Project Starfighter

by Stephen J Sweeney

  “You’re getting cold feet?” Athena asked. “Do you not think you can do this?”

  “I’m not sure,” Chris said. “I thought it was going to be easy at first, but the deeper I go, the more complex and difficult things become. WEAPCO is not the only major force out there. There are others, who, even if only half as bad as WEAPCO, still present a big problem. The task seems never ending, like pushing the boulder to the top of the hill and watching it roll down the other side. It will never just stay where you want it.”

  Athena smiled gently. “I have come to learn, in my admittedly short life, that things are never as simple as they seem. You will always be fighting against something. There will always be another mountain to climb. What gets you over each hurdle is will and determination. You’ve come this far already, you just need to stick with it.”

  Chris nodded. It wasn’t quite as easy as that, but he appreciated the sentiment. Standing at the bottom of the mountain and proclaiming that it was insurmountable would never lead to victory. He seemed to see things a little more clearly. Athena might be nothing more than an artificial intelligence construct, but she still knew all the right things to say.

  “What else?” Athena probed further.

  “We have just had a meeting with Krass Tyler, the mercenary that I hired to find you in Spirit. He wants to ally with us against not only WEAPCO but also a mercenary group known as the Immortal League.”

  “I know of them,” Athena said. “They’re more like a cult than a mercenary group. Their leader, Mal, strikes me as a man who will defeat his opponents through fear rather than direct action. Simply the knowledge of who he is and what he stands for seems enough to cow all but the most determined of opponents.”

  “I don’t know much about him, myself. Doubtful that I will ever meet him, if I’m being honest,” Chris said. “The problem is that, the way I see it, we have to fight three opponents, not just one.”

  “Because once WEAPCO is defeated, you will then have to deal with Tyler or Mal, so that they do not attempt to seize control,” Athena said. “Yes, that is a problem. Do you know what I would do?”

  “What?”

  “I would take it one step at a time, deal with each problem as it arises. You did it before, I saw. You also have strong allies – Sid and Phoebe. Perhaps Ursula, too, if and when we are able to rescue her. Keep them close. They are the most powerful weapons you have. You also have me.”

  Chris felt her fingers wandering over to his, brushing them gently. There was a solidness to them, as well as the warmth and that small electrical tingle he had sensed earlier. He responded, taking her hand and squeezing it gently. “Thank you,” he said.

  “No problem,” Athena said.

  He held her hand a little while longer before releasing it. “I’m going to go and get some rest,” he told her. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Chris,” Athena said, as he walked away. “I know that you are not fond of who I am, or what you think I am, but I hope that one day you will see me as an equal.”

  He turned around, pausing as he saw the avatar had moved further away from the Firefly than usual. Beyond the range of the system, the projection was distorting and breaking up a little.

  Undeterred, Athena went on. Her voice crackled as she spoke. “I do hope that you will one day see me as a friend, someone you can depend on and who will be there for you when you most need.”

  “Perhaps one day,” Chris said. Though he couldn’t be entirely sure, he thought he saw a smile on Athena’s face before the avatar disappeared completely.

  ~

  Tyler contacted them early the next day. The Wolf Pack were gearing up for a strike run against Elamale’s main WEAPCO shipyard in the next two hours.

  “Bring every gun you have,” Tyler told them. “I want to deliver a message to both Mal and the Corporation that they are not the only big fish in this pond.”

  Chapter 21

  Chris was impressed with the fleet that Tyler had mustered for the assault against the shipyard. He had expected something small, only a fraction of the size of that which had attempted to tackle the Grand Vizier, back in Spirit. But there must have been at least a hundred units here.

  Tyler had also gotten his hands on a battleship – the A.B.C. It appeared to be some sort of hybrid, a mishmash of other vessels. Perhaps it was a fallback warship, constructed in secret by the Wolf Pack, and squirrelled away some place to hide it from other mercenary groups. Either that, or it had been thrown together in a hurry from whatever had been lying around. Still, the thing was decked out with plenty of powerful guns, both long and short range, and was also stocked with a good number of rockets and missiles.

