“Lieutenant Dodds, this is Tower: you're clear for takeoff,” a woman's voice came over his cockpit's intercom.
“Yeah thanks, Tower,” Dodds replied. “I'll be sure to let you know if anything interesting happens; like we come across Dragon, hidden under a load of black tarpaulin.”
Please, just remind me I'm alive, he begged, as his TAF hurtled down the catapult and out the station. At least for just one day.
* * *
“He's coming back around!” Dodds cried, as the fighter he had been tailing barrelled and then circled around over his head. Dodds dipped his TAF out of the way before rolling around to continue his pursuit.
“I'm on him,” Kelly called, bringing the craft into her sights. She adjusted her speed to hold it there for as long as possible, so as to give her on-board computer time to lock a missile. Her opponent's movements were all over the place, swerving this way and that, Kelly herself doing her best to counter its erratic nature. She had only to keep the craft within her HUD for a few moments longer and then the missile would be ready to fire... The fighter accelerated away suddenly, shaking her off and diving straight down towards Enrique and Chaz who were already tailing another of the group's opponents.
The White Knights had been halfway through their patrol when they were alerted to a set of unidentified vessels travelling through their assigned route. Speeding into the vicinity they had sighted their quarry, the three craft bunched up close together and appearing to be in a hurry. Their trajectory put them on course with a jumpgate that would take them deeper into Confederation-controlled space, and the speed and formation of the craft suggested that they were trying to pass through undetected.
Estelle's requests for identification, destination and business purpose had been ignored, the three fighters maintaining their tight formation, but increasing their speed. Estelle had challenged them twice more before the craft had turned hostile. Based on their vessel of choice – a Dart, a cheap single seat, general purpose craft with innumerable available variants - she had concluded that they must be wanted criminals. She had gone on to order them to surrender several times before Dodds reminded her that it did not seem like they were the talkative type.
Kelly's eyes narrowed. Though the Dart that was once again in her sights benefited from upgraded offensive and defensive capabilities, she maintained that the only real advantage the long-bodied craft held over her TAF was its speed. Her on-board computer jingled and she loosed the missile even before the lock verification had time to flash across her HUD. It sped away from her, trailing blue and white particles as it twisted and curled to keep up with its target's frantic attempts to evade it.
That makes up for being tardy, I suppose, Kelly thought to herself as the Dart exploded before her in a shower of debris.
“Target down,” she reported.
“Good work, Kelly,” Estelle came back. “One down, two to go.”
“Got one right behind me,” Dodds said, feeling his TAF vibrate as particle bolts slammed into the rear, the shielding absorbing the hits.
Estelle made a quick assessment of the situation and standings. The death of their comrade had had a detrimental effect on the performance of the two remaining Dart flyers, whose flight had become far more sloppy, their confidence shaken.
“Enrique, Chaz, stay on your target; Kelly you assist them. Dodds, help me with the other one.”
“Got it,” Dodds confirmed.
The four Confederation fighters divided as Estelle had ordered and set after their targets. The Darts weaved and dived as the Knights tailed them, frequently coming close to collisions with their pursuers as they made snap changes to their headings. Plasma and particle rounds flew in every direction as the two sides attempted to bring one another down, none quite managing to hit home.
“Damn this crap HUD!” Dodds said as the Dart evaded another burst of his guns. After three weeks of benefiting from the ATAF's predictive targeting capabilities he now felt crippled without it, as though he was handcuffed to his seat. It was clear that the advantages the starfighter offered had spoilt him and he was finding it difficult to readjust. It dawned on him that this was the first time he had been in a combat situation - simulated or otherwise - since the evaluation program back on Xalan. The Dart skimmed through his sights. He fired and missed again.
“Why the bloody hell haven't they loaded the ATAF's combat software onto this damn crate?” he said.
“Careful there, Dodds,” Enrique said. “You're beginning to sound like Estelle.” He took his eyes off his systems for a moment, trying to guess which of the three TAFs he could snatch a glimpse of through the Ray's canopy might be Dodds.
“Shut it, mate, this is really starting to annoy me!” Dodds retorted.
The frustration in the voice made Enrique start to chuckle. He looked over at Chaz, sat next to him, whose face split into what Enrique recognised as a rare smile. It vanished almost as soon as it had appeared, the big man diverting the Ray's heading as the missile-lock warning sounded. His attempt at evasion came too late and the Ray rocked as the missile slammed into the topside of the fighter, both men feeling the heavy vibration coarse through their bodies.
“Sorry,” Enrique said for allowing himself to become distracted, before refocusing on the battle. Chaz called up a damage report. It indicated that both the top and frontal shield quadrants had collapsed, but were recovering slowly. As the missile had detonated the force of the explosion had driven its way through the shield and to the Ray's armour beneath. The damage incurred by the armour had not been insignificant, but not as critical as it had felt.
“Are you two all right?” Estelle asked.
“We've sustained moderate damage. Shielding is running at sixty percent efficiency,” Chaz reported back. “Nothing we can't handle.”
Estelle glanced at her radar, seeing a red triangle sitting right in the middle; almost right on top of her. A moment later the four pale grey rear fins and bright cyan glow of the Dart's single engine swept across her cockpit view. She immediately gave chase.
