Fall of Icarus

the door slide closed and seal behind her. In the cool darkness of the crew compartment, she met the stern stares of the Infantry soldiers, already strapped into their seats. Though no one said as much, she knew something needed to be said.

“I’m not the best at motivational speeches,” Keryn admitted. “I’ve never had a lot of opportunities to try to motivate someone else. But I don’t think I need to tell you what’s about to happen. I know a lot is riding on me. Hell, all of our lives are riding on my ability to fly us to one of the Terran Destroyers. I may not have given you a lot of reasons to trust me before, but I promise you that I will not let you down. You will get to one of the Destroyers, even if it kills me.”

The silence that ensued was finally broken by a gruff Pilgrim voice. “We trust you, Keryn,” Adam said. “Make us proud.”

A chorus of support broke from the rest of the team. Smiling, Keryn walked up to the cockpit. Sitting in the copilot’s chair, Yen nodded to her as she entered. “They believe in you,” he said. “We all do.”

“I need you to do me a favor, Yen,” Keryn said a little sheepishly, hoping not to offend him.

“Name it.”

“I need you to go back to the back and join the rest of the team. If I’m going to do this, then it’s something I need to do alone. You won’t always be there to support me and give me advice, so I need to learn to succeed entirely on my own.”

To her surprise, Yen smiled as he unbuckled his restraints. Standing, he placed his hand on her shoulder. “Good luck, Keryn,” he whispered. He walked into the crew compartment and Keryn slid the door separating the two sections of the ship closed. Alone in the cockpit, she took a deep breath before taking her seat. She turned the series of switches that would start up the engine and complete the pre-flight checks. As the engine warmed up, a familiar Voice spoke in her mind.

I know you said you want to do this alone, the Voice said, but I want you to know that I’m here to support you. No matter the differences we’ve had in the past, you and I are eternally one mind. Without you, I can’t exist. Whether you want me here or not, I will do everything I can to help. I won’t let us die today.

Surprising even herself, Keryn smiled. “For once, I’m glad to have you here.”

Pushing forward on the controls, the Cair Ilmun rolled out of its alcove and took its place amongst the other ships preparing for launch.

As the Revolution entered the galaxy, the dozen ships in its Fleet spread out in a two ship tall line and advanced on the central planets of the system. Having already detected the Cruisers on radar, the Terran Destroyers were similarly aligned in anticipation of the grueling battle to come.

“All Cruisers, this is Captain Hodge,” the message proclaimed from the Revolution’s bridge. “The enemy has decided to stand and fight, which will lessen the work that we will have to do in pursuing them. Hold your line until my order. Arm all plasma warheads, load all rail guns, and await my orders. On my mark, prepare to deploy the Squadrons. And, for everyone, Gods’ speed.”

CHAPTER SIX

Both ranks of ships fired their initial volleys before the fighters had the opportunity to launch from their underbellies. Across the inky void, plasma rockets streamed, their smoky exhausts filling space with intricate weaves of overlapping trajectories. Near the center of the battlefield, blue and purple plasma explosions blossomed soundlessly, turning the front view screens of the Cruisers into brilliant, colorful displays while, simultaneously, masking the movements of the enemy ships.

With their actions blocked from the Terran Fleet, the Alliance Cruisers began firing massive barrages of rail gun slugs. Though a bit archaic when compared to the complexities of the plasma warheads, the rail guns were some of the most effective weapons in the Fleet’s arsenal. Built of three parallel metal bars, set in a triangle pattern, the rails of the guns were heavily magnetized. Large metal slugs, oppositely polarized from the rails, hovered in between the rails until propelled forward, where small grooves in the metal rails projected the magnetic fields forward, launching the slugs from the Cruisers at high velocities. In the frictionless space, the slugs never lost their kinetic energy until striking a solid object, like a planet or, in this case, a Terran Destroyer.

The slugs from both sides raced through the darkness, their matte coatings leaving them nearly invisible against the backdrop of distant space. On the Cair Ilmun, Keryn gritted her teeth as the Revolution shook from impacts. Her view blinded by the hangar bay door that still remained closed, she could only imagine the damage being done to the ship and hope that they would soon have the opportunity to launch, preferably before the Revolution was destroyed from counter fire. Keryn had never been fully engaged in space combat like this before, which left her irritable and scared. Though she didn’t know what she would face beyond the confines of the Revolution, she finally began to understand how the Infantry in the crew compartment behind her must feel. She would rather take her chances against an armada of Terran ships than sit in the belly of a Cruiser with her fingers crossed that she wouldn’t be obliterated without every launching.

When the bright red light above the hangar door finally shifted to green, Keryn released an audible sigh of relief. She released fists that had been clenched until her knuckles had turned white. Shortly thereafter, the roar of venting gas filled the massive hangar as they prepped for launch. Keryn switched on the internal communications channel and took a deep breath before speaking.

“We’re getting ready to launch,” she said, hoping her voice sounded confident to those relying on her piloting skills for survival. “Sit tight and I’ll get you to a Terran Destroyer shortly.”

As the bay doors slid open, the first of the Duun fighters launched, spilling free of the ship and hurtling toward the enemy Destroyers. Keryn followed as quickly as possible, clearing the Revolution and finding her position off its right flank. Her heart pounding, she was glad to be clear of the Cruiser and in open space. She felt as though she stood a chance relying solely on her own piloting abilities instead of relying on the piloting skills of someone maneuvering a few million tons of alloy girders and armored plating. Though the Cair Ilmun was free of her Cruiser, not all ships were so lucky. Debris from a number of ships torn apart by metal slugs floated near the hangar bays of the nearby Cruisers; ships that were destroyed before making it more than a few hundred feet from the hangar bay. Three ships down the line, blue and purple flames jutted from the hangar of the Cruiser. From the midst of the superheated inferno, a few ships limped free of the hangar, tumbling end over end as they fell into the zero gravity of space. Looking around, Keryn couldn’t tell how many pilots had been fortunate enough to clear the hangar bay before a missile struck it. She hoped several, for the sake of the ship’s entire Squadron. The reality of war quickly settled over Keryn as she realized that hundreds of pilots and insertion teams could have their lives simultaneously ended in the briefest of moments.

Focus, Keryn, the Voice whispered. You can’t help them, but you can stay focused enough to make sure something similar doesn’t happen to you.

Across the empty space, Keryn watched the enormous hangar bay doors opening on the Terran Destroyers. From their undersides, the Destroyers disgorged their own Squadrons. Keryn realized that from the perspective of an opponent, her earlier assessment of Squadrons looking like swarms of angry insects was incorrect. It wasn’t insects that she saw spilling from the Terran ships, charging across the space toward the Alliance Squadrons. Sitting above the Revolution, Keryn saw the ships merge into a single sea of flowing fighters, rolling like waves in the ocean, until they slammed violently together. Their momentum built as more and more fighters entered the fray until they were less of crashing waves within a sea and more like a destructive tsunami. As the tsunami crested, slamming against one another, it was punctuated by a brilliant splash of plasma detonations.

Keryn watched, mouth agape. When the Revolution and Defiant had faced one another, she had struggled to find a clear opening through the net of two fighting Squadrons. Before her, filling every inch of available space as far as she could see, over a dozen Squadrons clashed together, filling the spaces not occupied by flying fighters with the wreckage of those already destroyed. Keryn shook her head in amazement and fear, unsure if she would ever be able to pilot through the