I walked into Pilot Ready Room #112 and flopped down on the couch, tired after a long day of maintenance on my Wraith Stealth Fighter. I didn't even notice the other person in the room with me until he barked, "Attention, Lieutenant!"
I quickly jumped up and saluted the officer. I noted his commander's rank insignia and wondered what he was doing in a pilot's room.
He looked me over, and growled, "At ease."
I let my body rest from the full attention position. The officer looked at me, and as if reading my mind, said, "No, don't start napping yet. I've got a job for you."
I groaned and asked, "What's to do?"
The captain said, "You're being transferred to a new ship. The Dimension."
I perked up at the mention of the most famous Battlecruiser in the United Earth Directorate Star Fleets. The Battlecruiser had plowed through hundreds of Zerg Mutalisks, survived antimatter missile attacks from Protoss Scouts, and had weathered just about enough damage to kill twenty Battlecruisers of the Galactic class, the most powerful in the fleet. It was an honor to be assigned to that ship, and I said it to the captain.
The commander spoke again. "Don't start thanking me yet. DropShip Alpha-Two-Nine leaves in forty minutes. Pack your things and get moving."
I saluted again and ran off to the barracks to grab my small case full of clothes and other personal effects.
Forty minutes later, I was boarding the DropShip designated Fleet Transport A29. Its commander, Captain Alphron, welcomed me aboard the ship. My belongings were quickly stowed, and I was guided to a place along the rows of impact-padded crash seats. About thirty more people boarded, and then came an announcement from the ship intercom.
"This is Captain Alphron. We're leaving for the Avalon system in about two minutes. Strap in, and prepare for dimensional warp."
I sat in the cushions of the seat and braced myself for liftoff from the planet. Strangely enough, the takeoff wasn't all that bad. But, since the takeoff was soft, I hadn't properly braced myself for dimensional warp. I was thrown around my seat and the only thing that prevented me from flying through the window at the front of the dropship was my seat belt. It took me awhile to get back and braced for the thrust, and by that time we had dropped out of that other hyperdimension and back into realspace.
It wasn't a much better picture here, though. The transport was tossing and turning like a ship caught in a storm. I raced to the nearest viewport and looked outside. I saw two Protoss Scouts and a single Arbiter firing their weapons at us.
I charged up front and yelled at Captain Alphron, "Don't you have any defenses? Use them!"
Alphron shouted back, "We've got a single Wraith fighter for defense, but no pilots!"
I asked, "Where is it? I'm a UED pilot."
Alphron yelled, "It's in the hold! Now shut up and get moving!" A powerful blast punctuated his sentence.
I needed no further urging. I ran at top speed toward the hold entrance and leaped into the fighter. I skipped all the preflight and shouted at Alphron to open the doors through the comm. He complied and my fighter soared out. It was good to be in space again, piloting my own fighter, but it wasn't so much fun with two scouts shooting antimatter missiles at me.
I quickly flipped the ship over and fired my burst lasers at the flying missiles. Three of the laser beams hit, but the last missile got past and struck me on the starboard wing. I didn't have any serious damage, but if I got hit there again I'd be in some serious trouble.
Over the comm came a voice. It was Captain Alphron. "This is DropShip Alpha-Two-Nine to any UED forces near Avalon. We are under attack by two Protoss scouts and a single Arbiter. One Wraith fighter is holding them off but our systems are failing and will go down in approximately three minutes. This is DropShip Alpha."
I shut off the repeating distress signal and concentrated on my piloting. Without a wingman another ship could cut in on my aft and cause some serious damage to my engines, so I had to be constantly on the watch for such a maneuver.
I cut my ship to the right to avoid a missile. I broke hard left, then dumped two Gemini missiles right into the aft of one of the Scouts, only to see it explode against the ship's shields. Its partner fired at me with its photon blasters, cutting armor off my central hull.
I spun my ship into a barrel roll, making myself a hard target, then pulled into the second Scout's aft and pumped two more of my missiles into it. Its shields absorbed all the energy, defending it, but it failed quickly when I fired a pair of dual-linked laser shots into it.
A powerful antimatter missile flared past my right side and exploded, not quite catching me but detonating close enough to do some damage. I cursed and shut off the alarms, then went off after the second Scout again.
The Scout had run at its top speed to repair itself, while the first held me off. Since my Wraith had the same speed as the Protoss vessels, I couldn't chase it anyway and decided to attack the first one.
I knew that I had damaged its shields earlier, so when I saw it coming at me head on I dived my ship down just enough to pass under its belly. I used my smaller Wraith's superior maneuverability to flip over and drop myself in on his aft. I used two of my last four missiles to open up a giant hole in his shields and do some light damage to his port wing. He flipped up on his starboard wing and took off at top speed. I wondered what he was trying to do, and I followed him.
Unfortunately, I didn't notice what he was doing until it was almost too late. His partner hit me from the sides with dual photon blaster shots. I wondered why he wasn't using missiles, and figured that he was out and had to use his blasters.
I got my next surprise right then. A phase disruptor shot from the Arbiter hit me smack on the nose, disabling my systems. I attempted to go for a system restart, but then I heard a strange whirring sound and I was smashed all around my cockpit. I struck something and blacked out.
I woke up half-expecting to be at either the Pearly Gates or being met by the devil himself. In fact, it was neither. I stared at a scaly Protoss face as I rose from the bed where I had lain.
