“I think we found the Alani's missing flight.” Sikes' voice was distant over the comm. Cares glanced at her readout, saw the four vague sensor echos that could have been the remains of anything and felt a shiver run down her back. Four pieces of wreckage, flying in perfect formation.
“I always told Captain Sian that he shouldn't fly that close together.” Marack said. Cares watched as his fighter drifted further away from the rest of the flight and she adjusted her own course to follow.
“Judging from the trajectory it looks like they were heading away from Alaris. Why would the Bellicose hit them before they reached Irakillion?” Vent said.
“No sign of the freighters.” Cares whispered over her private frequency to Marack.
“Confirmed. Maybe they captured them after they took out the escort.” He sent back.
“They'd make a lot more money if they captured freighters on their way back home” She reminded him. Cares took a deep breath, gazing into the void as she did so. Nothing moved, nothing twitched, and even if it did she wouldn't see it until her on board computer picked it out for her.
“This is freighter group AA-18, jumping in 29.30.” Cares glanced at the two freighters, the Starlight Dancer and the Splinter's Edge as they held their position. With no Irakillion craft around there was no point in moving to cross their invisible half-way line.
A sudden beep from her computer almost made her jump out of her flight seat. Cares stared at her readout in surprise. Fighters were always too small to be detected until they reached you. Usually you'd only get any warning at all if the ship was at least as big as one of their freighters.
“Capitol ship! Scatter.” Marack shouted in her ear piece and Cares threw the craft into a dive. As the starfield veered around her she caught a glimpse of something jumping into view. Something large.
“Void-” Someone yelled as her computer blasted another set of alarms at her. A volley of mass driver rounds bracketed her craft as it tumbled between them.
“That's a damned Destroyer.” Marack said. His voice holding surprise but none of the panic that Cares felt clawing at herself. He was right as well. Somehow the Bellicose, despite the losses the ADF had inflicted upon them, had been able to find a capitol ship.
“Everyone scatter.” Sikes ordered. Cares could barely keep track of Maracks craft, let alone anyone else.
“Stay with me.” Marack said. “Four enemy fighters launching, Castles, lets go Cares.”
“After them?” She reached Marack's craft just as he turned his Sarmatian back towards the Destroyer.
“The only way to survive is to get as close as possible to that ship so it's turrets can't turn quick enough to track us. If we fight the Castles too far away from it we're all dead.” She followed him through his turn. She stayed as close as possible to his ship while dodging between the Destroyers mass driver rounds. Her HUD picked out the four Castles as they left the Destroyers hanger bay.
“Clear the area, all ships, clear it now.” Sikes was shouting.
“This is AA-18, we can't clear. I repeat, we are under that ships guns until we jump.”
“Unless we distract them.” Marack said. The four Castles broke formation as Marack opened fire on them. Cares' own cannons followed an instant later, but neither accomplished anything.
“Incoming. Four Bastion class bombers jumping in behind us. Looks like they're trying to sneak them past.” Vent said, from the lack of stress in his voice she guessed he had already moved far enough away from the Destroyer to be safe.
“Me and Vent will take them.” Cares said. “Are you good enough to handle those fighters?”
“In my sleep.” Marrack responded.
“I'm not sure I am.” Cares whispered to herself. The four Castles had split up into pairs and were after them now but Marack ignored them. He headed closer to the Destroyer, firing a constant stream of ineffectual rounds that glinted as the impacted on the ships armour.
“We have to get in closer.” He said when the range were down to just fifty meters. The Destroyer, a three hundred meter long monster of a craft, twisted towards them, trying to bring more of it's railguns to bear. “That will help.”
“I'm not sure about that.”
“Just stay with me. You hear that. Stay with me!” She followed him as they skimmed the surface of the Destroyer close enough that she could see the cannons trying to track towards him. A burst of mass driver rounds from behind her announced the arrival of two of the Castles.
“I can't do anything from back here. They're not just going to fly into the Destroyer for us.”