As she closed in on the fighter she saw something detach itself from one of the fins, the object arcing up around it. She swore as too late she realised what was happening, her on-board computer sounding the warning for only a couple of seconds.
Such was the range from its target that the missile completed its manoeuvre within a matter of seconds and slammed headlong into her TAF, creating a blinding white flash as the explosion blended in with the bright blue splinters from her collapsed shielding. The starfighter rattled with the impact, jostling Estelle in her seat and making the young woman lunge for the ejection handle. The expected prompt to bail out never came, however, the rattling ceasing a short time later.
“Estelle!” Dodds' voice sounded in her comms.
“I'm okay, I'm okay,” Estelle replied, thankful that her voice had not betrayed the terror she had felt upon seeing what she believed was her own death hurtling straight towards her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw an explosion.
“Target down,” Kelly once again reported. The Dart that had attacked Enrique and Chaz had pulled out of its dive and flown right in front of her, bringing itself dead on to her heading. It had aligned within her cross hairs and Kelly had only to pull the trigger. Her TAF's cannons had fired four times, the first pair of bolts slamming into the rear of the ship, followed by the second. The third pair completed the task whilst the fourth had disappeared into the explosion, striking remnants of the destroyed fighter.
“Hey, leave some for the rest of us,” Dodds said.
“This isn't a game, Dodds!” Estelle barked back. “Concentrate on taking down that last fighter.”
With his companions dead, and now even more out-numbered and out-gunned than ever, the final Dart pilot swung around, put full power to their engines and began to flee from the naval pilots as fast as they could, resuming their attempt to reach the far-off jumpgate.
The four fighters gave chase, each attempting to bring d
own the final fleeing craft. The Dart was fast, faster than the Knights, and it would soon be out of range of their guns; but not their missiles.
Estelle's targeting computer jingled. She declared her lock. The others acknowledged her. The missile armed and fired.
At the same instant her comms crackled into life. “I won't go back there! Please don't make me go back! I beg you!”
It was not a voice that she at first recognised and as the small red triangle on her radar screen started to blink, Estelle realised that it was coming from the fighter she had just fired at. “They can't be stopped! They'll kill me! They'll kill you! They'll kill all of us!! Please, just let me go! I just want to get away from them! PLEASE!” the voice continued as the missile devoured the distance between itself and the target it sought.
Something inside Estelle made her regret firing. There was terror in the man's voice; a terror that, for some unexplained reason, caused her a great deal of discomfort. It was the kind of terror that sounded as though it had been ingrained into the man's very soul. She looked down at the TAF's controls, seeking a way, any way, to put a stop to the missile that was seconds away from destroying its target. She found none and looked back to the final floundering manoeuvres of the Dart as the missile closed.
* * *
The craft exploded, killing its helpless occupant and leaving Estelle with questions that might now never be answered. She slowed her TAF and stared ahead at the tumbling clutter of alloys. The others joined her, Dodds and Kelly coming along either side, though not close enough to identify the faces within the helmets.
“Nice shooting, Estelle,” Dodds said, although his enthusiasm came across as somewhat subdued and muted, the rush of the battle dampened.
“What the hell was that all about?” Kelly asked.
“I... I have no idea,” Estelle replied. It sounded too real to have been a bluff. The man's final words had been almost hysterical and they were still going around in her head,
“I won't go back there...”
Go back where?
“They'll kill me! They'll kill you! They'll kill us all!”
Who was going to kill him? Who were the people in the Darts? Why were those they were fleeing so intent on attacking the Confederation and her allies?
She was regretting her actions and now wanted nothing more than to have brought the man back to Spirit for questioning. She looked to her radar and saw Enrique and Chaz pulling up beneath the three of them. “How you guys doing down there. Any further damage?”
Silence.
“Chaz? How we looking,” Enrique prompted.
“Same. Minor structural damage. Shielding is still at sixty percent,” Chaz replied.
“You okay, man?” Enrique's voice came after a pause.
“Yeah,” Chaz answered. “Just need to make sure we're good for the rest of the patrol.”
Estelle noted that the man sounded somewhat distracted. She began to ponder.
“What now, Estelle?” Dodds asked after a moment.
“We... er... transfer a report of our findings and the battle back to Spirit Orbital,” she said, watching as what remained of the Dart continued to tumble, short and explode ahead of her. “Chaz, Enrique, could you... please send them a detailed report of your damage so that... they... er... so they can be prepared to handle it effectively upon our return. Kelly, ensure you have a record of the fighters you took down; just their USIDs will do. After we're done... we'll continue with the patrol. We still have a while before quitting time.”
Estelle turned to one of the TAFs, the pilot watching her closely. She saw them turn back to the front and then heard a private channel open.
“Are you okay?” It was Dodds.
“I'm fine, Dodds.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Please set yourself back on the patrol route. I'll join you in a moment, I just need to make a note of something,” Estelle said before cutting off the link. She watched as Dodds pulled away from her, Kelly following after him, before placing her comms on mute and putting on her over her chest. She could feel her heart thumping hard. The words of the man were still running around in her head.