I asked him, "Why am I here? Why am I not dead?"
He said, "You are a fine pilot, young Terran, and your fellow mates from the DropShip are also warriors. We wish to recruit you in our battle against the Zerg on Aiur. Once Aiur has been freed from the creep which covers its once pristine valleys, we shall allow you to return to Earth."
I thought for a while. Then I nodded. "Okay, but that deal has to go for everyone else on the DropShip as well."
He (was that a smile?) replied, "They already have agreed. You were unconscious for the past three hours, we needed to wait for you."
I nodded and asked, "Okay, how do I help you retake Aiur?"
The Protoss told me, "First, you will remain in your Wraith. We are repairing it even now. Second, you will be placed with the Terran command group. You have been assigned to Delta Squadron as Delta Nine. Your squadron commander will have the details. I will see you later, young Terran." He left the room.
I sighed and got up. As soon as the Protoss left, a Terran walked in. He said, "Hello, Delta Nine. What's your name? We need it for processing purposes."
I stuttered and replied, "David Webber, Lieutenant, UED Starfighter Command."
The Terran said, "No UED designations here, we're all part of the Terran Defense Wing now. Your things have been removed from the DropShip and placed in Pilots' Room #229. I'm your squadron commander, call me Delta One or Captain. I'll meet you at your room in thirty minutes. Dismissed."
I saluted and walked out of the room. I wandered around a bit until I found one of the base maps posted on the wall. I located my position and headed for pilot's country.
Once I entered my room, I found out that space was a premium in this place. I had a rock-hard bed, a closet and a light. Nothing more. Still, it was a place to sleep so I was grateful for it anyway.
I unpacked my few belongings, putting my clothes in my closet and leaving my other personal possessions in my one bag. I stretched out on the bed, and thought thoughts of my home on Earth.
I was rudely awakened by the Captain's voice bellowing, "ATTENTION!"
I instinctively leaped to my feet and saluted him. I asked, "What's my assignment, sir?"
The captain told me, "First off, my name's Robin Baskin. You call me that in informal situations, to be formal call me Captain. Second, for your assignment, come with me."
I followed him as he went through the weaving corridors of the base, moving past people and occasionally greeting one or two of them.
We came to a stop outside a room with a sign on its door saying, "Pilot's Briefing Room." The Captain waved me inside and closed the door.
Inside were another three people. The captain raised a hand and called for order. "Okay, Delta Squadron, this is our newest member. His name is David Webber, and he's designated Delta Nine. He's a good pilot, almost took down two Scouts and an Arbiter in his single Wraith. He's good enough for us, so he's joining up right now. Do you all want to introduce yourselves?"
The man closest to me stood. "I'm Delta Ten, Bob Rainier. I'll be your wingman here."
I nodded and smiled at him. "I hope we're good enough to keep each other safe."
The next pilot, a woman, introduced herself. "I'm Jill Firor. I'm Delta Seven."
Finally, the last pilot in the room, a man, stood up and shook my hand. "I'm Delta Two, John Brock. I'm also second in command, which means I get to assign maintenance duties. Probably not a good idea to get on my bad side."
I smiled. "I'll remember that."
Captain Baskin broke into the conversation. "Webber, the other pilots are on their way in now, and you'll get to meet them later. Most of them are being debriefed, we just returned from a mission about three hours ago. These pilots are the faster ones. I'll take you out to your Wraith and you can inspect it and tell us how to fix her up."
I told him, "I don't really know much about it myself. It's the fighter escort for the dropship, I was just a convenient passenger to pilot it against the attacks."
Captain Baskin looked at me again with a bit more respect. "You mean that wasn't your ship? Well, we'll have to get a new fighter for you, cause yours isn't quite finished in the repair bay yet. She took a lot of damage in your little fight."
I said nothing. Captain Baskin continued, "We're being posted to the Protoss Carrier Dieron. You'll be assigned to a new Wraith, designated 44-01-20. Come on, I'll take you to her and you can give it a name."
I followed him through a maze of ships, a variety of Scouts, Wraiths, Corsairs, and some other ships I couldn't even recognize. Then, when we reached my new vessel I could sense it before Captain Baskin could speak up. The small vessel was a solid, powerful ship. I just needed a look at her to tell that that ship would carry me through a lot of battles.
Captain Baskin stopped before my ship and patted her hull. He said, "Here she is, fresh out of the factory. New development prototype, you get to fly it in all of our missions."
I grinned. Flying this ship would be wonderful. I was just ready to climb up the boarding ladder when the captain shouted at me, "Stop!"
I asked him, "Why?"
He said, "We've got to lower the energy shields first. Here's the remote controller. It can control simple pulse-lift functions, the shields, and automated distress signals."
I took the controller and turned the dial on "SHIELD LEVELS" up to full. A crackling noise emitted from the ship and a white burst of static energy flashed around the ship's shields.
I hastily turned the dial the other way and was pleased to see the crackling fade. I entered the cockpit and examined the controls. They seemed standard, except for the shielding controller, so I could probably fly it quite easily.
I reluctantly climbed out of the cockpit and asked the captain, "Hadn't we better go to the briefing room? I'm sure the other pilots are finished with their maintenance and debriefings by now."
He said, "Yup, I'd bet you're right. We'd better get back before they start getting annoyed."
