by D. J. Holmes
Six hours and thirty minutes later Chen was awoken by a beeping from his cockpit. His eyes snapped open at once. Instinctively he grabbed his Spitfire’s flight stick. As his gaze swiveled from the view of space out his canopy to his sensor readouts, he tensed, ready to throw his Spitfire into an evasive maneuver in the blink of an eye. His fingers didn’t twitch though. There was nothing immediately concerning that he could see. Only when his eyes settled on the passive sensor readout did he realize what his ship was warning him about. Ahead of his fighter, less than half a million kilometers away, an unknown contact had been detected. Whatever it is, it doesn’t have an energy source, Chen thought as he studied the readout. Yet his optical sensors were certain it was not a naturally occurring object. Its profile and reflection characteristics suggested it was made out of some metallic alloy. Chen’s eyes narrowed. If it was not natural and had no detectable power source it was likely one thing: a stealth reconnaissance drone or sensor array. The realization made Chen swear. His Spitfire was heading almost directly for it. There was no way he could alter course now. If he lit off his maneuvering thrusters even for a fraction of a second, whatever the strange contact was, it would certainly detect his actions. Widening the map of local space, Chen nodded when he saw just how far away the contact was from the system’s gas giant and his target. They have been making preparations, Chen thought. The Karacknids were no fools. By now they had encountered Human fighters a number of times. They’re starting to adapt. If his suspicions were correct, the Karacknids would have a number of the stealth sensors arrayed around the gas giant. It would give them plenty of warning of a sneak attack by Human stealth warships or fighters.
Reaching down to his command console, Chen activated his laser COM link. He carefully aimed it at his wingman’s Spitfire and activated it. “Gustauv, are you awake?” he asked.
There was a moment’s delay before his wing man replied. “I am now Commander. What is it?”
“Check your passive sensors. What do you see?” Chen requested.
“There’s nothing… Wait, I’m just getting something now. Some unknown contact almost dead ahead.”
“I fear it is a Karacknid stealth sensor platform,” Chen explained. He paused for second as Gustauv swore. “There’s no movement from the Karacknid ships in orbit around the gas giant so it probably hasn’t detected us yet. But it will soon, certainly by the time we fly past it. There is no way it can miss us. We need to get our forces ready for combat. Use your laser COM and contact Chavez on your right. Get a message passed up the entire right side of our formation. Everyone is to get ready.”
“Aye Commander,” Gustauv replied.
Chen reoriented his laser COM to connect with the fighter to his left. He relayed the same message to one of his other pilots and informed her to pass it on up the left side of his formation. Leaving his pilots to relay the message, he returned his focus to the Karacknid passive sensor and the fleet protecting the orbital supply stations and gas mining facilities. The Karacknid warships still hadn’t moved. But Chen knew they would. The question was, how quick would they react to his force?
Before either of the two pilots got back to him to inform him that his message had been relayed to his entire strike force, Chen got the answer to his question. Alarms went off just as he saw the first sign of movement. Twenty ships had lit off their engines and were breaking orbit. They were headed directly towards his ship. Chen watched his computer’s analysis of the ships closely. They were all frigates. The Karacknids knew they were facing fighters. They were holding their larger and more vulnerable ships back. But perhaps they don’t know how many of us there are, Chen thought as a plan formed. Twenty Karacknid light ships had a lot of point defense fire, but he had a lot of fighters. With the need to remain hidden now gone, Chen activated his normal COM unit. “Tyson, Red, Blackjack and Hawk Squadrons are to engage your engines. Your targets are those twenty enemy warships. I want two fighters to each one. Clear them out of the way for the rest of us.”
In quick succession the captains of each squadron acknowledged his orders. Moments later forty-eight new contacts appeared on Chen’s sensors as their Spitfires powered up their reactors to full and engaged their engines. They shot away from his position as they rapidly accelerated. Leaving them to it, Chen reorganized the rest of his force and divvied up new targets for them. With less fighters going in to attack the Karacknid supply depot, he needed to make sure their top priority targets were still going to be hit. After sending out new orders, he returned his attention to the first wave of fighters moving to attack.