“Calm down, Estelle. Calm down,” she said to herself, exhaling a deep breath. “He only did it to freak you out and you took the bait. You didn't have to bail out and you've had worse than that before. Calm down. Finish the patrol, get home, have some food, a drink and a good rest.”
It was the first real combat she had experienced in months, but it somehow felt a lot more real than usual. She closed her eyes and counted slowly to ten, distancing herself from the event.
“Everyone ready?” she asked once she believed she had given them adequate time to send their reports. The others reported that they were and Estelle led them back along the patrol route.
VIII
— The Cardinal and The Thief —
Not long after returning to their designated route, the White Knights received new orders: they were requested to assist CSN Cardinal, a mobile research facility vessel, which had been attacked and boarded by a raiding party. As the Knights arrived within the vicinity of the Cardinal they found it drifting, damaged, and apparently powerless.
“Have you ever seen that ship before?” Estelle asked of her team. There was a resounding answer of “no” from all as they approached. Large quantities of debris drifted around the area, some of which appeared to belong to the Cardinal, the rest no doubt the remains of whomever had attacked her. From the looks of things the Cardinal had been equipped with some offensive weaponry and had made a conservative effort to defend itself.
“I'm unable to establish a comms link with Cardinal,” Chaz reported. “Failure on all standard protocols.”
“I'm going to head in and give the ship a quick sweep,” Dodds said.
“Dodds, wait,” Estelle said, as she saw him begin to pull away from the rest of the group. “Our orders are to secure the area and wait for backup to arrive.” Though there did not appear to be any other craft in the area, Estelle ordered the others to hold their current position and keep a watchful eye on their radars.
Sometime later two Confederation search and rescue vessels arrived; they only recognised one: the Merekat.
“Area is secured,” Estelle informed the captain of the Merekat as the search and rescue vessel approached the Cardinal and pulled up alongside it. The other vessel held back, waiting to serve any support requests.
“Affirmative, de Winter, we're going to send over a landing party. Please continue to monitor the area,” the captain of the Merekat said as his ship closed on the Cardinal and deployed a boarding tube.
“Think anyone is alive in there?” Dodds asked of his wingmates.
“From the looks of things they're all dead,” Kelly said. “We probably got here a little too late.”
“At least they put up a decent fight,” Dodds commented.
“Not good enough though,” Estelle answered, raising her eyes up from her radar and looking at the lifeless ship they had been requested to assist. She watched as another piece of wreckage drifted toward her TAF before bouncing harmlessly off the shielding. She could see somewhere further off what appeared to be the remains of a small vessel, perhaps a one-man fighter craft of some sort. She assumed the Cardinal must have been attacked by a small group of raiders, each in their own individual craft. She dropped her eyes back down to her radar and wondered what might be going on inside.
* * *
“What are you doing?” Enrique asked Chaz. The big man was fiddling with the Ray's on-board computer, his fingers tapping away at the small keyboard underneath one of the screens.
“Finding out what's going on,” he said. He continued pressing buttons and tapping at the screen, the computer issuing an occasional bleep in response. Enrique didn't recognise anything that was being displayed on the screen Chaz was accessing. The general lack of finesse in the layouts and aesthetics of the data representation suggested that the man had accessed something that
was only to be used by maintenance and systems workers, and was not supposed to be readily available to the pilots.
A moment later voices filled the cockpit and Enrique gave a start.
“This is Williams. Docking tube fixed and stable. Moving towards airlock,” a voice came.
“Copy that, Williams. Scans indicate some internal damage to the Cardinal. Proceed with caution,” another voice answered.
“Will do, Captain. We will maintain an open channel,” Williams said.
“What's that?” Enrique said as he listened to the chatter.
“It's the communications link being used between the boarding party and Merekat,” Chaz said.
Enrique took a moment to understand. “Wait, hold on. Did you just hack...” he began, stunned by what the man had just done.
“Shhh! Listen.”
Enrique fell silent and the two men listened in to the conversation between the boarding party and the Merekat's captain.
* * *
The party leader, Williams, stood by the Cardinal's airlock door turned to a member of his team. “Kate, would you do the honours?”
Kate produced a small portable device and connected it via a number of cables to the exterior airlock control panel. The door lock gave a short buzz, a little red light on the control panel changing to green.
“Open, sir,” she said, stepping to one side.
“Excellent. Right, remember everyone: no energy weapons,” Williams told his team. “We want to minimise damage to the interior if we encounter any hostilities.”
His team was made up of seven, clad in dark blue, lightly armoured suits and wearing protective helmets. On their feet they wore magnetic boots that could be activated in low and zero gravity situations. Most of their larger weapons were also equipped with a torch, for circumstances where they might have to work in the dark. Aside from the weapons, the team also carried maintenance gear, and medical supplies.
The seven men and women stood to either side of the airlock, so as not to expose themselves to anyone who might be waiting on the other side. Williams gave Kate the signal to open the airlock, and as the door slid open they were met by nothing except for an empty corridor, pitch black save for where the falloff lighting from the boarding tube illuminated the entrance.