He set off at a fast pace through the technicians and engineers and ships throughout the area. We headed for the Starfighter Command Section doors, and passed through to the briefing room again.
When I entered, I saw that the rest of the pilots had indeed returned. The first pilot to notice me turned and said, "Hi, the others told us about you. I'm Bubba Rant, Delta Four. Pleased to meet you."
The others quickly introduced themselves and we got down to business. Captain Baskin put the target up on the battle viewer. He said, "This is our target. It's a Zerg base on Daranus Nine. So far as we know, they have no air defenses yet, so we'll want to take it out before it can become a threat to our nearby bases."
I raised a hand. I asked, "Will the Dieron or other forces be going in too or will it just be us in our Wraiths?"
He answered, "A good question. We may have some reinforcements about ten minutes into the mission, but they may be forced to deploy elsewhere. However, we can't rely on those reinforcements, so don't depend on them. Also, our fighters don't normally have weaponry that can do serious damage to land structures, so we'll be carrying two high-yield explosives. To fit that in, each of our Wraiths will only carry four missiles instead of our usual eight."
A female pilot halfway down the long briefing table raised her hand. I remembered that she had been introduced as Delta Eight, Anne Prior. She'd bragged about her combat record, but enough people around her had laughed so I thought she'd probably added a few dozen kills to her lists.
She asked, "Are there any Zerg bases nearby that could provide this base with some air support?"
The Captain replied, "Not that we know of. There could be some recently started bases that we don't know about, or they could be getting reinforcements now from a faraway base, but our intelligence believes that to be unlikely."
"Any more questions, or can I start planning our attack route?"
Everyone around the table shook their heads no, so Captain Baskin changed the battle viewer's screen to a map of our projected course on the battlefield. He centered the viewer in on the first section of our approach to the Zerg planetary base.
He whipped up his pointer and pointed to the small image of fighters lifting off of a carrier. "This is the place where we leave Dieron and proceed to the inner planets."
"There is an asteroid belt around the orbit of the second planet, where our target is situated. This belt prevents the Dieron from getting through to the planet, so we can't count on any large battle forces coming into to relieve us. We also may have some problems getting through the field itself, but it should prove no problem, as the asteroids are fairly large and well spaced. After getting through the field, we'll come in at the night terminus and go to ground until the Zerg base is fully under darkness. We'll have to switch on infrared scanning and be alert, because the land where they've situated their base is fairly mountainous. After darkness, we'll have to pass through a series of trenches to avoid detection. We don't really need the advantage of speed here, so we'll take it slow. After the trenches, we'll have to go at full thrust for a kilometer before we reach the perimeter of the enemy base. Any questions so far?"
I raised my hand again. "Sir, are you sure about the difficulty of the asteroid field? Most belts have smaller objects inside them and would prove difficult for navigation."
Baskin shook his head. "All of the smaller debris in the field that we aren't able to navigate around easily is insufficient to do our hulls damage. The material in the field is very light and not dense at all. We can handle it. Any other objections, or can we go on?"
I smiled and put my hand down. No one else raised his or her hands, so Baskin continued.
"We'll be coming in at the closest point to the central hive cluster that we can manage. Our objective is to take out the central cluster first, then mop up any other forces until reinforcements arrive, theirs or ours. If our reinforcements arrive first, then we move on to another base about halfway around the planet. If theirs arrive first, then our job is to contact the reinforcements and instruct them to retreat, then bug out. I want no one dying out there, got it?"
Everyone nodded. It wasn't like we really wanted to die, anyway.
The day of the mission was a pretty slow one. We all reported to the fighter hangar at eight hundred hours and got our wingman assignments. I was paired up with Delta Ten, Bob Rainier, as we'd expected. Bob was the leader of our wing squad, and would give the orders.
The rest of the squadron pretty much expected the routine assignments, and quickly patted each other on the back and exchanged good luck charms, etc. We all boarded our fighters and launched, last fighter first and first fighter last.
"Delta Twelve, two engines lit, and launching."
"Delta Eleven, two green and in the air."
"Delta Ten, all systems go and taking off."
I spoke into the comm system, "Delta Nine, full power to engines and launching now."
I tuned out the rest of the routine launch reports as I concentrated on getting out into space. I found my wingman, Delta Ten, and followed him as he lit up his twin engines and shot into space.
The rest of the squadron met up at Rendezvous Point Alpha to wait for the Carrier Dieron, which would take us into the Daranus system through hyperspace.
I almost didn't see it arrive. Its arrival was silent, but the ship was impressive. It was nearly five hundred meters long, and carried a complement of drone interceptor battle units in addition to our twelve fighters. The ship paused in space and Captain Baskin's ship entered its hangar, ordering us to follow through the comm.
I pulled my ship around toward the hangar entrance and pushed up the throttle for a soft landing on the right side of the landing bay. As soon as the handlers signaled all ships in and atmospheric pressure up, I popped my canopy and jumped out.
The Captain and my squadmates met me at the middle of the hanger. The captain told us, "We'll be waiting here on the Dieron for about thirty minutes, so you've got a half hour of recreation time on the shipboard facilities. Dismissed."
The other squad people rushed off to the gyms or to talk with friends. Bob met up with me and said, "Come on, Dave. We'll go check out their new games. I've heard there's a new pilot simulator out, and that they have high game scores here. Their old scores ought to be easy to beat."
