away from the door and spun around. But the heat charge was already glowing and the automaton's legs locked up even as it turned, causing it to fall heavily on its side. The three Starwolves were running for the door immediately.
'Not so smart after all,' Velmeran commented as they slipped past the smoking hulk.
He had expected to see violent clouds towering over the city, but the leading edge of the storm had already passed. A seething mass of dark clouds hid the sun, bringing dusk at midday and adding to his feeling that he had been underground for a long time, not less than half an hour. Low clouds and fog already concealed the ledge where they had landed. There was only a light wind here in the valley, although the roiling clouds overhead suggested violent winds within the storm itself.
Marlena and Baress waited just outside the door. Dveyella pushed Keth into their care. 'One last task. Pack in those boxes as fast as you can and get out of here.'
'Captain?' Keth asked, reluctant to be dragged away to the waiting transport. Baress and Marlena seemed likely to carry him if he delayed any longer.
'Go with them, Keth,' Velmeran directed, trying to assume a calm, authoritative voice. 'They have your ride out.'
Keth allowed himself to be led to the larger ship, although still somewhat reluctantly, and Velmeran and Dveyella hurried to their fighters. Velmeran had hoped that this incident would have cured Keth, that the older pilot would have done enough soul-searching during the last few days to face the truth. Instead it seemed that he had been waiting for rescue so that he could return to the packs; he had apparently assumed that they would have brought a fighter for him. Of course, his real problem had never been age but conceit.
Velmeran climbed into the cockpit of his fighter and sealed the canopy against windblown dust and mist before he began to strap in. The transport lifted immediately. It rose just high enough to pass over the fighters and drifted toward the east, following the perimeter of the city to the landing platform where the boxes containing the remains of the fighter were kept.
'Have you ever fought inside a storm before?' Dveyella asked over ship's com; Velmeran's worthless helmet had gone with Keth.
'I have never fought inside an atmosphere before,' he reminded her.
'You will find it remarkably the same,' she said. 'The greatly reduced speeds are offset by the greatly compressed distances. Union fighters are more of a match for us here; you will find them about as quick and tricky as stingships. But we still outclass this lot.'
The two ships rose together into the threatening sky, heading southwest to meet the approaching wings of Union fighters. They went slowly, waiting for their attackers to come to them. Staying within the storm was to their advantage; Starwolves fought by feel under any circumstances, so the lack of visibility made no real difference to them. Blinded by the clouds, however, the Union pilots had to depend entirely on their scanners.
But Velmeran did not forget his own disadvantages. He was used to sudden speed changes of tens or even hundreds of thousands of kilometers per hour, and velocities that were more easily discussed as percentages of light. He was concerned that he might accidentally give his throttle the long throws that he would use in open space. Trying to evade and chase within the confines of this storm, with mountains only a few hundred meters below, would be like trying to fight inside an airdock. There was not much room to run.
The first wing of Union fighters descended into the storm, driving directly at the pair of Starwolf fighters rising to meet them. The wing widened and the fighters launched missiles, four from under the short wings of each ship. And that was a serious tactical error. Union missiles were not very smart — they saw no point in investing much money in something that was going to explode — and therefore they were too easily jammed, evaded or destroyed. The missiles looked about and found nothing. The wolf ships, fully cloaked, were invisible to their rudimentary scanners and heat sensors. As a group the missiles continued on, searching the storm for their prey. Soon they saw the ground approaching and arched back up. Now they saw fighters, but these were their own, bearing warn-off devices. Deprived of legitimate prey, the missiles took themselves straight up to safely self- destruct.
Now the fighters themselves dispersed and closed to attack. Two oriented on each of the Starwolves, while the remaining three continued on toward the city. Ignoring the fighters moving in on their tails, Dveyella and Velmeran dove after the three strays, intent upon stopping them before they found the transport. Velmeran nudged his ship on ahead, centering a heavy barrage on the three fighters and destroying two before the third evaded and ran. He quickly dived after it, while Dveyella obligingly shot a fighter off his own tail before turning her attention to the pair following her.
Velmeran's remaining pursuer moved in close, trying to penetrate his shields with its ineffective cannons. He ignored it for the moment, concentrating on the fleeing fighter ahead. Its pilot, reckless with either determination or fear, dove straight toward the rocky heights above the city. Velmeran clipped its rear engines just short of that dubious safety, sending the little ship spinning out of control. Velmeran skimmed the barren edge of a ridge, pulling up abruptly as a towering peak rose suddenly out of the darkness. The fighter behind tried to mimic that move, only to find that it could not match the precise control. It deflected off a wall of rock to fall end over end into the valley below.
Dveyella had taken one of her attackers with her ship's rear cannon, turning on the other so savagely that it could not even evade. Aware that Velmeran was somewhere far below, she rose alone to meet the second wing of fighters. She strafed them freely, catching two before the others dispersed. She chose her prey quickly, a pair of fighters trying to circle around to the north, leaving the others for Velmeran to catch when they reached him.
She moved in from the side. But at the very last instant they turned as one and drove straight at her, almost as if they meant to ram. Too late to open fire, Dveyella tried to turn away. Her atmospheric shield pierced one fighter, ripping it apart. Its four underwing missiles exploded barely fifty meters ahead of her ship, and she had no choice but to follow straight through the core of that white-hot cloud.
Bits of metal, caught up in her shield, rang against the hull of her ship. An instant later it was through the debris, scorched but whole. Dveyella had not fared so well. Even through the mirrorized windows of her fighter, that flash had been brilliant.
'Was that you?' Velmeran asked over com.
'Did you see that?' she asked.
'It was a funny color for lightning.'
'I will be flying blind for another minute. Can you watch for me?'
'There is one on your tail right now.'
'I know it,' she said. She could sense the Union fighters; her concern was for running into the ground. The fighter on her tail was closing cautiously, its pilot aware that something was wrong. She teased it in and deftly winged it with her rear cannon.
'We are finished here,' Threl reported. 'How is your vision?'
'Clearing fast,' she reported.
'Then we are on our way out. Try not to shoot us as we pass.'
'After that remark, you should worry!' Dveyella retorted. 'Valthyrra, how is the traffic up there? I sense confusion overhead.'
'Fighters and stingships are scattered far and wide,' the ship replied. 'But we have them on the run. Nothing big cleared the docks. Mind the stingships, though.'
'Right. Velmeran, take the lead,' she instructed. 'Punch a hole in anything you meet, unless it is dressed in black. I will bring up the rear.'
Velmeran fell in ahead of the transport, widening his lead to several kilometers as they accelerated straight up toward open space, while Dveyella moved in as close as she could behind the larger ship. The single remaining fighter gave chase but was quickly left behind. In a last, desperate move it fired all four of its missiles. The pilot, learning from past mistakes, kept them under the superior control of his fighter's on-board guidance system.
The path out was not as open as they would have liked. Three stingships in close formation were closing quickly, and help was still too far away to prevent it. The three wolf ships were still forcing their way clear of the upper atmosphere, and were fairly easy targets. Already the Union ships were bringing their long noses around to align their cannons.
'They are about to open fire,' Velmeran warned.
'This old hulk has a few guns that should surprise them,' Threl said. 'Spread out so that we can all open up.
