Three said. “Hang in there. . . .”
Ethan’s ship shuddered again and his shields hissed with dissipating energy. An audible warning sounded: “Aft shields critical,” and Ethan gritted his teeth, waiting for an explosion to rip into his back as his fighter was torn apart from behind.
Then his comm sounded with, “Missiles away! Fire your afterburners and get clear, Five!” That was from Guardian Three. Ethan struggled to find the switch for his afterburners. There were dozens of buttons whose functions were still a mystery to him. He’d only had time to figure out the basics of piloting a nova. It was a miracle he could even manage to target and shoot.
“Five, he’s lining up above you to pull a switch over! I said get clear!”
“My afterburners are tapped out, Three!” Ethan lied in between decreasing his throttle and firing his starboard maneuvering jets in an attempt to slide out from under his opponent. But the enemy pilot copied his maneuver exactly. Ethan felt panic seize his chest. That junker was going to bait and switch the missiles at the last minute, either by accelerating suddenly or pulling sharply away. Ethan grimaced. “I can’t shake him!”
“Frek it!” Three said, and Ethan heard dymium lasers screeching out over the comm. A second later, a vicious explosion rocked his fighter. Bits of flaming wreckage rained down all around him. One hit his canopy with a sizzling thunk that knocked his forward shields down to 10% and elicited another critical shields alert from his ship’s computer. Ethan quickly jammed his throttles to the max, jetting out from under the expanding debris cloud before something else could hit him. “Problem solved, Skidmark. I just shot down the Hailfires before they reached the target. Lucky his shields were already weakened. The other two are making a break for it. Let them go. They’re not worth the fuel and munitions. We’ll hold ground here until the sentinels arrive to capture their base.”
“I can’t believe they were hiding this close to us, right under our noses!” Gina, Guardian Four, said. “They must have taken down the comm relay as a prelude to an attack on one of our convoys.”
“Most likely,” Three replied.
According to Ethan’s file, Brondi’s gang had knocked out the relay in order to give him an excuse to return to the Valiant and make his mission report in person.
“Form up, Guardians,” Three said. “Staggered V formation.”
“Roger that,” Ethan replied. He wasn’t sure what a staggered V should look like, but he assumed the shape of the formation was more or less what was implied. He brought his fighter into line behind Gina’s nova and accelerated until he was flying parallel to her, and then the pair of them pulled up on Three’s tail.
“Adan, weren’t you supposed to meet up with Guardian Six before heading back to the Valiant ?” A quick look at the comm display told Ethan it was Guardian Three who’d asked.
“He got delayed on Forliss Station,” Ethan said. The truth was he was dead, just like Adan. The two of them had been out investigating a nova pilot’s murder and they had quickly becomes victims of the killer themselves. “He had a problem with his fuel lines,” Ethan went on. “He said he’d catch up with me once it was fixed.”
“Damn fighters are always seizing up on us,” Three said. “Well, let’s hope nobody picks him off while he’s on his own out there. Nova pilots are becoming common targets these days. Seems like we’re everybody’s enemy and nobody’s friend.”
“Guess they don’t appreciate that we’re out there every day risking our lives for them,” Gina snorted.
“Guess not, but who’s there to see it?” Three said.
Ethan frowned. He wasn’t sure what they were talking about. The fleet hardly ever saw any action. Why were they talking about risking their lives? “There been much action while I was gone?”
“Not much aside from these pirates. It’s a
Ethan’s ship shuddered again and his shields hissed with dissipating energy. An audible warning sounded: “Aft shields critical,” and Ethan gritted his teeth, waiting for an explosion to rip into his back as his fighter was torn apart from behind.
Then his comm sounded with, “Missiles away! Fire your afterburners and get clear, Five!” That was from Guardian Three. Ethan struggled to find the switch for his afterburners. There were dozens of buttons whose functions were still a mystery to him. He’d only had time to figure out the basics of piloting a nova. It was a miracle he could even manage to target and shoot.
“Five, he’s lining up above you to pull a switch over! I said get clear!”
“My afterburners are tapped out, Three!” Ethan lied in between decreasing his throttle and firing his starboard maneuvering jets in an attempt to slide out from under his opponent. But the enemy pilot copied his maneuver exactly. Ethan felt panic seize his chest. That junker was going to bait and switch the missiles at the last minute, either by accelerating suddenly or pulling sharply away. Ethan grimaced. “I can’t shake him!”
“Frek it!” Three said, and Ethan heard dymium lasers screeching out over the comm. A second later, a vicious explosion rocked his fighter. Bits of flaming wreckage rained down all around him. One hit his canopy with a sizzling thunk that knocked his forward shields down to 10% and elicited another critical shields alert from his ship’s computer. Ethan quickly jammed his throttles to the max, jetting out from under the expanding debris cloud before something else could hit him. “Problem solved, Skidmark. I just shot down the Hailfires before they reached the target. Lucky his shields were already weakened. The other two are making a break for it. Let them go. They’re not worth the fuel and munitions. We’ll hold ground here until the sentinels arrive to capture their base.”
“I can’t believe they were hiding this close to us, right under our noses!” Gina, Guardian Four, said. “They must have taken down the comm relay as a prelude to an attack on one of our convoys.”
“Most likely,” Three replied.
According to Ethan’s file, Brondi’s gang had knocked out the relay in order to give him an excuse to return to the Valiant and make his mission report in person.
“Form up, Guardians,” Three said. “Staggered V formation.”
“Roger that,” Ethan replied. He wasn’t sure what a staggered V should look like, but he assumed the shape of the formation was more or less what was implied. He brought his fighter into line behind Gina’s nova and accelerated until he was flying parallel to her, and then the pair of them pulled up on Three’s tail.
“Adan, weren’t you supposed to meet up with Guardian Six before heading back to the Valiant ?” A quick look at the comm display told Ethan it was Guardian Three who’d asked.
“He got delayed on Forliss Station,” Ethan said. The truth was he was dead, just like Adan. The two of them had been out investigating a nova pilot’s murder and they had quickly becomes victims of the killer themselves. “He had a problem with his fuel lines,” Ethan went on. “He said he’d catch up with me once it was fixed.”
“Damn fighters are always seizing up on us,” Three said. “Well, let’s hope nobody picks him off while he’s on his own out there. Nova pilots are becoming common targets these days. Seems like we’re everybody’s enemy and nobody’s friend.”
“Guess they don’t appreciate that we’re out there every day risking our lives for them,” Gina snorted.
“Guess not, but who’s there to see it?” Three said.
Ethan frowned. He wasn’t sure what they were talking about. The fleet hardly ever saw any action. Why were they talking about risking their lives? “There been much action while I was gone?”
“Not much aside from these pirates. It’s a
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