A cauterized stump from the crowd rose in triumph. “Alpha Wing!” cried Sladurr.
“Alpha Wing! Alpha Wing!” the crowd began to chant.
RRRNNN! RRRNNN! RRRNNN! Those familiar sirens that told me that it was go time. Across from me, Harley climbed into her Smoothblade R-90. Drasheel was already in her own craft, the cockpit lowering. All the women that I cared for were all going into battle at once. What choice did any of us have? I trusted that Harley and Drasheel could take care of themselves. I knew them both to be talented pilots, and Kris-10 was a machine intelligence who was probably as dexterous as the most trained fighter in the cockpit.
“Hey, flyboy!” Harley called. “Come back safe.”
“That’s up to my wingman, right?”
“Oh, is that we decided? I thought I was flying point on this one.”
“My mistake, of course,” I smirked. But her expression was serious.
“Ted, whatever happens don’t go doing something crazy out there.” She was carrying the weight of anticipation, worrying for me.
“You don’t have to worry,” I assured her. “We’re all coming back from this thing.”
She turned to enter her cockpit. I looked to Doyle who gave me a little, half-sarcastic salute. We shook hands and I climbed in. The Cutlass inside was all systems go. The yoke of the controls were like butter in my hands. I lifted off and the landing gear retracted. My fighter shot out of the fighter bay like a bullet, out in the vast expanse of open space.
The masses of the Federation forces appeared as 3D models in front of me. Most were just minnows, no bigger than my small craft. But I was headed straight for the sharks.
At my wings were Drasheel, Kris-10, and Harley. “Look alive,” I warned. “Here they come.” As predicted, a wave of fighters appeared in front of us, sending a volley of fire straight at us. We broke formation, me pulling hard to bring a trail of five of them to chase me. They expected a rough hunk of junk, but my ship was sleeker and faster. I dodged their fire, weaving and rolling as I sent a grenade that blasted one fighter to pieces and sent another off course with a flaming wing. For a second, I wondered if I had once passed the man I just killed in the galley during mess time, but I quickly dismissed the thought. They wouldn’t hesitate to fire if they knew that I had once been their comrade, so I know I had to show no more mercy.
Two more tried to catch me in a vice, firing with all they had in a curtain of death that they sent in on me. But I maneuvered out of their path and blasted one of them with a rocket, smashing the other who flew too close to the range of the blast.
I whipped around to find a fighter hovering just behind Drasheel’s blindspot. I sent him scrambling with a strafe of lasgun fire. Then Drasheel and I went on the offensive, catching two more bombers unaware. They tried blasting us apart by dumping their payloads in a trail behind them, but our ships were much easier to maneuver, and as soon as the bombs were spent we made quick work of them, targeting the weak spot under their tails and wrecking them with a few quick bursts of fire.
“Drasheel, finish up the rest. Kris-10 and Harley, you’re with me.”
The carrier ships were drifting, breaking formation as they approached Dawn. The Titan was in the rear of two elongated ships that looked fishing lures, oblong on top with guns that were like narrow hooks. The canons were blasting straight into the colonies orbiting Dawn, like I’d anticipated. We’d evacuated the most densely populated sections so much of what they were blasting were empty shells, but that wouldn’t stay the case for long.
“We’ve got to take out these guns!” I said, flying low but out of range of the hook. Fighters swarmed to protect the big guns. Harley and Kris-10 fell in line behind me as I flew along the outside of the hook, dropping bombs as I flew. The gunship had energy shields of course, but even these were overwhelmed as I managed to time the deployment of the bombs so that each erupted at a different section. Harley followed, hitting the same weakened points that I’d just attacked so that ruptures started to form in the hook. Just as a squadron of fighters appeared on our tail, the hook burst apart and send hot plasma straight into the fighters. We pulled up and out just as the chain reaction tore through the whole gunship.
“Hell, yeah!” cried Harley, exhilarated.
“Alpha Wing!” it was Charmer, cutting in on my channel. “We’re getting swarmed over here,”
“I hear you, Charmer. But we’ve got to press on if we’re going to take out that Titan.”