After a good twenty minutes spent dogfighting with other Wraiths, Corsairs, Scouts, and Valkyries, I climbed out of the hot simulator cockpit. I walked over to Bob's simulator and rapped on it twice. He obligingly popped it open and asked, "How did we do?"
I said, "I don't know yet. Let's go over and look at the score datapad."
We walked over to the score sheets and looked at the scores we'd racked up together. According to the sheets, we'd come up third place overall, slightly behind a pair of Corsair pilots and a pilot of a Scout and a Wraith flying together. Pretty darned good, really.
We left the simulator room and walked back toward the fighter hangar, where the captain was sure to be waiting for us. We got there about three minutes before the appointed return time, and found that only about three pilots were there before us. I looked around for the captain, and was satisfied when he came out of one of the doors with the rest of the pilots in a group.
He ordered us into our cockpits and to prep for launch. The pilots complied and we all climbed our fighters' boarding ladders and sat in the cockpit.
I went over the preflight checklist, making absolutely sure that none of my fighter's systems would fail in the upcoming confrontation. It should be a piece of cake, but any problems could come up and a malfunction in the missile systems would not be something to laugh at in the middle of a battle.
Everything checked out, so I reported, "All systems ready and prepared for takeoff."
Most of the other pilots checked in likewise, about a minute after I'd finished. Over the comm came a voice, "Prepare for hyperspace exit in seven seconds."
I braced myself, hoping it wouldn't be too bad, and it wasn't. The larger Carrier didn't have as much vibrating as the smaller dropship had had, so all I felt in my cockpit was a small tremor that would have been just sufficient to knock me off my feet had I been outside and not strapped in.
I heard Captain Baskin's voice over the comm. "All ships, launch by proximity to hangar exit."
That made me first out on the right side. I lit up my four pulse lift engines and lifted off from the hangar floor. I used maneuvering jets to swivel around to face the exit, and activated my main engines, shooting out from the hold. My squadron-mates followed me out from the hangar, with Captain Baskin bringing up the rear. We quickly reoriented behind the captain's fighter and set course for the asteroid field.
The field was almost exactly as the captain had told us. It was a fairly thin field, with almost a hundred meters of clearance between two rocks. The smaller debris was mainly not present, and was insufficient to damage our ships. We made it through without incident, and set course for the ground.
Captain Baskin's voice came through on the low power channel we were using to avoid detection. "Delta Squadron, boost to full speed and dive toward the planet. Meet fifty kilometers southwest of the central Zerg hive cluster, repeat 50 klicks southwest of primary hive cluster."
I tapped the comm once as to acknowledge reception of the message, then pulled my ship around into a steep dive toward the specified rendezvous area. The meet point was close to a mountain, so I aimed for that and started making the minor course corrections required because of the wind currents at the high altitudes we were at.
I came out of the dive at the base of the mountain, pulling hard up as I put full power to the pulse lift engines. The lift brought me out of the dive, still heading at top speed but toward the 50-klick rendezvous point. The rest of the ships all arrived after me, having not wanted to risk full speed maneuvers.
Captain Baskin admonished me over the comm, "Don't die before the mission even starts! We don't want to lose pilots here, remember? Now, all pilots head two kilometers northwest, and enter the first valley. Follow the valleys from there and stop at the end. Shoot what shoots at you. Move!
We set off, with Delta Five, Ryan Richter, slightly ahead of the main group to scan for hostiles. The enemy wasn't supposed to have air defenses, but we didn't want to take any chances.
The comm specialist, Delta Seven, Jill Firor, reported an instant burst communication from the Dieron, holding orbit outside the asteroid field.
"Captain, Dieron reports that we've got reinforcements on the way, but they can only send four Scouts support. We'll have to take down most of the buildings cause they didn't have the chance to put heavy weapons on their ships."
Captain Baskin asked the thing most important to him. "How'd you get the message? Are we compromised?"
She replied, "The transmission would have been hard to detect, but they could still have picked it up, sir."
The Captain said, "Okay, the mission goes on. Pilots, enter the valleys."
I set my engines to propel me about a klick a minute, and was pleased to see the others match my speed. Time was on our side, as long as we weren't detected, and we could take our time making sure no one on our side died.
We entered a gentle left turn, and lowered our speed even more, then left the first valley. We hovered about two meters off the ground, then feathered the main engines, slowly bringing us on a very low vector to the next valley.
I entered the relative safety of the valley, then yelped as something screeched past me. I checked my scanners, and found that it was a Zerg spore colony! The Zerg must have anticipated air attacks through these valleys and planned accordingly. I yelled into the comm, "All fighters, alert! Zerg spore colony at tracking coordinates 225-41! We may be compromised!"
Captain Baskin shouted back, "Delta Squadron, open fire!"
Our fighters split up to make tougher targets. Bob and me dove in, firing our burst lasers, and quickly pulled out of range of the spore colony's acid spores. The next wingpair attacked, their weapons firing on the Zerg. One, Delta Three, got hit, but he reported that he could fix the damage if given time, so he'd land away from the colony and fix his ship up.
The rest of us got the green light. Every fighter attacked the colony, using our lasers. The powerful beams eventually fried enough of the structure that it could not fire its weapon any longer, and we hovered over it, frying it with more laser pulses to insure that it would not regenerate.
Captain Baskin ordered, "The Zerg must already be informed of our presence! I'll hold back with Delta Three, all other fighters, attack!"
