ego or consider your pride. Work within the chain of command from now on or I'll have you removed from the command deck permanently.”
Edward turned red and stormed off the flight control deck, pulling his command and control unit off his arm and throwing it against the wall.
“Thank you,” Oz said as he watched the changing status of the fighters holding position outside of the obscuring barrier. Their reinforcements were almost finished launching and about to start towards the energy field.
“Do we have any contact from either side of the fighting on the station itself?”
“Just the old text alert and the message from the Palamo. I'm thinking they lost access to whatever they jury rigged to send that distress message shortly after it was sent.”
Jake stared at the holographic representation of the tactical area. His eye was drawn to the pair of fighters that wove in and out of the obscuring energy barrier. They were marked Ronin and Finger. Why doesn't it surprise me? We're getting enough sensor data from Finger and his SIO, Minh doesn't need to risk himself to supplement. Two scans are better than one though, I have to admit the picture is clearer thanks to the pair of them. He thought as he shook his head. Good to have Minh back. He looked over Oz's shoulder where he was reviewing a more detailed scan of the station's central processing centre.
Many of the hallways to either sides of the main structure had been decompressed and from the visible heat silhouettes he could tell there was an active fire fight taking place. The computer had already marked the combatants by obvious sides but he watched to make sure it had gotten it right. There were twenty five hold outs, most likely station workers or stake holders versus forty two attackers.
“What's the word Jake?”
“Let's get in there,” he read the damage report on the station at a glance and recognized that most of the damage to the structure's defences had been done by weapons with Eden Fleet characteristics and nodded to himself. “Recognize the energy signatures?”
“They come up as Eden Fleet. Looks like these raiders didn't take the station, they came in after the bots did a number on it.”
“I've seen it happen before, they jump in, disable engines, weapons, power sources then get out. Regent Galactic forces showed up in Enreega a few hours after it happened there. I say we get in, rescue whoever's holding out in there and trade or salvage.”
“Better us than them. Ronin and Finger have started taking fire, it's small and they're not taking major hits. Looks like we got their attention,” Oz smiled, setting the orders for the gunships and sending them out. “Alaka's going to like this.”
“He's leading one of the teams?”
Oz nodded with a grin. “He volunteered before I had a chance to offer it to him. Anything to get some time away from his eleven kids.”
“I could imagine,” Jake laughed as he started back up the ramp.
“What do you want to do about the raiders?”
“Seek and destroy until they power down and surrender. We have no choice. The more expensive we make things for whoever's running the show the faster he'll stand down.'
'But if he starts blowing his people in our faces as a last resort…' Oz whispered.
'I know, this is only going to get more complicated. We don't have a choice. We're in hiding, nothing can leave the area and if we want to save the station so we can trade with whoever's left we're going to have to risk our people. If they get control of the station or get clear and make it into hyperspace we'll have to find another place to hide and we can't repair our engines while we're on the move.”
“Aye. I'll tell Chief Vega to get boarding crews ready. We're in it now.”
Oz couldn't help but crack a smile as he overheard Jake order; “Take us to point three by twelve, best speed. Load torpedo bays and restrict the gunnery deck to seeker rounds. We're playing a supporting role, let the fighters do the heavy lifting.” His Captain was more assertive and confident than he'd been on the First Light, but he was without a doubt his Captain. Being back on his bridge was like returning home after a long absence. It didn't matter which ship, which bridge, it still felt like home.
He looked up just in time to catch Ayan's reaction to Jake sitting down beside her in the Captain's seat. She was making a point of ignoring him, and he was trying not to look at her.
Oz returned his attention to the larger tactical display and scrolling general status message. Alaka and the flight crew of the Clever Dream marked themselves as loaded and ready while the Cold Reaver was still taking on soldiers. Fighters were launching from the punter hatches alongside the keel of the ship, their pilots reporting ready as they got clear and took up position just in front of the broad carrier.
He almost wished he was going along with the Clever Dream or Cold Reaver boarding crews, but Jake had assigned him exclusively to Flight control. He knew where he was most needed; in command of the entire effort, coordinating with one of his fondest friends; Minh-Chu Buu, the crazy pilot.
Minh's fighter spun out of the barrier, dodging a few small plasma shells before he accelerated back down towards the asteroid field. “Breakfast staying down?”
“Barely. Where did you learn to fly anyway?” Asked Slick.
“Long story, maybe another time.”
“Heads up, mission profile just changed. We have fourteen fighters, the Clever Dream and Cold Reaver incoming. Triton is taking position to box the raiders in. No one leaves. Our new orders are to seek and destroy unless we see a white flag or no power readings.”
“All right, we'll hold for reinforcements out here, tell Finger to stop weaving before he gets slagged. When the Clever Dream and Cold Reaver arrive we'll cover them then break off to harry the raiders into shutting their engines down and surrendering or fleeing the station's orbit so Triton can cut them up.”
“Passing that on to all fighters,”
“What? Why not just fly in and soften them up before the reinforcements arrive. They can't be very good shots if they can't hit Finger.” Joyboy exclaimed a few moments later.
“We go in firing as a group. We're looking to cause as much terror and trauma as we can manage in the first few seconds so they turn and run into Triton’s field of fire.”
“They'll have a greater chance of hitting something if they're firing into a group,” Finger retorted.
“Didn't you hear me the first time? If they think we're doing too much damage in the first few seconds they'll bolt and we can rip them up from behind. Man up, buttercup, this is how we're doing it,” Minh ordered with a finality that surprised several pilots.
Slick burst into laughter the moment the communication line closed. “That's it, I'm calling Finger 'Buttercup' from now on, that's too rich. We have incoming. Marking targets; two small ships and three fighters.”
Minh selected one of the larger, eighty meter long ships as his target and directed his fighter to intercept. “Mark your targets and break. Don't give them an easy target, hit them as hard as you can and watch your spacing.”
He watched the combat display as the six fighters with him selected their targets and broke to attack. His missile systems locked on to the vessel and he rapid fired a volley of a dozen of the small, high speed projectiles as he side slipped. They scattered and interwove, accelerating at an incredible rate. Before they struck he released the safety on his guns and opened fire, strafing the length of the jaggedly designed, pointed ship from stem to stern. As he slid behind the enemy he focused his fire on the engines.
His target's three turrets returned fire, unleashing blurring yellow blasts of energy. Several shots struck the shields and Minh whirled and zagged into the energy barrier for a few seconds before punching back out again on an altered course. It took several moments for the gunners aboard the enemy ship to correct their aim and he took advantage of the time.
Most of the missiles struck the port side of the vessel, reducing its shields to only a few megajoules and Minh opened fire on its engines. Great chunks of the vessel's armour flew off as his rounds burst through. Half the ion engines began to cool down and vent fuel, no longer operable. He could see the hull emitters running down the length of the vessel begin to power up, shading the rough armoured plates in red.
“They're about to head into hyperspace,” Slick warned.
“No, they're not,” Minh opened fire with all his active guns and brought the engine power up to full as he slipped behind the larger, less manoeuvrable ship. The rounds dug at their propulsion systems, sending bursts of