With the Karacknid warships and his fighters accelerating directly towards each other, it didn’t take long for them to enter engagement range. Laser beams filled space around the forty-eight Spitfires. They twisted and wove, but as the seconds ticked by Chen could easily see small explosions erupt in their midst. With clenched fists Chen bobbed his hands up and down, willing on his fighters. When the count in his head of explosions reached nine he saw what was left of the four squadrons release their plasma missiles. “Yes!” Chen shouted. Now it was the Karacknid ships’ turn to carry out evasive maneuvers. Being small and agile for warships, the frigates had a decent chance of avoiding the incoming plasma missiles. Yet there were at least two targeting most of them. Point defense weapons destroyed some of the missiles. But not all of them. As explosions erupted among the Karacknid warships, Chen shouted again. In just four seconds sixteen of the Karacknid ships were taken out.
Before Chen could open a COM channel to the squadrons he had sent forward, Blackjack’s Captain beat him to it. “That’s our missiles spent Wing Commander. The way is as clear as we can make it. What are your orders?”
Chen hesitated before replying. Normally he would order the Spitfires to proceed to the rendezvous point with their fleet carriers. They had expended their missiles. And yet the attack on the Karacknid depot was of paramount importance. Though he hated himself for doing it, Chen gave the order he knew he needed to. “Re-join our formation Captain. You might not have any missiles, but you can still run interference for us during our attack.”
“Acknowledged Commander,” Blackjack’s flight leader responded in a tone that hid whatever she was feeling about Chen’s order.
Chen lingered on her words for a few seconds as he imagined how the pilots of Blackjack and the other squadrons would feel. Each squadron had lost at least one pilot already. Now, there would be more to follow. Forcing himself to coldly dismiss the pilots’ fate, Chen refocused and activated his COM unit. “All squadrons still in stealth, it’s time to go active. Do your best to avoid the remaining Karacknid warships. Then we’ll begin our attack runs. Happy hunting everyone.” From here on out each flight leader would be responsible for their own squadrons. It was about to get too chaotic for him to maintain any kind of strategic control of the situation. Reaching down to his command console he tapped in a course and transmitted it to his squadron. “Boxer Squadron, here’s our attack vector. Stay close to me until we enter range of their point defenses. Then split up into wingman pairs.”
As his pilots acknowledged his orders, Chen watched the closest remaining Karacknid frigate carefully. Each of his squadrons were breaking formation and angling towards their own targets. He swore when the frigate altered course to intercept his group of fighters. “Scratch that,” he said to his pilots. “Split now. We’re going to have to pass through this frigate’s defensive fire.
“Evasive maneuvers,” he commanded sixty seconds later when the enemy frigate got into range. Matching his order, Chen jinked and twisted his Spitfire at random angles. As he did so, he kept a close eye on the eleven closest dots on his holo map. He bit back a curse when one disappeared. “Who got hit?” he asked as soon as his fighters passed out of the frigate’s range.
“Boxer Six,” one of his pilots reported. “I saw her take the hit. She didn’t have time to eject.”
“All right, Boxer Five, you’re with me and Boxer Two. There’s nothing b
etween us and our target now. Let’s make every plasma missile count,” Chen responded.
As he looked down at his holo map and the large gas mining station that was his target, Chen swallowed hard. Two small battlestations flanked the station and eight warships had moved to cover it. Thankfully, he wasn’t the only squadron prioritizing the mining facility. Even so, his fighters were about to face a massive wall of enemy fire. This is going to hurt, he thought. In any other engagement his fighters would prioritize taking out the battle stations and warships to allow a second strike to come in and take the mining facility. However, there would be no second attack. Everything was riding on what his fighters were about to attempt.
Chapter 26
The Imperial Medal of Honor is a rare award. It is always handed out by the Empress herself. That is just as rare an award.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.