Acknowledgements came through the comm and the second-in-command, John Brock, ordered, "Countdown.. Five, four, three, two, one.. Attack!"
The ten other Wraiths jumped ahead of the damaged fighter and the commander, leaping out of the canyon and hitting full thrust. Our fighters ate up the kilometers, eating up about ten klicks a minute. We'd only gotten five kilometers of distance of travel through the valleys, so we had to get there at top speed.
Our Wraiths pushed on over the landscape at a steady pace of ten kpm. Two minutes passed, in which we had to wonder if the Zerg base had been informed of the arrival of our fighters, and if they'd managed to obtain air reinforcements, like Hydralisks or Mutalisks, or maybe even Scourges. We'd find out in a couple of minutes if they had.
We slowed before entering the base, and Lieutenant Brock ordered our scanning specialist, Delta Six, to sweep the area for air defenses.
"Sir, my scanners report a flight of twenty Zerg Mutalisks flying in from the north. They'll be here in about two minutes."
I spoke into my comm. "Sir, wouldn't the Zerg be expecting to find us at their base? If we ambush them, we'd stand a good chance of destroying them and then be able to return to the base unopposed."
Brock thought it over and then spoke. "Sounds like a good idea. Delta Squadron, vector to ten degrees north, half thrust."
Our Wraiths turned and pointed to the north, and we headed for our ambush point. Without being told, each of the other fighters hid behind something that might hide it from the incoming Mutalisks, and I followed their tactics. I positioned myself behind an outcropping of rock, which was jaggedly pointing straight up. And we waited.
The Mutalisks passed right overhead, since no one could see them coming from their hiding places. It didn't matter.
We jumped out from behind cover, each sending a pair of Gemini missiles toward the rear of a Mutalisk. Six Mutas died, two crashing, and four simply exploding as the missiles hit them.
But now the Zerg could strike back. The remaining fourteen mutalisks turned and launched glave wurms at us. The wurms could jump from ship to ship, causing damage to each, until they died.
Only four of us were hit, but they got it bad. One, Delta Two, crashed his ship into the ground, dead. Delta Twelve and Delta Four managed to keep their ships under control, and Five had to eject as his ship was destroyed under him.
"They got the lieutenant! They got the lieutenant!" Delta Three's voice came through the comm.
"This is Delta Four, I'm heavily damaged. Heading to rendezvous with One."
"Twelve here, Four, I'll follow you."
Great. Now we were down to six Wraiths against fourteen Mutalisks. Things couldn't get much worse.
I barked into my comlink, "Delta Nine to all remaining combat-capable fighters. Break by pairs and attack."
Our remaining six fighters paired up, Six with Seven, Eight with Eleven, and me and Bob. Each fighter had to take down at least two mutas, otherwise we'd be dead. Not like the situation wasn't bad enough already, of course.
I pulled into a tight snaproll, Bob following me, as I fired my pulse lasers into the creature. It turned to follow me, but Bob, on my tail, fired his last two Gemini missiles at its exposed end. It exploded spectacularly, the power of the missiles easily cracking the tough Zerg carapace.
"Nine, break left." Delta Six's voice came through the comm.
I snapped up on my left wing and pulled the control yoke up. I was pushed down in my seat by the powerful g-forces, but my inertial compensator quickly stabilized the force so I wasn't crushed. A glave wurm streaked past on my starboard side, its powerful acids already spilling out of its sides.
"Thanks, Six."
"No problem, Nine."
"Six and Seven, try to herd your attackers toward coordinates 14-12."
"Sure, Nine."
Bob swished past my fighter at top speed, with a pair of Mutalisks on his tail.
"Ten, pull up!"
Bob's fighter engaged its pulse-lift engines and shot upward. The less maneuverable Zerg flew underneath him and tried to correct so they could continue attacking him.
I wasn't going to let that happen. When the two Mutalisks passed by a clump of six more, I engaged my bombing system and let fly with a fifty-kiloton explosive. The bomb impacted slightly to the right of the group of enemies, but it didn't really matter, as it was sufficiently powerful to carve a crater that ten battlecruisers could fit inside.
Five of the Zerg remained, against six of us. We now had the numerical advantage, but we probably couldn't hold it for long because Six and Seven had run themselves completely out of missiles, and the rest of us only had two left.
I wanted to help us get the advantage back. I sideslipped to starboard, and fired a quick burst laser shot that swept slightly to the left of a single Mutalisk. Bob, who was protecting my tail, fired a shot of his own that struck the Mutalisk on one of its wings, but wasn't sufficiently powerful enough to shred it.
Six and Seven, being completely out of missiles, had paired up and were hunting one Mutalisk, while Eight and Eleven each flew after one of their own. We had the duty of taking down the Mutalisk I was hunting, and another one that was trying to shoot its acidic wurms inside of Bob's engines.
I rolled up on my port wing and pulled my ship so it was at 180 degrees to its previous heading. I put all power to engines and stabbed the triggers. I was rewarded by the sight of two bright lances of light striking the carapace of the Zerg trailing Bob, and another pair quickly followed it.
The one I'd been hunting earlier now trailed Bob, and loosed a wurm at his ship. It struck him on his starboard wing and ate away at his hull, but didn't do any really serious damage. However, if he were struck there again, he'd be out of the fight.
