Project Starfighter (49 page)

Dar’s Cyclone’s shielding
snapped, the instantaneous illusion of a mass of blue shards and
splinters erupting from the points of impact of the Firefly’s
cannon fire. A handful of plasma bolts pushed through to the armour
beneath the Cyclone’s shield, and while Chris did not expect
anything to happen but for the metal plating to chip and buckle from
the hits, he was rewarded with a sharp explosion. The Cyclone’s
engine glow faltered, the fighter’s course becoming irregular. A
near critical hit. He must have gotten lucky.

Yes, but don’t get cocky!
Athena urged him.

Chris felt the Firefly vibrate as
cannon fire struck the rear of the craft, and he immediately took
evasive manoeuvres, accelerating hard to get out of the way. He
zigzagged briefly, before looping around and powering in a completely
different direction.

Finish off the first one
,
Athena told him, the power weighting continuing to shift on the
console. Chris saw that Athena had pushed more power into the
cannons, clearly keen for him to complete the task of downing Dar.

With Dar’s Cyclone still locked by
his targeting computer, Chris located it quickly, seeing it facing
him. The Cyclone’s engines might be struggling a little,
spluttering like a broken hose, but the fighter’s cannons were
apparently still functioning just fine. With both fighters facing one
another, Dar opened up with a deluge of plasma fire. Despite the
onslaught, Chris maintained his heading.

“Full power to the forward
shields!” Chris called.

What are you doing?!

At the same moment, Chris loosed off
two of the dumb fire rockets loaded onto the Firefly. He made no
effort to get out of the way of Dar’s fire, or the man’s fighter,
until the rockets were away, after which he pushed forward hard on
the flight stick, put full power to the throttle, and dived.

He was sure that he heard Dar start
to say something, start to scream an insult at him, one final taunt
before his death. He never quite got the words out, Chris’ rockets
obliterating the Cyclone completely. The radar blip that had marked
the Cyclone winked out an instant after he dived, light from the
explosion glancing off his cockpit.

For a minute, I was worried that
you were going to attempt to fly straight through that
, Athena
said.

“Risk of collision with the
wreckage,” Chris said, before returning his attention to his radar,
and seeking out his next opponent. The three were all clustered
around him, clumped up on his radar. That was no good. He needed
space.

“Well, look at that,” Tyler
chuckled. “Unless I’m very much mistaken, it appears as though
our lad just popped his cherry!”

Tyler might have found it funny but
Chris wasn’t laughing. He realised that Tyler was right, and that
for the first time in his life he had killed another human being.
Before now, he had simply blown apart unmanned fighters, AI-driven
craft that weren’t genuinely alive. Dar was dead. Chris had just
killed the man. He had hoped that Dar would have ejected, but there
were no indications that the mercenary had done so. He was dead.
Gone. Killed by Chris’ own hand.

Dead.

Don’t think about it
,
Athena told him.
It was self defence. I mean it, Chris. If you
hadn’t killed him, he would have killed you. Don’t shed a tear.
He would have revelled in your death, for certain.

Chris acknowledged her, and
refocused on the battle.

“Told you there was something
wrong with Dar’s,” Eve’s voice came over Chris’ comms, her
anger clearly meant for Tyler. “How do we know that there isn’t
something wrong with the rest of them? WEAPCO could’ve sold us
out.”

“Fine, then we’ll finish this
quickly,” Tyler said. “Fun’s over. Don’t hold back.”

Chris took the hint himself,
accelerating hard and pulling away from the group. He heard the
continuous warning blares as guided missiles shot after him, seeing
them disappearing off his radar the same moment that they appeared.
Athena said nothing, clearly taking care of the problem without
needing to consult him.

“Who’s next?” Chris said,
largely to himself.

The mute
, Athena said.
Eve
is holding back, and Tyler isn’t seeking any glory for himself. He
would be happy for the others to do the job for him, to get us out of
the way.

“Have you managed to discover the
source of the timeslip blocking?” Chris asked.

There’s nothing nearby but the
three Cyclones. It must be being broadcast from one of them.