Just as he had done before his fighter had launched from Enterprise, Chen rolled his shoulders and flexed his fingers to ease the tension in them. Then he gripped his flight stick. Letting out a deep breath he watched the distance to the system’s gas giant count down. “Evasive maneuvers!” he snapped when his ships were just seconds out from range of the Karacknids’ point defenses.
Clenching his teeth, Chen lost all awareness of the world outside his cockpit. Everything became about maneuvering his fighter. Desperately he twisted and weaved as he tried to throw off the Karacknids’ aim. A glance at his sensor readout showed a never-ending stream of energy racing towards him. Out of the corner of his eye on a secondary holo-projection he saw the dots representing his squadron begin to disappear. He couldn’t afford to divert any attention to them, however. For the longest forty seconds of his life he tried every trick he knew to keep his Spitfire alive.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, his cockpit beeped to inform him he was within range. He flicked the arming switch on his flight stick. Less than a second later another beep confirmed his missile’s seeker head had locked onto the gas mining station. Chen was already depressing his flight stick trigger. As soon as the missile disengaged, Chen’s Spitfire gave a slight lurch as its engines no longer had to cope with the missile’s mass. That was Chen’s cue. Twisting hard and pulling back on his flight stick he pulled his Spitfire’s nose up and away from the gas giant. He couldn’t help but watch his plasma missile accelerate. Immediately to his right, Chen saw a Lancaster bomber release its two missiles. All around him other missiles appeared at almost the same time. So few, Chen thought as he counted the missiles. A full squadron of Lancaster bombers had been targeting the gas mining facility. Yet he only saw one pulling away to safety.
Even though the fire coming towards his Spitfire had significantly decreased, Chen continued his evasive maneuvers. He carried out the maneuvers on instinct though for his full attention was devoted to the plasma missiles his force had released. He could see no more than fifteen racing towards the mining facility. With almost all their point defenses targeting the missiles, the Karacknids took them out. Fifteen quickly became twelve, then seven. Chen cursed when his missile was destroyed by a laser beam. Moments later, his emotions soared when three missiles raced through everything that was fired at them. They detonated in quick succession. Each missile released a ball of plasma that quickly expanded as it accelerated on a ballistic course. The gas mining station, with limited maneuvering thrusters, was unable to get out of the way. Seconds later the three balls of plasma came crashing into it. The plasma ate through the station’s weak armor and ripped massive holes into the structure. Now out of range of the Karacknids’ point defenses, Chen watched the station’s last few seconds. Several sections broke away as the plasma destroyed the support structures holding them together. Then the plasma struck a critical part of the station’s reactors or energy transfer conduits. A brilliant explosion made Chen shut his eyes tight. When he opened them again, the station was nothing more than hundreds of chunks of metal smaller than his Spitfire. Most were being sucked down into the gas giant’s atmosphere. Pumping his fist in the air, Chen let out a satisfied battle cry. He repeated the gesture when he widened the view of his holo display to see more explosions erupting among the other orbital stations. Alongside the gas mining station twelve of the largest Karacknid depots had been targeted. Nine of them were being torn apart.
We did it, Chen said to himself. We have destroyed them. No one knew just how long it had taken the Karacknids to build the depots and mining station. But whether it had been a couple of months or perhaps as much as half a year, the main thing was that their attack had destroyed them. Whatever the Karacknids were planning, Chen’s attack had just bought Earth a number of months to prepare. But at what cost? he asked himself as he reached out and tapped his command console. As much as he wanted to savor the taste of victory, he knew he needed to check in with his squadron and the rest of his attack force.
When the sensor data on the fleeing fighters appeared in front of him, Chen gasped. Only three other fighters from his squadron were still with him. Neither his wingman nor Boxer five had survived. As much as Chen was shocked by the losses, it looked like his squadron had come off lightly. Out of the one hundred and sixty fighters and bombers he had led into the attack, less than fifty were racing away from the gas giant. Chen’s fingers twitched towards his COM unit. Yet he hesitated. He didn’t know what to say to the survivors. They were already on a trajectory towards the fleet rendezvous point. They could all see what they had accomplished and just how severe their losses had been. With a shake of his head Chen tried to come up with some words that would comfort his pilots. None came to him.