I growled and brought up my missile targeting display. I centered it upon the silhouette of the flying beast I was hunting and fired. My last two Gemini missiles flew out from their launchers and struck the Mutalisk squarely on the center of its body. The explosion shredded its carapace and burned through the inner guts of the vile thing as it exploded.
Bob shouted through the comm, "I'm hit! Main engines offline, pulse-lift engines at 25%. I can barely limp out to rendezvous point Alpha. Someone cover me."
I punched my comm unit and answered, "Got it, Delta Ten. Head out at 225 degrees, I've got your pursuit. Go!"
Bob acknowledged my order and brought his remaining pulse-lift engines up to the top power setting they could safely maintain. He headed out at about twenty klicks per hour toward Captain Baskin and the rest of the damaged fighters.
Meanwhile, Six and Seven had finally taken down one of the Mutalisks, while Eight had been destroyed when he tried to launch a missile through a damaged missile launcher. It had hung up inside the tube and exploded, taking his fighter down with it. He never even had a chance to punch out. Eleven had managed to do some serious damage to the Mutalisk he was hunting, but it wasn't quite down yet. It was now down to two Mutalisks against four Wraith fighters, but none of us had any missiles left. It was going to be a contest of pulse lasers against glave wurms, but I wasn't sure that we could win it.
Delta Six pulled his fighter up, attempting to evade one of the Mutalisks that was following him. It kept close to his tail, lifting up and following right under him. However, that move left the Mutalisk wide open to counterattack. Both Seven and Eleven climbed up under the Zerg and stitched it with pulse laser fire. The lasers, while powerful, were not quite sufficient to burn through the carapace, so they could only give it slight damage.
Since all of my squadmates were off hunting the other Mutalisk, I got the last one. Luckily, this was the one that Eleven had damaged with his last two missiles, so I had a slightly easier job. That didn't make it all that much easier, because it was still a one-on-one fight and I'd already used my most powerful weapons.
The Mutalisk flapped its wings and launched a glave wurm at me. It struck my hull, but the weak experimental energy shields blocked its acids. I felt a shudder as the shields failed and the wurm began to eat away at my central hull, but luckily for me it had used most of its acidic juices already and it didn't have too much left to throw at my armor.
I snaprolled up on my starboard wing and spun my ship around, going head-to-head with the Mutalisk. Fortunately for me, it hadn't had enough time to get another glave wurm ready to shoot at me, so I took advantage of the situation and fired four dual-linked blasts at its wings. The thinner wings were pretty easy to cut through, especially with pulse lasers. The light bursts shredded the wings, making the Mutalisk lose all flight capability and smash into the planet surface at full speed. Its hard carapace wasn't up to protecting it against a sheer rock surface, and it shattered, its organic body dying and left to rot in the heat.
Six, Seven and Eight had managed to all get behind the last Mutalisk, and were pumping laser burst after laser burst into its central shell. Although it was tough, it wasn't tough enough to defend the body of the Zerg from that many pulse laser blasts. It cracked, and the big Mutalisk crashed into the ground and exploded.
"Six, Seven, Eleven, this is Nine. All enemy air units downed, clear for bombing runs."
We turned back toward our main objective, the Zerg base, and put engines to full. We screamed over the central hive cluster, scanning for air defenses. After finding none, we each started using our bombs.
"Delta Six, two bombs away."
"Delta Seven, two packages gone."
"Delta Eleven, central hatchery's gone."
I aimed in at a certain point in the center of the cluster and let fly. My fifty-kiloton explosive ripped into the structures there and I reported, "Delta Nine, cerebrate killed. Mission accomplished."
"Good work, Nine.. Okay, all ships rendezvous at point Alpha and prepare to leave the planet."
"Aye, sir."
Six, Seven and Eight headed out to point Alpha to join up with Captain Baskin and the four damaged Wraiths, while I went out to pick up Delta Five, the pilot who had been forced to eject.
As I landed around where I thought Five had ejected, a voice came from behind a rock. "Who's there?"
"It's me, Nine."
Delta Five, Ryan Richter, came out from his hiding spot, tucking his energy pistol into his belt and running toward my ship. He shouted, "I think the enemy's noticed the Mutalisks' disappearance. They might have some ground units on the way, we'd better move!"
He jumped up into my cockpit and took the secondary gunner's position, which wasn't really necessary but increased the accuracy of the guns. The pilots could control both systems, so most Wraiths didn't carry a gunner, but it did come in handy when one needed to carry an extra person.
I engaged the pulse engines and lifted off. When we were about a kilometer above the ground, I noticed a large series of blips where we had just left, and commented about it.
"Look at the sensor monitor. There's about fifty Zerglings just sitting there. They must have been sent to investigate. Did you set your fighter for destruct after it crashed?"
Richter replied, "Of course I did. Fireball took out about thirty trees when it died, there's nothing left of it now."
I nodded and set course for the asteroid belt. I had to wait for about five minutes, and got sort of fidgety until Captain Baskin and the rest of the squadron showed up. Delta Two was towing Bob's fighter by means of a steel cable. Bob still had some maneuverability, so he could avoid the asteroids in the belt, but he didn't have enough power to build speed to go through space.
We threaded through the thinly spaced asteroids, making it through with ease, and Captain Baskin called in a pickup signal to the Dieron.