“Or all of them,” Chris said. He
expected for Clayton to be coming at him next, seeking some sort of
revenge for Dar. They had always been close, like blood brothers.
Clayton did as expected, accelerating forward. Chris braced himself
to tackle the man, when he then saw Eve’s Cyclone accelerate along
with Clayton’s, the pair rushing him together.

Chris once again took evasive
manoeuvres as the two fighters’ cannons erupted fiercely, plasma
fire spraying towards him, several of the bolts striking him as he
attempted to escape the volley. Both Clayton and Eve were clearly
quite adept at leading their targets. Thankfully, Athena made the
necessary power weighting adjustments, shifting much of the available
power to the bulk up the defences of the affected quadrants, to
prevent a breach.

Something then slammed into the
topside of the Firefly, the bright, dazzling flash that followed
blinding Chris for a moment. He started to tell Athena to take
control until his vision cleared, when he remembered that she was
completely unable to assist. He swore, not able to help himself,
letting his frustration and terror out.

Chris!

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” Chris
said. His hand already over the throttle. He pushed the Firefly as
fast as it would go, not knowing where he was flying, and only hoping
that his erratic movements would prevent anything from hitting him
until his sight returned. It did so swiftly, and Chris glanced to the
instrument panel as soon as he was able to focus. The shield
weightings read 21/21/21/21. Athena had clearly chosen to take no
risks with what was left of the fighter’s defensive power, now
dividing it evenly amongst all sides.

Sorry,
Athena said.
It was
an unguided rocket, fired from very close range. There was nothing I
could do.

“Don’t apologise”, Chris
replied. He had had a hunch that the mercenaries might do that. The
Cyclones may each have a stash of such rockets, all waiting to be
dispatched at the most opportune moment. Chris wouldn’t be giving
them any more chances to do so.

His radar told him that he had once
again distanced himself from the three remaining mercenaries,
although one of them was coming at him hard. He took a firmer grip on
the flight stick, realising as the fighter approached that he was in
a better position than before. Chris had a chance for a one on one
fight here, albeit a brief one, over as soon as one of the others
caught up to him, but still he had a chance.

Chris brought the Cyclone into his
sights, opening fire even though he was still outside weapons range.
As expected, the Cyclone banked out of the way. Chris continued to
fire after it. His aim was intentionally off, the idea being not to
actually hit his target, but to force it into a more manageable
position. Such as with its back to him.

The Cyclone did as hoped for, and
Chris immediately powered after it, watching his opponent’s speed
and making instant adjustments to his own to compensate, as well as
keeping himself locked firmly behind the fighter. Now here, and with
the mercenary unable to shake him, he held down the gun trigger,
pumping bolt after bolt into the rear. Though his opponent made
attempts to dodge and shake him, Chris stuck to them like glue.

“You wouldn’t actually kill a
woman, would you?” Eve’s voice then came over his comms. “I
always thought you were a lot more chivalrous than that!”

Chris’ finger twitched on the gun
trigger, almost releasing it. The weeks he had spent in the company
of the woman, with the dangerous flirting and the ‘playful’
violence, shot through his head. He recalled the hour he had spent
with her in her quarters, and then the kiss she had forced on him at
the Crucible. Eve was one of the reasons why Athena had taken on that
sexy, sensuous form that Chris found so very appealing.

Don’t listen to her
, Chris,
Athena said.
She’s a mercenary, your opponent. She would kill
you in a heartbeat. She’s trying to use her sex to get to you.
Ignore her.

Chris realised quickly that Athena
was right. Eve had little loyalty to anyone, perhaps not even to
Tyler; likely only as far as she could throw him. Which wouldn’t be
very far at all. Chris never released the trigger, Eve cursing him in
the brief moment that her Cyclone’s engines cut out and her fighter
went up.

“Sorry,” Chris said, as the
craft burst.

Don’t be
, Athena said.
Don’t ever be sorry for doing what is necessary
.

Chris accelerated hard to get out of
the way of the spraying wreckage, and focused his efforts on his two
remaining targets. He saw that Clayton was right next to him, having
been attempting to shoot him down while Chris pursued Eve. Chris
thought himself lucky that Eve had not attempted to lure him towards
her two team-mates.

