Hodge, it seemed incredibly anticlimactic, though she had trouble believing that such well rehearsed and well placed rocket attacks could have faltered as these apparently had. She couldn’t help but to believe that there was more going on than meets the eye. Moments later, her suspicions were validated.
The engines, usually burning brightly with alternating swirls of blue and purple plasma, began to dim as the engines onboard the Vindicator faltered. Beginning to lose speed, the Vindicator grew steadily closer to the Revolution. Watching in confusion, Captain Hodge watched the superheated plasma in the engines cool, dimming until only a pinprick of light still emerged from the damaged exhausts. Eventually, even that narrow light faded away and the Vindicator floated helplessly in the space without any hope of maneuverability.
“Ma’am,” Young called from the Communications console. “I’ve got a lot of activity on the radio waves.”
“Put it on the intercom.”
The yells of surprise and outrage could be heard clearly as the Vindicator called for help. The garbled mess of voices made distinguishing a single report from the multitude nearly impossible. However, it wasn’t long before a clear voice overwhelmed the other, cutting off their transmissions so he could be heard.
“Revolution, this is Captain Rochelle of the Vindicator,” the stern, heavily accented voice called as the Captain slowly silenced the rest of the emotionally charged reports.
“Open a channel and patch his video through to my console,” Captain Hodge ordered. In front of her, her previously dark screen flickered to life, revealing a surprisingly calm but visibly upset Pilgrim male. Rochelle’s styled hair and thick, handlebar moustache offset his deep blue eyes, which pierced Captain Hodge from the console.
“Captain Rochelle, this is Captain Hodge. What’s your status?”
“My status?” Rochelle asked caustically. “Both my engines have died for no apparent reason. I’m getting reports from my engine room that the plasma in both engines has been converted into some unknown black tar-like substance.” Leaning forward, Rochelle dropped his stern persona as a look of genuine concern crossed his face. “You have to help me, Hodge. I can’t maneuver any more. They’re going to attack any moment and I have no way to avoid their missiles. Help me!”
Before Captain Hodge could manage a reply, the bridge of the Vindicator filled with warning claxons the same time that Eminent Merric began yelling his own report.
“I have multiple launches from the nearest Destroyer,” Merric yelled to be heard over the concerned calls for help. “I’m counting…” He paused as he rechecked his numbers, not believing the first report. “I’m counting over a hundred slug and rocket launches.” Merric looked up, disbelief cast on his face.
Captain Hodge looked back at Rochelle. The Pilgrim’s face revealed that he knew his death was imminent. His stoic visage quickly replaced his look of dread as his eyes locked firmly onto Hodge.
“Goodbye, Captain Hodge, and good luck,” Rochelle said, his accent thickened with the raw emotion in his voice.
Watching both the console picture of Captain Rochelle and the forward view screen, Captain Hodge watched in horror as missiles detonated along the port side of the Vindicator while thick metal slugs tore holes clean through the ship. A stream of exploding plasma rockets blossomed along the hull in a clean line from bow to stern, splitting the Vindicator in two. Slowly, the two halves of the Alliance Cruiser drifted apart, separated by a growing sea of debris and bodies torn free from the interior of the ship. Looking down, Captain Hodge saw only her own reflection on the now dark console monitor.
Biting back her tears, Captain Hodge knew that there wasn’t time to mourn their loss, not with three more fully capable Terran Destroyers still in the fight. Still, she couldn’t erase the memory of the Terran’s secret weapon. Something had been in the warheads of those rockets, something capable of shutting down the massive engines of a Cruiser. There was no way to know how many of those rockets the Terrans had in their arsenals on board each Destroyer. With that sort of technology in the hands of their enemy, Captain Hodge suddenly worried about more attacks by the smaller Terran fighters. A few more well targeted assaults like the one on the Vindicator and the Alliance Fleet may lose this battle after all, regardless of their superior numbers. Though she hated to pull her own Duun fighters away from the main dog fights out on the battlefield, Captain Hodge made a command decision that she felt was right if the Fleet stood any chance of surviving.
“Magistrate Young,” Captain Hodge said, her voice flooded with weariness. “Contact all Squadrons and tell them to pull back to their respective Cruisers. Order them to provide covering fire to the larger vessels while we engage the last of the Terran Destroyers.”
As the message went out both to the fighters and the rest of the surviving Cruisers, Captain Hodge hoped she had made the right decision. In all the years of training and combat maneuvers since the Taisa Accord was signed, no commander had ever ordered their fighters to withdraw. And, though she knew that the scenarios during training were nothing like what she was seeing now, she couldn’t help but feel that she would eternally be judged for making such a rash decision.
Keryn watched with dismay as the Vindicator was destroyed and listened intently as Captain Hodge recalled the Duun fighters back to their respective Cruisers. To her surprise, the devastation of one of the Cruisers gave her the opening and distraction she had required. As she watched from the cockpit of the Cair Ilmun, the Duun fighters broke contact with their Terran counterparts and split down the middle, flying toward both the two flanking groups of Cruisers. Sensing weakness, the Terran fighters gave chase, splitting along similar lines. The result was instantaneous. In the middle of the battlefield, an area that only moments before had been filled with swarming fighters, Keryn was able to see open space. More importantly, just beyond the open space the three remaining Destroyers came into view, no longer concealed behind a screen of smaller ships.
Though every other ship was moving toward the Cruisers, Keryn broke from her position, switching on the Cair-specific channel as she moved. “All Cairships, follow me. I’ll take the tip of the cone. Everyone else, fall into position behind.”
Slowly the other pilots shook off their surprise at seeing a Cruiser so easily destroyed and followed the Cair Ilmun. Though some of the pilots opted for the more protected interior of the cone, many pilots surprised Keryn by taking up flanking spots around her ship. Keryn had studied long enough and made enough mistakes during her time at the Academy to understand the effectiveness of three-dimensional combat. On the ground, the Wyndgaarts trained using a similar technique called a wedge. By having a single person at the point of the wedge, it allowed the other members to have overlapping fields of fire on all sides, making it both dangerous and effective at penetrating enemy defensive lines. In space, similar rules applied, though they added another axis to the grid. In a cone, the three-dimensional equivalent of the wedge formation, Keryn’s lightly armed Cair ships were able to not only fire in all directions but were able to overlap their fire for greater effectiveness.
The cone launched and moved quickly as far away as possible from the returning Duun fighters. Though she had confidence in their new formation, Keryn didn’t want to tempt fate by facing a Squadron of Terran fighters before they were clear of the Cruisers. Skirting the sides of the dogfight, Keryn was able to observe the feverish pursuit by the Terran fighters. She doubted they truly understood the Alliance technique of bringing the Duun fighters back to the Cruisers. In the eyes of the pursuing Terrans, all they saw was a full retreat by the one threat still remaining to their own Destroyers. However, Keryn knew better. Pulling the Duun fighters back to the Cruisers not only protected the Cruisers from any more of the mysterious attacks that Keryn had watched the Terrans use on the Vindicator, but also allowed the Cruisers to add their own firepower when defending against the gnat-like Terran fighters.
Keryn’s group was nearly clear of the swarm of ships and into the open void between both forces before a group of Terran fighters spotted the odd formation and turned around, moving on an intercept path that would bring