We waited in the cold of space for about thirty long minutes, and then a signal appeared from hyperspace. It was the Dieron, and the great supercarrier was deploying interceptors from its drone bays to cover us as we landed in the main fighter bay.
I marched into the small debriefing room and saluted the officer standing there. He returned my salute, and told me to sit down.
I complied, and he introduced himself. "I'm Major Yang. Now, what I want to know is, exactly what happened on this mission that cost us three Wraith fighters and two trained pilots?"
I thought back to the mission and answered. "Sir, the Zerg were prepared for an air attack. They had a spore colony set up to defend the colony and a squadron of twenty Mutalisks was patrolling the airspace around the base. I think that they were using that base as bait for a trap to kill some of our air capability, but we managed to win and kill the base's controlling Cerebrate before they could manage to put up more of a defense."
Major Yang thought on that a bit and brought out a datapad, writing a short notation on it. He brought up a file and read it, then asked a question. "Okay, now I'd like to ask you some questions on your tactics. The other officers report that you suggested intercepting the Zerg Mutalisk force outside the enemy base. Why didn't you decide to destroy the base first, because it had no air defenses to fend off an assault?"
I thought on the question for awhile. It took me some time to come up with an answer, and I told it to him. I replied, "I decided to do such because destroying the base might have taken up a large percentage of our munitions, and the Mutalisks could have caught us unprepared in the base. Our ambush managed to allow us to surprise them and take down more of the enemy than we would had we been in the base, and we might have actually been destroyed if we had not done as we did."
Yang scratched his chin, and nodded. "Our interviews with your commanding officer and his observations of your decisions and performance indicate that your statement is true. We might not have been able to destroy the base if it hadn't been for your idea. We're indebted to you, and we've found a way to show it. Captain Baskin has put you in for a promotion, and we're going to accept it. Since Lieutenant Brock died in the battle, you'll be promoted to Captain and will be second in command of Delta Squadron. Captain Baskin will remain in command, and you'll still be a junior officer, of course."
I stood speechless. When I finally found my voice, I said, "Thank you, sir. I will try to live up to the honor of this rank."
Yang smiled and nodded at me. He walked out of the room, throwing over his shoulder a comment as he left. "You'd better live up to our expectations."
After the door had slid shut behind the Major, I breathed a sigh of relief and sat down hard on my bunk. I hadn't even dared imagine being able to get a promotion on my first mission. I was thinking such sunny thoughts as I drifted off to sleep.
A piercing wail tore me from my rest as my required ear-mounted speaker shrieked, then smoothed out into a controller yelling. "All pilots, report to your fighters! Carrier Dieron is under attack by a Zerg space fleet!"
I scrambled out of bed, grabbed my boots and yanked on my uniform. I rushed out, still hopping to stuff my feet into my boots, when the rest of the squadron doors opened and their occupants charged out and to the hangar.
The hangar door slid open before the storm of pilots, and I jogged along in their wake, running to my own fighter. I quickly popped the canopy, leaped in, sealed up and strapped in. I didn't even bother with preflight- the crew would have done that after the mission. I activated my pulse-lift engines and took off, as the lights of the other fighters around me flickered on and ships started shooting out of the hangar bay.
I switched over to main drive and put full power to engines. My ship shot out of the hangar right into the middle of a running fight. The Dieron's interceptors were pouring their weak laser fire into the Mutalisks, and the few Wraiths who had managed to get out early or were on patrol were trading punches with the Zerg.
I decided to bring Delta Squadron into the fight in a single formation. I hollered into Delta Squadron's channel, "Delta Squad, come around to 224-12 and depress 12 degrees. Arm missiles and fire at will."
I followed my own order, arming two Gemini missiles and dumping them into a passing Mutalisk as I flew by. The twin projectiles cracked the Zerg carapace and exploded inside its pulpy body, shattering it into millions of pieces.
I looked around, and found my wingman, Delta Ten. Bob was in a deadly dance with a Mutalisk, firing his pulse lasers whenever he had a clear shot, which wasn't often. Luckily the Zerg couldn't get a good shot either, so Bob hadn't gotten hit yet. I knew it was only a short time before that changed, so I opportunistically flew in behind the Mutalisk and let fly with two missiles. Both struck the Zerg on the head as it turned to try to hit Bob's rapidly moving Wraith. The Mutalisk spun from the force of the blow, stunned and Bob finished it off with four rapid pulse laser blasts.
"Thanks, Nine."
"No problem, Ten. I'm going into the main dogfight. Cover me."
"Aye, sir."
I scanned my sensors, then turned and dove. I switched from missiles to pulse lasers and started on a Mutalisk who had been hunting Delta Seven, one of the survivors from the land mission and a veteran pilot. Seven noticed me and Bob coming in before the Mutalisk did and dove. The Mutalisk followed him, putting me in perfect firing position. I opened up, and Bob fired a second after I did. Four pulse laser blasts hit the monster before he knew what was happening. The Mutalisk turned to face us and sent a glave wurm in my direction. I growled and wrenched the stick hard right. My Wraith swerved out of the path of the wurm, causing it to fly out into space, and I hit it with a dual-linked laser blast.