“Two down, two to go,” Chris
said.

Chris saw as he engaged the man how
Clayton’s flying had become a little sloppy. The deaths of both Dar
and Eve was likely causing anger to spill out of him, and now he was
being driven by rage. Unfortunately for Clayton, that would serve
only to interfere with the task ahead of him.

Chris tackled the man one on one,
taking him down in precisely the same way as he had done Eve.
Clayton’s flight was a little harder to follow, but with enough
concentration, Chris blasted the Cyclone to pieces. Clayton never
said one word during the engagement. Perhaps he knew he was already
beaten.

Chris slowed the Firefly as
Clayton’s Cyclone shattered and erupted into multiple pieces. He
saw his final opponent holding back, and took a look at the Firefly’s
shield readings. 67/67/67/67. The battles against Eve and Clayton had
given his shields plenty of time to recover. He was sure that he
could take down Tyler without any problems. Even so, he wasn’t
going to take any risks.

I’m still blocked
, Athena
told him.

“It’s okay,” Chris said. “I
can do this.” His comms jingled.

“Just you and me now, then,”
Tyler said. “The others might have gone easy on you, but don’t
expect me to cut you any slack. A shame I can’t stick your head on
a pole and take it in personally. No matter, I’m sure they’ll be
happy just knowing you’re dead.” Tyler laughed, and the two
pilots raced towards one another.

Chris loosed his remaining two
unguided rockets as soon as he was within range, the first one fired
straight at the incoming Cyclone, the next in the direction that
Chris anticipated Tyler would head to avoid it. Chris had noticed
during his time flying with the man that, when it came to evasion,
Tyler would always dive down and bank to the left. The leader of the
Wolf Pack did not disappoint, but even so the rocket missed him by a
fraction of an inch.

No taunts or quips from Tyler, who
was quick to adjust his path and realign himself with Chris, opening
up the Cyclone’s cannons. He had linked them, firing all four at
once. Slower to fire than if they were being discharged individually,
the bolts still found their mark. Chris saw the quick fluctuation of
the shield weightings as he shifted his heading, and Athena made the
adjustment to the defences to balance things out again.

Chris’ radar revealed then that
the leader of the Wolf Pack was attempting to force him into the same
inescapable tailing manoeuvre that Chris had used to fell both Eve
and Clayton, though Chris was experienced enough with it to know how
to escape – come to a complete stop, pull a one-eighty, and
accelerate away, more or less in the direction of your attacker. Some
hits were unavoidable, but some damage was far better than death.

As Chris expected, Tyler was unable
to react fast enough to correct his course, and Chris loosed a guided
missile as he sped away, targeting, locking and firing in only a
couple of seconds. With no chance of countermeasures being used
against it at this range, the missile inflicted severe damage on the
Cyclone. Even so, the fighter, being far better protected than the
other members of the Wolf Pack’s had not suffered the same
concussion-like after effects that had dogged Dar. The two fighters
shot past one another, Chris turning and charging at Tyler as the man
swung around and came for him, both fighters’ cannons blazing once
more.

Chris, careful
, Athena warned
him.

Chris did not divert from his
course, both men seemingly willing to play a game of chicken with one
another. Chris watched the Firefly’s shield strength start falling
as the two neared one another, certain that Tyler would veer off
before the fatal collision could occur.

Once again, Tyler did not
disappoint, and Chris fired his second and final guided missile. The
missile struck Tyler at point blank range, Chris slightly surprised
that the resulting explosion was much brighter and more potent than
it should have been.

Caught it
, Athena said.

Chris realised that Tyler had
attempted to pull off a similar attack, one that Athena had thwarted
the very moment the missile had been dispatched.

“You little arsehole bastard son
of a disease-riddled whore!” Tyler raged. “I
knew
I
should’ve killed you the day I first saw you!”

Chris said nothing, slowing and
turning around to follow after Tyler’s Cyclone. He saw then that it
was tumbling, the engines mute, the shields down. Indeed, it appeared
as though one of the cannons had even snapped off, the remains of the
armament drifting away. The Cyclone’s engines spluttered several
times, but the mercenary was unable to coax them back into life.