One Last Battle

by Timothy Ellis

  Score one to the Redline.

  Five

  The battle still going on ahead of me was all gun based now.

  My people were holding their own against superior numbers, but they weren't as superior as when I’d launched. Thumper was slowly whittling them down. Reduced to a core of experienced pilots, the disciplined formations they were flying now were paying off in terms of kill ratio. The enemy formations were gone, and single fighters were more vulnerable.

  "Crap!" I heard Thumper say, as she lost her wingman.

  Her bird started moving like two drunks were fighting for control of the fighter. She slipped the pulses seeking her out next, and fell into formation behind another of our pairs.

  "You need a hand there Thumper?" I inserted into the gabble of pilot combat chatter.

  "Screw you, Redline."

  "Get in line Thumper."

  "Wilco."

  I smiled. The likelihood of any bedroom based encounter with Thumper was about the same odds as Lexington turning up to save us in the next few minutes. In other words, don’t even think about it. Last I heard, Lexington was still completing her refit, the same one Yorktown desperately needed. We had escort carriers, but only Lexington carried enough birds to save our bacon here.

  Bacon. I was going to miss that.

  I locked up the son of a bitch who'd taken out Thumper's wingman, and almost gotten her as well. I wasn’t yet in range, but being locked up by someone carrying missiles did make you look. And suddenly being aware of your own impending death, tended to stop you planning the death of others. At least, most of the time it did. Gun lockup wasn’t the same. The longer the range, the less reliable guns are, and good pilots didn’t let anyone get too close.

  It was why our pilots were holding their own now. Spacial awareness, generated partly by scanners showing you where everyone around you was, and by keeping an eye on the rear image on the heads up display, kept you moving in a way which kept enemy fighters out of your kill slot. It also stopped you concentrating on a target to the exclusion of all else, which tended to get you killed. It reduced combat to deflection shooting, and the odds of not getting hit improved, the more deflection had to be applied. Of course, there were pilots with superb deflection shooting skills, and there was also just plain bad luck.

  Which was why I was surprised to find my new target seemed to be ignoring me. Maybe he thought everyone was out of missiles, and since I was still too far away to even consider guns, I wasn’t therefore a threat.

  I altered course slightly to close directly on my new target, finger hovering over the missile button. The question was, how many did I fire?

  "Pop the question Redline!"

  My eyes blinked twice, before realizing Thumper was giving an order, not propositioning me. The HUD icon flashed yellow, and then red. Tap.

  Two things happened at once. The target jinked away from whoever he was now set on, and Thumper went to full speed, angling for a deflection shot, leaving the cover of her wing mates. They angled after her, knowing a lone bird would become a target, and trying to give her the shot.

  Our mutual target can't have been paying attention. He turned to face her, and in doing so, took my missile up the arse. The fighter staggered, slowing, and he lost his ability to aim for a few seconds, during which both Thumper and I opened fire with our guns. Both sets of pulses hit, and one more debris field began cluttering up space.

  Thumper angled to pull in behind me, as I’d told her to. The pair behind her picked off another enemy fighter trying to revenge her kill.

  "Slow down Redline."

  "Pull it out Thumper."

  "You pull it out Redline."

  "I already did."

  "Fuck!"

  She obviously pulled the pin on her speed slider, and slid into position behind my left wing. It reminded me to check my engine status. Beginning to become a worry, but speed was what I needed now.

  I picked a target between me and the enemy carriers, and continued my speed run, right hand waiting to fire again, left hand still trying to stem the blood flow.

  At the last second, the enemy turned inwards towards me, and we both fired for a few seconds, before turning away slightly and blasting past each other. Thumper had a few more seconds to fire, and was past as well. We both hit, but not enough for a kill.

  I continued straight on, now on the other side of the main combat area, and heading for the carriers. The dot on my scanner which had been our last target vanished, as the pair behind Thumper finished it off.

  "What's the plan Redline?"

  Six

  There wasn’t a plan.

  I was running on adrenalin, and instinct, and too zoned in to plan anything. The need to keep my left hand clamped on my side, kept the engines red lining, and with a few seconds to think now, made me wonder which was coming first. The engines exploding, or loss of blood turning me from a pilot into a passenger.

  One hand couldn’t cover multiple bleed sites. I could feel the trickles continuing under my flight smock, and the ordinary fatigues I was wearing underneath were plastered against my skin. The smock being designed to keep you alive if you found yourself drifting in space, there was no bleed through to show me how bad it was.

  I lost focus in my eyes for a moment, and had to blink to clear them. An awareness of feeling colder followed, and I turned up the heat. It was bad, and getting worse. I dragged my attention back to Thumper's words.

  Plan? What plan? There wasn’t a plan. Just me and a carrier.

  "Talk to me Redline."

  The nav map was changing. Behind me and Thumper, was the other pair, so we were essentially a flight of four fighters zeroed in on the enemy carriers. Behind them, were enemy fighters, trying to catch us, and failing. It looked like the other two had pulled their pins as well, as they were keeping up, even though a fair way behind. About half the remaining enemy from the main fight were following them, while the rest continued to fight the remainder of ours. Further back, were the seven still chasing me, falling behind all the time.