But now the Mutalisk was on my tail, and I had to dodge it. Wurms streaked by, but only one managed to hit me, and my shields protected me from the majority of its acidic juices. Unfortunately for the Mutalisk, all of the other Zerg were busy fighting either the Dieron itself or the rest of Delta Squadron's fighters. That meant its concentration on me was paid for by both Seven and Ten on his tail, dumping laser fire into the space creature. It flew off, trying to evade their laser fire, but when the Mutalisk turned, Bob followed and fired his last two missiles into its stern. The explosion instantly seared all of its body tissues and the Zerg blew up in a great fireball.
"Seven, join up with Ten and me, we're going to go hunting the enemy."
"Sure, sir. I suggest we help out our squadron-mates out first."
"Okay, we're going to head for the biggest dogfight, that's One, Three, Four, Five and six Mutalisks."
I scanned my board again, and saw that Six and Twelve had been killed. Six had sustained high acid damage and ejected, but collided with a Mutalisk when his rocket chair shot him into its hard carapace. Twelve had simply been destroyed by acids eating into his main engines, when they had been destroyed the rest of his ship had gone with it.
Eleven was also heading for the main fight, but unlike the three of us he had a pair of Mutalisks trailing them while he tried desperately to evade. He quickly joined the fight and was whirling around in the battle while we jumped engines to full and charged toward him.
I shouted into the comm, "Eleven, come around to 140 degrees and hit full thrust."
The two of them complied with my order. The Mutalisks attacking them followed them through the turn, sending more glave wurms in their direction. Eleven's 140 degree turn brought them back toward us, though, which meant that there were six pulse lasers with clear shots on the Zerg. Both Bob and I cycled our lasers into the thing's body, while Seven fired a single missile at it. The missile detonated right where our laser shots had hit. The weakened carapace wasn't able to protect it and the Zerg was instantly fried inside out, leaving a burned carapace to fly through space.
Meanwhile, the four Wraiths fighting the six Mutalisks hadn't fared well. They had all used their missiles, and though they had managed to take out three of the enemy group and a few other patrollers, they had lost Three and Five, leaving two fighters to destroy three Mutalisks with pulse lasers.
It was time to even those odds. I sailed in above Captain Baskin's fighter, firing my lasers as fast as they would cycle. Bob shot over Four's fighter, pouring laser fire into an enemy. Seven had engaged the last Zerg.
Seven fired a missile at the Mutalisk, which missed, but forced the Mutalisk to stop shooting for awhile, which allowed him to go on the offensive with his guns. His lasers struck the monster on the wings where the other squadron members had managed to hit it. The energy weapons tore through the hard material, causing the Mutalisk to lose control. It flew off at random directions into space, when Seven hit it again with his lasers, but this time having pumped all his engine energy to his guns. The overpowered blasts shorted one of his lasers but shredded its carapace, killing it utterly.
"Seven, this is One. Return to the Dieron but do not engage any more enemies."
"Aye, sir. There's a few Scourges and a pair of Devourers out there, though."
"Don't worry, Seven. Stay back and out of the fight and the combat-capable fighters will take them out."
"Sure, sir. Holding position at coordinates 2-315-512 relative to Dieron."
Captain Baskin switched around his comm frequencies and set it to only communicate with the active members of Delta Squadron. "Delta Squadron, we're going to hit the Scourges first, then the Devourers. The Scourges are small enough to die to one missile, so be sure to use them if you can."
I fell into position behind the Captain's rapidly accelerating fighter. We headed for the group of four Scourges turning to strike the Dieron. The Captain broke hard to starboard, but a streak of light kept going on his previous course, and detonated when the Gemini missile struck its target. I released one of my four remaining missiles and it struck my target right between the wings. Four and Ten both fired with pulse lasers, but Four managed to hit his target while Bob's guns missed after the Scourge swerved.
I spared a moment to glance at the Carrier, and saw that thirteen of its normal twenty interceptors had been destroyed. The remaining seven were busy flitting around the Devourers and firing their weak lasers. They took hits but none exploded.
My attention was quickly brought back to the battlefield when acid spores splashed across my hull. My shields shuddered and died, and the acid ate into the hull. In the end, I'd lost some armor and my rear-starboard pulse lift engine. Not really serious damage, but another hit could cause me some pain.
Four and Ten both crossed paths, firing pulse lasers at the last Scourge. Their guns caught the Zerg straight on. The blasts superheated soft tissues, frying the Scourge instantly.
Captain Baskin ordered, "All Delta Squadron members, fire on the first Devourer. The Carrier will deal with the other."
Indeed, the Carrier's interceptors were attacking the other Devourer, and the ship's two heavy defense guns opened fire on it.
I followed orders, entering a claw formation with the Captain at the middle. Four and Ten made up the other claws of the formation. We boxed the Devourer in, but it managed to fire off its acid spores once. Those spores hit Four's fighter, eating into his cockpit and blowing away the cockpit atmosphere before it ate into his corpse.
I shook off thoughts of gloom and concentrated on piloting. I fired two of my three Gemini missiles and saw that Captain Baskin had also fired a pair. Bob had begun stitching the monster with laser fire to distract it, and the missiles hit it straight in its acid ejector. With its weapon disabled, it tried to withdraw. We didn't let it. Our ships were faster than the Devourer, and we had active weapons. Our lasers slashed away at its flesh until it exploded into the cold of space.
I looked at the sensors and saw no red dots. I looked over where the last Devourer was and saw only Interceptors returning to the Carrier.
The comm clicked. "This is Captain Baskin to all Delta Squadron members, we are clear to land in the main fighter bay. Good job."