  Yes, Tyler had made good on all his promises so far. There was, however, one small problem.

  “Looks like Mal might have had the same idea,” Sid communicated from the bridge of the Dodger.

  “Yep,” Chris answered. “It doesn’t look like this is simply going to be us versus WEAPCO, anymore.”

  He tightened his grip on the Firefly’s joystick as he closed in on the WEAPCO shipyard. With the Immortal League now in the area, the Firefly’s radar was tracking dozens of additional units. A large number of the players on the field still belonged to the Corporation, however, and Chris was actually somewhat grateful for the appearance of the second mercenary group. It seemed that the shipyard here at Elamale was home to a great many more fighters and warships than had originally been estimated, and it was clear that Tyler’s group would have been heavily outnumbered from the outset.

  “How do you want to play this?” Eve asked over the open channel.

  “We hit WEAPCO first,” Tyler responded. “We won’t directly engage any of Mal’s party unless they fire on us directly.”

  “Right, so we just let them get the drop on us?” Dar asked. “The moment they’re done with WEAPCO, they’ll likely turn on us.”

  “We don’t know that for sure,” Tyler said. “Ignore him for now; let’s just do what we came here to do. This might end up being nothing more than a pissing contest, in which case we should oblige Mal by knocking down more of WEAPCO’s units than he does.”

  With Phoebe still in control of a number of Talons, Chris wondered how Mal’s forces might react to seeing WEAPCO fighters battling alongside the Wolf Pack. Would he presume that Tyler had teamed up with the Corporation? Surely not, given that they were striking one of WEAPCO’s own shipyards.

  Moving into weapons range, Athena notified Chris.

  The warning came at the same moment that several flashes erupted from the mobile gun turrets circling the shipyard, energy beams issuing. One of the Talons flying alongside Chris fell immediately, as it was struck by cannon fire. The energy from that weapon must have been tremendous to fell it so quickly! The Firefly suddenly jerked and Chris found that it was changing course of its own accord, making very sudden and precise movements. Athena had taken over.

  “Sorry,” he said to her. Even in those brief seconds, it was clear to him that he had been far too slow to react. Athena had appreciated the danger instantly.

  Chris, please take extra precautions, she told him. This fight will not be easy. I will pull us out if I think our lives are in danger. I’m returning control.

  “Understood,” Chris said, feeling the timeslip start to surround him. He had not requested it, but Athena had clearly forced it upon him, keen to make sure that he wasn’t going to make any mistakes here.

  “Everyone okay?” he broadcast to his team-mates.

  “Okay,” Phoebe said.

  “All clear,” Sid answered.

  None of the Wolf Pack answered him.

  “Eve, Dar, Clayton – split and lead the main strike as agreed,” Tyler said. “I will take Bainfield, and Lexx and her machines to engage the fighter support. The A.B.C. will hit those cannons from long range.”

  “Got it,” Eve, Dar, and Clayton said. The three increased their speed, taking with them those members of the Pack under their command, g
unning towards either end of the shipyard, doing what they could to evade the incoming fire from the turrets and commence their bombing run.

  Chris saw counter beams from the A.B.C. start to strike the yard’s mobile weapons arrays, smashing them down as quickly as it could. Chris was grateful for the warship’s presence, since the mobile AI guns had apparently determined that the heavily reinforced vessel was of a far greater threat than the individual fighters.

  In response to the A.B.C.’s attacks, WEAPCO fighters began to pour out of the yard, Talons, Mirages, and many others that Chris did not recognise, turning to meet the incoming threat, dividing themselves between the Immortal League, and the Wolf Pack. The three sides clashed not long after, twirling and looping around one another, unloading cannon fire from all manner of weapons.

  It was quite some time – at least from Chris’ perspective – until he downed his first opponent. Athena had enforced some hard limits on the timeslip, and he wasn’t able to increase his perception very much at all. Everything was running a great deal slower than he generally preferred. It would mean a long, tedious fight, one that would leave him mentally exhausted, but one that he was more likely to emerge from alive.