Gaahzzzzz. On the screen, Charmer’s head buzzed and fizzled out. “Charmer! Come in, Charmer!”
“Ted, we expected this would happen. Stick to the plan and we’ll make it.”
“Harley is right, Max Derringer,” Kris-10 intonned. I knew she was. But the distance between the Titan was still too much to close, and our defense relied on us having enough fighters to hold off the onslaught. We had to draw the Unity ships just a little closer to the habitation tanker on the forward aft, and so far that whole area had been ignored by them as they sliced through our spread-thin force of fighters.
“Ted!” Harley called after me as I somersaulted away from the Titan and back towards the fleet of orbiting Dawn colony pods. “Damn it, what did we agree to?!”
“I know, I know. But we can do both. Watch my tail,” I barked.
Just as I’d hoped, I got a whole squadron of fighters coming around to meet me on my starboard side. Thinking they had the advantage of superior numbers, they made the fatal mistake of flying too close together. “That’s it, boys,” I said to myself. “There’s safety in numbers.” Just as the tip of the spear came down on me, throwing all kinds of hell directly at me, I deployed the cluster weapon Drasheel had saved me with during our battle with the Telexians. One by one, their ships were ripped apart and sucked up by the magnetic force of the bomb, wiping out the whole trail of them in a green flash.
Now I really had their attention. Whole contingents of fighters started breaking off just to take me out. I was the number one target in minutes, and a scattered dozen other Wings of Dawn started limping over to come to my aid. I moved toward the forward aft pod. Nice and easy, just like that.
“That you, Clockwork?” I knew the voice immediately, even if I couldn’t guess how he’d managed to get on this channel.
“Hello, Knight. I didn’t realize you made it out of the battle with Gix.”
“Yeah, well you know me. Nitro, Jackal, they weren’t so lucky. Could have used you in that battle. Shame I’m gonna have to kill you in this one.”
“Ted, don’t let him get you.”
“That’s okay, Harley. I’m not really interested in the mind games now. I’m done with that. Losing everyone you care about can sometimes take from your sardonic humor just a tad.”
“Knight, I’ve lost people too. But this thing you’re fighting for isn’t what you think it is. Why do you think you’re here killing these people instead of getting even with the Gix for what they’ve done?”
“A good soldier never second guesses the orders of his command, Clockwork. You used to know that. That’s how people die.” As if to punctuate his point, Throx’s head in my display fizzled and sputtered out. Dead. Knight was tearing through the fighters who were coming to my aid.
“You bastard!” Harley shrieked. “You’re just the Federation’s pawn and you don’t even see you’re being used!”
“You’re wrong!” Knight was really getting worked up now. “I accept that this is someone else’s game. But I don’t switch sides just because I don’t like the way it’s being played. I still stand for something, even if I’m alone. Even if I have to kill every traitor and deserter myself.”
Knight’s ship cut fast across my field of vision before I was even able to get a shot off. “Damn it,” I swore under my breath.
“I’ve got him,” called Harley, her ship appearing after Knight’s.
“Hold on, let me cover you,” I warned. This isn’t what I had hoped for. Your average Federation could be lead on a chase
and then duped into a trap, but Knight was no fool. He would smell a trap before he ever got close enough to fall into one.
I hit my left thruster and then the right in quick succession, pivoting me so that the tip of my craft was aimed dead on Knight. Then, I gave my Cutlass a quick burst of juice and sent the whole thing careening forward fast to close the gap between me and Knight. I turned my wing hard to keep from colliding with Harley as she pursued him too.
“Derringer, what the hell are you doing? I told you he’s mine.”
“Sorry, but I couldn’t let you have all the fun.”
Knight’s ship sent missile fire into one of the older (ship) but he wouldn’t engage me in the dogfight I wanted. Instead, he seemed bent on getting me to engage him on his terms. That’s when I realized it.
“Harley! He’s hiding a formation under that water tanker to flank us, blast it and see.”