  What was I going to do?

  Die.

  Yeah I got that already. No need to highlight it. A part of me didn’t want to die. But now was too late to voice it. I'd made the decision by getting into the bird.

  "Just escort me in," I heard myself say.

  There was a pause, which I assumed was Thumper swearing under her breath.

  "You don’t have to do that," she said quietly.

  "Got your back," said Falldown, who I assumed was in the pair following us.

  "God Speed Redline," said the Captain.

  There was nothing else to say, so no-one said anything. Even the combat chatter behind us had stopped.

  I checked the nav to find out why.

  Everyone was chasing me now.

  And when I mean everyone, I mean everyone. Yorktown was moving, with her screen in V formation ahead of her. Following me. It was a sight to behold, and I never thought the Admiral would do something like this. He was strictly a launch and forget admiral. The captain on the other hand was a go getter. There was no way we could take out both carriers on our own, which meant fleet action. Maybe we'd have lost, but even in losing we could defend the American sector. A slug fest with two equal fleets would most likely be a draw. I wished them luck. I wouldn’t be there for it.

  "Target missiles," I said.

  I’d already added them, but the others wouldn't have. We were used to our ECM keeping most missiles off us. Now we'd have to take them out the old fashioned way, by treating them as an enemy fighter. It took balls of steel to pick off missiles with only your guns. But as they say, no guts, no glory.

  The minutes were ticking down.

  The engines were heating up.

  My shorts were sticky wet.

  Seven

  "You don’t need to kill yourself, you know."

  "What? Who said that?"

  "Who are you talking to Redline?"

  Thumper sounded confused. She
wasn’t the only one. I flipped off the coms.

  "You don't have to die," the voice said again.

  "Who are you?"

  A face appeared in the rear view part of the HUD. I was so surprised, I actually turned to look behind me. Which was stupid, because there was nothing behind me to see, but the rear end of the bird. Which was why the rear view was on the HUD in the first place. Pain was my reward.

  "You can call me Thirteen."

  "Why?"

  The head seemed to shrug, but a grin formed on the face.

  "It's my name. At least in your language."

  "What do you want?"

  "To pass on a message."

  "From who?"

  "Your grandson."

  "I don’t have a grandson."

  "Not yet."

  My brain flipped out. Maybe loss of blood. Maybe a conversation which made no sense. I began to shiver, my eyes closed, and for a few seconds, I was no-one, nowhere.

  "JEDBURGH!"

  I startled awake, and groaned, as the movement made my body pull against the harness.

  "Get it together Jedburgh. Your grandson wants to be born, and we need him."

  "What?"

  The face changed, and an image of a man wearing four stars on his shoulders appeared instead. And damned if he didn’t look a lot like me.

  "I don’t have a son, let alone a grandson."

  "You will. If you decide to live."

  "Too late now."

  "No, it isn’t."

  Eight

  For a moment I wasn’t even sure where I was.

  The rear view was showing the rear view, and had I even seen anything else? The coms was off though, and I flipped it back on.

  "Redline you bastard, talk to me!"

  "Sorry, lost it for a bit."

  "Are you alright?"

  "That’s a big negative, but I'm hanging in there."

  Which gave me an idea.

  "I repeat, what's the plan?"

  "Bunny hop, with a twist."

  Silence.

  "You're crazy."

  "Yes. Now's the time to peel off."

  I figured I was now less than a minute from the point defence range of the enemy fleet. It was designed for missiles, not anti-fighter, but all the same, I was just a slower and bigger form of missile. Although, not as slow as their systems expected. I was gambling on no-one thinking to up the max speed of the fighter lead calculations.

  The fleet ahead of me was moving now too. But it took me a few seconds to work out they were breaking off. The entire fleet was turning towards the jump point they'd come in through, leaving only two cruisers as a rear guard.

  "Yorktown to all fighters, job done, come on home."

  For a moment I didn’t believe it. I could feel myself failing, and now it was the ears turn.

  "Redline," yelled Thumper. "Break off now."

  I shook my head for a moment, and looked again at the nav. There were new dots at our jump point. Two large ones, one of whom was the old Midway herself. The two escort carriers were launching fighters. Four squadrons each.

  The stick seemed to move of its own accord, and the bird curved upward, taking me away from the rear cruisers. Thumper followed me, and Falldown and his wing followed her.

  The nav was crazy now. Yorktown and her escorts were still coming on. The remainder of our birds were heading back, while the remaining enemy fighters were still heading for their carriers. I figured they had enough time to land, rearm, and launch again, before the Midway group's squadrons were on them.

  I sighed.

  There was still a job to do. And only I could do it.

  "Redline, are you heading home or not?"

  "Go on Thumper. I'm going to have to slow down for the trip back. You better too. Save me a park."