  “Can you take control of any of those, Phoebe?” Chris asked, looking over the swashes of WEAPCO-aligned starfighters that made up the shipyard’s defences.

  “I’m in the process of doing so,” Phoebe said. “I’m taking baby steps, and trying to stay alive at the same time.”

  “Is range important?”

  “Very. As is line of sight, most of the time.”

  Chris sought Phoebe out on his radar, sighting her Valkyrie and heading towards her, to provide her with additional support as she went about the task. A number of WEAPCO fighters immediately started to focus their attention on him. He locked the closest of the group of Mirages, preparing to open fire on it if Phoebe wasn’t able to take control of it in time. The group speeding towards him then began to slow, before each one flipped around and turned away, starting back towards Phoebe. Several other WEAPCO fighters across the field made similar course adjustments, breaking away from the mercenaries that were attempting to bomb the construction bays.

  “Phoebe, are you doing that?” Chris asked, as a number of red blips on his radar flipped to green, marking the WEAPCO fighters as friendly.

  “Yes,” Phoebe responded.

  “I thought you said you were only taking baby steps?”

  “I was. But ... it’s hard to describe. I can just see it all a lot clearer, now. I thought it was going to be like learning to ride a bike; a gradual process, where you get used to balance. But something has just ‘clicked’.”

  Chris felt Athena relax the timeslip, allowing his perception of the world to slow, and the speed of battle to return to real time.

  “We’re safe?” Chris asked her.

  I think so, Athena said. Phoebe seems to have a good grip on things. Her abilities exceed my own by a long, long way.

  By his own count, Chris had downed a grand total of around four AI fighters before Phoebe had taken over control of the WEAPCO forces. His further participation in the battle was almost unneeded. “How many are you controlling?” he asked Phoebe.

  “Almost all of them,” Phoebe said. “Watch.”

  At once, the array of fighters that had at one time threatened the Wolf Pack grouped up into a neat formation and turned away from the shipyard, powering towards Phoebe’s position. Fire from Mal’s group chased some of them before the mercenaries stopped.

  “Move away from the shipyard,” Phoebe communicated to the members of the Wolf Pack still circling the construction zone, laying down bombs and fire against the huge structure.

  “What are you doing, Lexx?” Tyler asked her.

  “Watch,” she said, waiting for those around the yard to move clear. “Boom.”

  At the word, explosions started to rip their way through the shipyard, sections splitting and breaking off. They were not small explosions, either. These were tremendous blasts, shattering the yard in a way that Chris was not sure that even the combined firepower of the mercenaries could have delivered.

  “That’s for my sister,” Phoebe said.

  “How did you do that?” Chris asked.

  “The yard itself was being controlled by an embedded AI system,” Phoebe said. “I simply accessed it and told it to self-destruct.”

  “Clever,” Chris said.

  “Amateur,” Eve tutted. “Why didn’t you do that in the first place?”

  Chris was about to reply with a witty retort of his own when the Firefly’s console started to jingle. “What’s that?” he asked Athena.

  The League, she replied. They have a message for all of us.

  Chris looked at his radar, seeing that one of the blips marking a fighter in the distance was blinking steadily. That ship would contain Mal himself, Chris was sure.

  “Let’s hear it,” Chris said.

  On one of the Firefly’s cockpit screens, an image of a man’s face popped up. The man wore a flight helmet that, unlike ordinary ones, covered the top half of his face, so that only his nose and mouth could be seen. Unable to wear his traditional hood, that helmet would be the next best thing, Chris thought.

  “That shipyard was mine,” Mal said. “This is an Immortal League controlled zone. You had no right to come here and attack my property.”

  “An Immortal League controlled zone?” Tyler responded. “There must be something seriously wrong with your head, Mal. Up until a few moments ago, this was WEAPCO space. I just sent them packing. Now it’s my space. And you’re trespassing,” he added with a snarl.

  “It is not me who is intruding here,” Mal said. “Kill them! Kill them all!” he called. “Our glorious crusade will begin with my victory here against these Devil spawn!”