Then, as the Karacknid forces in orbit around the gas giant began to move, he got distracted. Almost all of them were breaking orbit. They know we launched from carriers, Chen realized. They’re going to try and hunt them down. As soon as they began to break orbit Chen knew Enterprise would be able to pick them up. Commodore Rivers would have to deal with them. There was nothing Chen could do now but get his fighters back as quickly as possible. And with limited fuel, they were reliant on their current momentum taking them to the rendezvous point. Returning his focus to his fighters, Chen checked their fuel status. Thankfully, none were so empty that they wouldn’t be able to land on their carriers. Chen fingered his COM unit, but he still could think of nothing to say to them.
In the end, it was one of his pilots that pulled him out of his silence. “Boxer Leader, this is Boxer Seven. Come in Boxer leader?”
“Go-ahead Boxer Seven,” Chen responded.
“Have you seen the two Karacknid ships at seven four eight point two?” the pilot asked.
Chen swore. He had been so focused on the Karacknid ships breaking orbit that he had forgotten about the four Karacknid frigates that had survived the initial engagement Blackjack Squadron and the others had had with them. The frigates were accelerating hard to put themselves in front of Chen’s force. As his computer calculated what kind of maneuver his fighters would have to make to avoid them, Chen cursed again. His forces’ raid on the Karacknid depot had been meticulously planned. Whilst Humanity had many fighters and bombers to spare for such an attack, her two fleet carriers were irreplaceable. Enterprise and Ark Royal were as far away from the Karacknid depot as possible given the fuel limits of his Spitfires. His ships had just enough fuel to get back and no more. If he tried to go around the Karacknid frigates, his fighters wouldn’t have enough fuel to land.
For a couple of minutes Chen tried to come up with different scenarios that would get his fighters past the freighters, but as much as he tried to think outside the box, nothing would work. Their fuel situation was so tight that even if they tried to carry out evasive maneuvers, some of his fighters would run out of fuel before getting to their carriers. If there wasn’t a Karacknid squadron racing after them from behind, perhaps Ark Royal and Enterprise could have come closer to pick them up. But not now. Chen knew Rivers wouldn’t risk the carriers, nor did he want him to.
Closing his eye
s, Chen activated his COM unit. “Pilots, each of you have won the respect of the fleet today. No one else could have accomplished more than we have. Those who aren’t with us now have given their lives to buy the rest of the fleet the time it needs to defeat the Karacknids properly… We have done what we set out to do. But I must ask more of you. I need three volunteers.”
A chorus of voices replied to Chen’s request. Glancing down at one of his readouts, Chen picked three of the best pilots from those who had responded. “Boxer Seven, Blackjack Four and Ivy Three. Each of you, match my course and speed. The rest of you, proceed to the rendezvous point. Pass on my respects to Commodore Rivers. You have all made me proud today.” Chen ended the general COM channel, he didn’t want to hear what the other pilots might have to say. Instead he opened a COM channel to the pilots he had selected.
“Thank you,” he said to them. “You are smart enough to know what I’m asking for. You are the best pilots we have. It’s time to show the Karacknids just how good you really are. I’ll see you on the other side,” Chen finished, knowing his pilots would get just what he meant. He cut the COM channel before they could reply. Taking a final deep breath, he pulled out a physical picture of his family. It was a gift his wife had given him before he had last left Earth. Though it was an extremely old-fashioned piece of technology, he had welcomed the gift with tears. Holding it up in front of him, Chen stared at his wife and son, etching their faces into his memory. Even as he looked at them, he reached down and increased his Spitfire’s acceleration to full. He continued to stare until his Spitfire beeped to warn him he was approaching an enemy ship. Reluctantly, he slipped the picture back into a pocket in his flight suit. Then he settled his gaze on the lead frigate in the small Karacknid formation.