“You really think that’s—”
“Just do it, trust me!” Sparks of red lasgun fire spat out from Harley’s guns and the streams of water erupted out of the tanker, crystallizing instantly into trails of ice that jutted out like twisted tentacles. Sure enough, four fighters were spooked enough to detach from the bottom of the tanker. I flipped around, sent a bomb directly at the tanker, and the four were covered in wreckage-filled frost with seconds.
“Nice!” Harley exclaimed.
“Bray-kurr” droned Drasheel, “Heez on meee.”
Shit. I could see that while I was distracted Knight had gotten on Drasheel’s six and he was putting the heat on her. “Hold on, I’m coming!”
My ship was already humming along, burning fuel as I flew but this would be the supreme test, to see if I could catch him. Then, I realized I didn’t have to work alone. I glanced over at the 3D display, showing the globe view of the moving dots within a 3 click radius.
“Kris-10 bank left and start firing. Harley, pull up as hard as you can.”
“Yes, Max.”
“Alright, Clockwork,” Harley jeered. “I sure hope you’re right here.”
With Knight trailing just behind her, I reached out to Drasheel in my mind. He can’t listen in now, so do exactly as I say and you’re going to make it out.
Yes.
Bank right. Now! She did, just in time to miss Kris-10’s fire which Knight had to spin to avoid. At the same moment, Harley was coming right up under him and got a clear shot at his underbelly.
“Eat this, fucker!” she called as she landed a hit that made Knight’s craft shudder. He was forced to disengage and come around to respond to Harley. And I was ready to meet him. Harley and I fell into formation together, our ships mirroring each other in space. We punched hard, sending two missiles each straight at Knight. He managed to dodge the first but the second struck him directly in the wing. We sped between him at the precise moment when his cockpit erupted from a direct hit. Gone.
I could hear the howls of excitement and elation from the other Wings of Dawn, but I felt a mix of relief and regret. Yes, I knew that it had to be done, but dispatching Knight brought me no pleasure. Anyway, there wasn’t time to think since in the ensuing battle my plan to draw the other fighters to me had worked, and worked well. We had managed to move the main theatre of small-craft combat over to this section of the colony, and now it came time to spring the trap.
“All right, you all know what to do. Doyle! Execute the trap!”
The Wings of Dawn retreated from pursuing their targets and all began to converge on the station. From the enemy’s point of view, it looked like we were running for cover, and in a way we were. But they didn’t know from what yet.
“Now!” the ships flew straight through the spaces between the hobbled together junkers and wrecks that made up the Dawn colony. Cracks and crevices with interior warrens so narrow that they could only be safely piloted by those who had grown up running speed trials through them. Except in my case. I just had to go by feel.
The aft tanker blew, sending dozens of Federation fighters who were pursuing the retreated Dawnwings straight into a fireball. I turned my ship so that I slipped into a gap between a water reclamation plant and a food-growing facility. I killed the engines, letting myself glide along just as smoothly as if I was a fishing seeking shelter between two rocks in a storm. Gurrrrrunch! I bottomed out on the series of pipes and tubes that made up the water reclamation plant. I tried to correct as gently as possible, wondering if some of the wings might not be getting caught in the crevice. I was right.
“Ted Derringer,” said Kris-10 in her calm, placid voice. “My ship is caught. I need to be dislodged. Please.”
“Hold on, Kris-10. I’m coming for ya,” I gave my thrusters the lowest possible level of forward momentum and listed forward towards her position. When I got close, I changed to the landing thrusters normally used to keep the ship level as it descended. I had to do this carefully to keep us both from getting stuck without a method of rescue. I nudged her back wing, the one snagged on a pipe, with the nose of my fighter. At first, the ship wouldn’t budge, but after a few tries it came loose and Kris-10 was released. She gently guided her ship out of the crevice and I followed, careful to make sure that I didn’t risk my ship but eager to rejoin the fight.
We emerged from a gaping hole in the evacuated tanker that we’d strategically blown. The trap had worked as expected. I’d drawn them to the spot like moths to a flame and now the fighting forces that had come to destroy Dawn were a shadow of what they had been. Those that remained were retreating to regroup around the Titan. Now was the chance that I’d been waiting for.
