coursing through them helped as well.
Up ahead the
alien ships continued to loom larger as they completed their turn towards the
Regal
and the rest of her Carrier Battle Group. The enemy commanders probably figured the fighters little threat, now that they had lost their support ship and were starting to refocus on the much larger and more powerful taskforce fighting their comrades tens of thousands of kilometers away. Styker did not mind this shift of attentions to the heavies. He was only too happy to prove the aliens wrong in their lack of respect for his pilots and their craft. This did not mean that they were simply left alone, however. Proven a second later as an orange beam of deadly fire narrowly missed his Dragonfire and caused the shields to flare a light blue. Others did the same to the rest of the squadron threatening its destruction.
“Target my mark,” Commander Telwin added while completing another barrel roll to avoid the next round of defense fire, “confirm weapons and lock.”
“Ordinance green and spun up, have good lock Boss,” Savage, his XO, replied almost immediately.
“All green, waiting for your go!” came from an excited
, but hurting, Lt. Qickowski in Knight Two.
The rest of the squadron followed suit as their systems targeted the rear quarters of the second largest ship within the formation.
“Here we go Knights!” Styker yelled out, fighting through the still increasing stabbing pain inside his head. “THREE…TWO…”
“Sir! Registering Graviton Surge from enemy formation!”
Junior Lt. Darla ‘York’ Valerin exclaimed and paused his count, “they’re jumping…”
Darla’s voice trailed off just as the whole alien group disappeared
into their faster-than-light jump leaving behind only empty black space. Upset with this new development in his original plan, Styker clinched his jaw and squeezed down hard on his thrust control. Whatever the enemy was doing it was causing him to slowly lose control of his emotions and in turn himself. The Commander tried to regain his composure and with a clearer head began to turn his squadron towards the CBG. He guessed that the aliens had most likely jumped in order to attack his Carrier Group. As such Knight Squadron would follow them from behind and hopefully get back into the fight.
“Raven,
Flip One reading Hotel Seven’s signature. She was damaged by the
Odessa
earlier,” Patricia sent out a moment later as one of the squadron’s Pegasus ACVs detected the alien ship’s now distinct signal. The Anubis missile strikes had caused damage to its hull, ruining its once superb stealth characteristics.
“
Copy that Four,” Styker replied with just a slight hint of a smirk on his lips as he heard that piece of good news, “plot us a course. Knights accelerate to full and be on alert.”
“Roger Lead. Enemy
twelve thousand kilometers out.”
At top speed the Dragonfires of Knight Squadron pulled away from the alien pursuit fighters even further and wit
hin minutes were closing on the hostile’s suspected location. The damaged alien vessel became increasingly easier to detect as the squadron closed on its position. This allowed the Knights to get a more accurate fix on its position in space and it was quickly apparent that the ship was holding itself at a very distant standoff point, far away from the actual ship to ship battle raging ahead. Styker thought this very strange since the escort ship should have joined the others to assist in the battle. The commander guessed that either the ship was too damaged to fight or it had been assigned another mission.
Whatever the reason was it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Taking this chance and their only solid lead of reacquiring the enemy Styker led his Knights towards Hotel Seven. The closer they got the larger the target this enemy ship presented on Styker’s sensor display. It also gave his electro-optical system a more definitive location in space on which to focus on. In minutes the alien warship enlarged within the center of his canopy HUD. He could quickly see the distortions within the once smooth hull where the
Odessa’s
weapons had impacted the ship. A number of these hits had resulted in rather deep craters that dug into the interior of the vessel. Perhaps the ship was actually too damaged to participate in the battle, Commander Telwin thought to himself.
It was in the middle of this thought that his head began to throb harder and the world started to spin around him. Various feelings of doubt and horrible death to everyone dear to him accompanied the wave of nausea moving through him. The assault was more intense than even the previous one had been, but it was not before he noticed another pitch
black shape floating beside Hotel Seven. This one larger and bigger than the other with a much different hull design. Even through his now blurred vision Styker’s sophisticated eyes scanned over the dark shape and noted the bulbous ventral and dorsal positions that jutted out from the hull into curved raindrop shapes. He wasn’t sure why, but instinctually deep inside he knew that this ship was of great importance.
Following that strong feeling and internal guidance
Commander Telwin switched targets from the damaged alien escort with the use of his optical designators. The entire squadron was then instantly greeted by incoming fire from both the alien ships. They had obviously been tracking the Knights ever since they had initiated their course correction.
Styker watched one of these heavy orange beams smash into
Knight Two. The beam pierced through the forward shielding of the Dragonfire and contained enough residual power to sheer off its portside wingtip. Kelvin Qickowski felt the fighter shudder and tumble out of formation from the kinetics of the impact before he could wrestle control back.
“I’m good Lead. Just a little clipped,” Two
relayed before Styker even had to inquire.
“Copy that Quick. Reacquire the target,” the commander replied while checking out the damage through his TacLink connection.
“Knights spread and commence attack run now!” Commander Telwin ordered and pushed his fighter further ahead towards the enemy. More defensive fire continued to pour out towards them, pushing Styker’s skills as a pilot to try and avoid them.
The closer they got to the pair of alien warships the more concentrated the fire became directed at them. At the same time the pounding in his head and pain throughout his body similarly increased to the point where he could no longer guaranty their successful evasion of it. With the survival of
his squadron in question Styker could no longer justify the risk and called out his fire order.