“Stay with me just a little longer.” Cares forced herself not to snap out that a minute was looking far longer from where she was. She tried to force her breathing back under control while slipping the Sarmatian back and forth in a effort to dodge the mass driver rounds from behind her. A third Castle shot into view between her and Marack while the two behind her bracketed her ship with more rounds.
“I can't get a shot at it.” She shouted. Cares tried to pull her fighter to the left, to get into a position where she could hit the third Castle and not Marack, but it was hopeless.
“Stay with me.” Marack said as he dropped into a dive that took him to the other side of the Destroyer. “Break left on my order.”
“What?”
“Now” She didn't have any more time to argue, she just followed him as they pulled away from the Destroyer. She caught a glimpse of one of the Destroyers gun turrets turning towards them, an even quicker glimpse of the Castle veering to follow Marack and then there was a sudden flash of light as the cannon fired and the shell detonated almost instantly. She heard Marack yell and stared at her targeting computer for a moment, barely able to believe it.
“That,” A breathless Marack said, “Was the best kill anyone has ever gotten in the entire his-”
He was cut off as the three surviving Castles came at them again. The Destroyer had sensibly stopped firing. She could only imagine what the gunnery crews were now doing. She followed Marack as he began hugging the hull of the Destroyer again, the Castle's mass driver rounds smashing harmlessly into it's meters thick armor.
“This again?”
“Look at that formation, two about to go on your tail, one about to drop in behind me. Do you think you can make the shot this time?” His voice was calmer now, something told her that he wouldn't mind her admitting if she could not.
“I can do it, I have an idea.” It was a bit like chess, only with five pieces, much higher stakes, and a board that could change. As expected two of the Castles dropped in behind her, spraying yet another volley of mass driver rounds either side of her. A second later and their companion was on Marack's tail.
“Here goes.” She muttered and rolled the Sarmatian into a dive towards the Destroyers hull. She risked a quick glance up just to see the hull speeding past a mere six inches above her then pulled the Sarmatian to the side. The two Castles tried to follow her sudden dive but were a second two slow and she accelerated out of their firing arcs and brought the third craft into her crosshairs. Cares clenched her teeth as she fired a perfectly aimed volley into the crafts engine's that sent it spinning away in a rapidly expanding cloud of debris.
“Nicely done.” Marack said as they regrouped a few hundred meters away from the Destroyer. “Let's finish these two off. Nice and easy.”
She followed him in a loop that brought them head to head with the two remaining fighters, without hesitation Marack opened fire first, blasting one apart before it had even had a chance to return fire. The second one dived out of the way and Cares broke formation to follow it. To her surprise the Castle turned back towards the Destroyer on a direct run for it's hanger bay. She lined up the shot, it was so easy.
“Are you going to shoot it down or not?” Marack asked. Cares let out her breath, not realizing just how long she had held the retreating Castle in her sights.
“No.” She finally said. “He's beaten.”
“Sikes,
are those bombers dealt with yet?”
“Just finished the last one now. They're too easy without an escort, it's almost unfair.”
“Almost.” Cares heard Marack whisper.
“Vent's taken a couple of scratches, he's going to withdraw.” Cares and followed Marack as he moved to rejoin the two other fighters. The Destroyer just sat there, like a sullen child plotting it's revenge.
“You have got to be kidding me. Only a fool get's snagged by a bomber these days.” Marack said and Cares winced as Sikes failed to point out the obvious. Somehow pragmatism beat the chance to remind Marack of his last mission.
“Someone needs to get back to Gateway and tell them the Bellicose have their own Destroyer. No one managed it from Alani flight and so we got ambushed.”
“I'm ready to go now captain.” Vent's voice was small and distant.
“Then get out of here.” Cares watched Vent's Sarmatian as it's jump drive flared and then he was gone.
“Right, let's go after that Destroyer before they spot the blindingly obvious.” Marack said. Cares heard Sikes choke back a laugh.
“We don't have the firepower to take it.” Sikes said. Cares took a deep breath, aware that she was about to place what little reputation she had gleaned over the past few weeks on the line.
“It's only a matter of time before they just open fire on the Freighters, we have to do something.” She said. For a moment nothing came back from Sikes except a silence you could drown in.