  The communication shut off, and the many dozens of starfighters that had arrived with Mal began to mobilize, crossing the gulf of space that separated the two opposing sides, and surging towards the Wolf Pack. The Wolf Pack responded in kind, and in less than a minute a torrent of cannon fire was being exchanged, both groups apparently opening fire even before they were in range. Chris did not see to whom the first victory went, his radar so densely packed with markers and indicators it was impossible to see what was happening.

  Based on their numbers, the Immortal League have the upper hand, Athena told him. But their pilots are less skilful than those of the Wolf Pack.

  Chris saw that she was right, the Immortal League’s flying skills lacking the finesse of the Wolf Pack. It seemed that the League had attracted pilots of massively divergent skill levels, whereas Tyler had been a lot more selective about who he allowed to get behind the stick. Chris gripped the Firefly’s flight stick tightly, preparing to engage the nearest target to him. As much as he had tried to avoid it, it seemed that the time had finally come for him to take down his first human opponent. Perhaps he wouldn’t have to. Maybe he would be about to scare them off, instead ...

  Chris, I’m detecting a jump signature, Athena said.

  “Where?” Chris asked.

  Behind us.

  Chris swung around, seeing the whirlpool-like form of the jump point swirling into existence, a number of fighters, as well as a warship, streaming immediately from it. WEAPCO.

  “If they’re here to stop us from doing any further damage to the shipyard,” Chris said, “they’re far too late.”

  The warship that had emerged from the point was identifying itself as the Alchemist’s Son. The fighters were the usual suspects – Talons and Mirages. Leading them, however, was a type of fighter that Chris has never seen before.

  “What class of fighter is that?” he asked.

  A Fer-de-Lance, a heavy-class fighter, Athena said. According to my records, it is a unique starfighter, constructed around thirteen years ago.

  “Then it’s either a heap of junk that WEAPCO want shot of, or a chariot for one of their champions,” Chris said. “Whatever it is, I do
n’t think we should stick around to find out. Sid,” he contacted the man aboard the Dodger, “Phoebe and I are coming home. Get ready to take us out of here.”

  As he spoke, the fighters that had jumped into the system started to peel away from the Alchemist’s Son, heading in the direction of the scrapping mercenaries, who showed no signs of stopping despite the appearance of WEAPCO.

  “Phoebe, can you take control of any more of those fighters?” Chris asked.

  “No,” Phoebe said. “I’m already at my limit.”

  Chris then saw the Alchemist’s Son starting to turn in the direction of the Dodger, its engines coming fully online, and propelling the warship forward. Already in range of the Dodger with its cannons, the Alchemist’s Son opened up, spraying gunfire all over the freighter. Chris felt a stab of panic. Short of siding with one of the groups of mercenaries or surrendering to WEAPCO (and Chris would never surrender to WEAPCO) the Dodger was their only way out of the system.

  “They’re trying to cut off our escape route!” Chris cried.

  Chris, we need to stop that warship from causing any serious damage to the Dodger, Athena said. Neither the Firefly nor the Valkyrie are equipped with any sort of jump or faster-than-light technology. If you do not act, Sid will die, and you and Phoebe will be stranded here until your oxygen runs out.

  Before Chris could answer the console before him started to jingle.

  We are being hailed by the Fer-de-Lance.

  “Phoebe, send your fighters over to that warship and take it down,” Chris said. “Apparently, someone at the Corporation wants a word with me.”

  Phoebe acknowledged him, powering away from his side and towards the Alchemist’s Son, Chris acknowledging the hail from the Fer-de-Lance and seeing a man’s face pop up on his cockpit display.

  “So, I finally meet the ones who have been causing us so much trouble,” the pilot of the Fer-de-Lance said.

  Like Chris, the man wore a flight suit and a helmet. He had slicked back, jet-black hair, and was sporting a goatee, tapered into a point. Chris thought he looked a little like a devil. Somewhat amusing, Chris thought, that the first human member of WEAPCO he should come into direct contact with should appear so.