“All right, we’ve got them on the run now. Watch those big guns, and let’s move in.” There was a collective cheer on the radio channel as we regrouped into formation. If we could just take down that Titan, it would mean bringing this battle to its endgame.
There were more Unity fighters forming a ‘V’ and swarming at us, but Teru, piloting one of the reclaimed phantoms, broke up their lines and forced them to regroup, allowing me to move forward with a clear shot at the Titan.
“Thanks, Teru. Converge on me when you can. I’ve got a plan, and I’m gonna need the best pilots I have to make it work. Everyone else, cover our approach.”
“What’s the plan?”
“We’re going to pull an Arc.”
“Shit. Derringer, come on. The Arc is a killer for a team that’s drilled it. We’re flying into this thing blind. Kris-10 has barely ever even flown before.”
“We can do this, Harley. I know we can. It’s the best chance we have of cutting through that Titan’s shields.”
I’m with you, Drasheel assured me.
“I’ve got ya, Alpha Wing,” Teru called, doing a loop da loop that sent two phantoms colliding straight into each other.
“Come on then, let’s finish this thing. For Dawn!”
“For Dawn!” came the response.
“I dispatched two more fighters, ducking and weaving through the rabble of pawns standing between me and the Queen. We were closing in now. Kris-10, Drasheel, Teru and Harley. We were falling into formation, forming that unstoppable phalynx known as the Arc, the illegal move that had landed me in so much trouble with the Federation. Now it was about to be their worst fucking nightmare.
“Ready?” I asked across the open channel.
“Ready!” came the call.
“Ted,” a familiar female cut in.
“No. No fucking way,” gasped Harley. “It can’t be her. Max, it’s some kind of a trick.”
But I knew immediately, trick or not, that the voice on the person on the other other end of that voice could only be Celeste. Her hologram appeared in my cockpit display.
“Derringer, what are are you doing?”
“Celeste, what are they hell are you doing? What are you doing on that ship?”
“I made it out on another escape craft.”
“You said they would have scuttled all the escape pods. Standard operating procedure.”
“I was wrong,”
Celeste insisted. “I was wrong about a lot of things.”
“Alpha Wing, we doin’ this thing, or what?” asked Teru, confused.
“Yes, Max Derringer. We are nearing the terminal curve in the arc. We cannot hesitate.”
“Yes, I understand. Just give me a second to think.” This was all too much to take in. Celeste had somehow survived again? And why was she saying these things? Was she their puppet, reprogrammed to be loyal. Did she fear for her life, or was it all just a bluff? I had to find out more, and fast. “Celeste, why did you disappear at the reprograming center?”
“Ted, give it up. She’s not with us. Whatever she has to say, it isn’t true.”
“Just wait a minute, okay?” I knew I had to hear whatever she had to say.
“Ted, I’m sorry that I had to deceive you before. I was never a prisoner of the reprograming center. I was planted there. My mission was to be bait so that if you arrived I could move you into position for the commandos to take you out.”
“So, why didn’t you? Why send me down a lifeline instead of letting me die in the reactor room?”
“I couldn’t. I saved you because I loved you, and I still do. More than that, I knew that I could convince the military that you were worth recovering instead of destroying. I plead my case to a tribunal, and ultimately Admiral Bradus agreed that you should be spared. If you disengage your weapons now, Admiral Vargon is ready to let you onboard and leave Dawn now without any further loss of life.”
I mulled this over, but it didn’t add up. “That doesn’t make sense, why would you lie in wait just in case I showed up? And why would Bradus have a soft spot for me? He sent me to the center before. Why does he think I’m worth saving now, after everything that happened?” And why gut the center in cover up? It just rang false. And it seemed to confirm my worst fears. That the Celeste I knew had been reprogrammed after she was pulled from the center. The beautiful face I saw before me was just a shell, a puppet being moved by the same people that had been pulling my strings for so long.
Alpha Wing Page 17