  I took my left hand off my side, and pulled back the speed slider dramatically. The blood flow increased, but I left my hand where it was. I rolled the bird over towards Yorktown, and Thumper led the other two home. I was well off the track of the enemy fighters now, and they were showing no interest, and I knew damn well she wanted to refuel and rearm, and get back out here again with the Midway group.

  For me, it was limp home time.

  Or not.

  The roll continued, until I was pointed at the rear carrier, and my hand rammed the slider to the stops again. There was a squeal from somewhere behind me.

  "Hold it together baby," I muttered.

  The engine temps were nearing the end of the red now, but we didn’t have much further to go, and I needed my hand back on my side. Even a gentle clamp on hurt like hell, and I knew neither of us had much longer to go.

  I had one shot at this.

  And the odds were, the future would have to do without another Jedburgh.

  Nine

  "What the hell…"

  I flipped off the coms. I didn’t need to hear Thumper yelling the obvious.

  The nav was taking up all my attention. The oncoming remaining enemy fighters were catching up to me, but I was high side of them, and heading down. I hoped I’d timed this right.

  Just to make it look good, I started a slow roll, trying to make it look like the pilot was dead, and the bird was losing it. It wasn’t far from the truth I figured.

  The fleet ahead of me was definitely running, but they'd opened up the formation to let their fighters land from the rear. Most carriers were designed with a single flight deck down the middle of the ship, allowing recovery from both ends if need be. At speed, recovery from the rear was the only option.

  My head shook, the stick wobbled as a result, and my eyes blurred.

  "Keep it together" I muttered.

  It looked right. I was coming down just in front of the lead fighters, and I didn’t think they could catch me. If there was any point defence fire, I couldn’t see it, but I was counting on their own birds being too close to fire at me.

  At the last second, I turned and headed for the landing deck.

  My finger tightened on the gun trigger, and well before entering, I was spraying gun pulses ahead of me.

  At full speed, I went through the middle of the carrier, hand working the joystick in tiny movements, making the pulses spray along the walls, deck, and ceiling. I was praying for a miracle, where a pulse would hit a window, and blow it in, or a hatch and jam it. Or if I was really lucky, a shuttle or something with a full fuel load I could make an explosion with. Several puffs of gas and debris showed me several explosive decompressions, but no luck on the fuel explosion.

  Near the end, I took my left hand away again, pulled the slider back all the way, and came to a stop right at the end of the flight deck. The carrier kept moving ahead, and I started to go backwards.

  A no engine flip pointed me back the way I’d come, and I toggled select nearest enemy. The Carrier was too close to count, and it locked the only enemy fighter to have come in behind me. Tap, and I sent it one of my remaining missiles. I was a quarter way down the flight deck now, and the explosion was a quarter the way from the other end. Debris went in all directions, and still moving down that way, I could see hull breaches in several places.

  I turned the bird to point to the starboard side of the flight deck, and waited for the flight control windows to come into view.

  Tap.

  The missile went straight through the strengthened glass, and exploded well inside.

  As quick as I could, I locked up the carrier, selected the bridge as primary target, turned the bird to point towards the hole, and tapped again. The missile launched into the hole made by the previous one, and turned upward.

  I spun the bird to point out the back of the carrier, and goosed the speed slider to push me out faster. There was a massive explosion above and behind me, and the whole ship staggered, bouncing me off the deck, just before the end.

  I pushed the slider to the stops again, and had just cleared the end of the deck, when there was another explosion behind me, this time being one of my engines. The bird starte
d spinning, and I eased back the slider to stop the other engines doing the same thing.

  But I was too late.

  Another explosion, and the bird started tumbling uncontrollably, spinning at the same time.

  I cried out in pain, my eyes blurred to the point I couldn’t really see at all, and my last thought was the life support system hadn’t switched over to my emergency supply.

  Everything went black.

  Ten

  "Welcome back sunshine."

  It was the same nurse I'd had after my accident. She didn’t have to say anything to keep me lying flat, as I couldn’t move at all. She waved in the direction of the door, and left though it.

  The captain came in, and stopped beside my bed.

  "That was a pretty stupid stunt son. I didn't figure you for suicidal. No, don’t speak. Listen. I ought to be court marshalling you for disobeying orders, but as it happens, most of the command staff would be in the dock with you, along with all our remaining pilots. Thumper and Falldown went back after you as soon as they figured out what you were up to. The rest turned around as well. After you went in, they were still too far away to help you, but the exploding fighter scared off the remaining enemy fighters, and they landed on the other carrier. The two of them stayed with you until the search and rescue bird could get there."

  He looked at me seriously for a moment.

  "I don’t know if you'll ever fly again, but if you do, you can paint a carrier symbol on the side of it. We think one of your missiles hit something explosive, and it tore a huge hole in the top and side around the bridge area. Secondary explosions continued for an hour after, and they abandoned ship. We picked up the survivors, since the rest of their fleet left them behind, and jumped out. About two hours after you hit it, it came apart. I'm putting you in for a commendation."