Angie asked, “Sir, is it all right if we go get breakfast first? We were brought here before we made it through the chow line.”
“I think that would be okay, but speak to no one of this. LTC Matthews and CPT Willis, you haven’t had breakfast yet either, I presume. Why don’t you join them?”
“Aye aye, sir,” said the squadron commander. “Come on, you three.”
“Shadow Warrior, there is an increase of activity in the human fleet. The fighters have all landed and small craft from each ship have converged on the carrier. I believe they are preparing for some new activity, possibly departure or gunnery drill. There is an asteroid field along their current trajectory that could be used as targets.”
“Shadow Technician, continue to monitor their activity. Inform me of any further changes in their actions.”
“As you command. Their screening ships have moved closer to the asteroid field. I detect that they are scanning the asteroid field. Indications are strong that they will conduct gunnery training soon. I recommend we move closer to record their weapon emissions and effects.”
“Continue to monitor. Scan the space between us and the human fleet to see if there is a path we can use that will provide us the least likelihood of being detected.”
“Scanning,” said the technician, dropping his head to his scope. “I see a way to cover our approach if we hug close to the asteroid field. It is heavy with high iron content asteroids. It should confuse their sensors and allow us to get within 50,000 km. At that range, we will be able to record the energy levels and effects of their weaponry. It will be a major coup for us, Shadow Warrior.”
Shadow Warrior K’Tella imagined himself promoted and honored for this action. “Plot your course and enter it into the flight computer, Shadow Technician.”
The technician lowered his head to his scope, ran his claws over the keyboard and replied, “It is done, Shadow Warrior. We must proceed cautiously. I will maintain a continuous scan ahead of us to detect any reaction from the human fleet.”
“Let us proceed.”
The K’Rang ship moved forward, slowly, stealthily, cautiously, alert to any reaction from the fleet.
LTs Shappelle and Blake left the dining facility for the squadron briefing room, where they studied the specifications of every known K’Rang scout ship. They studied everything from the 100-meter long bulbous planetary exploration ships with crews of up to 70 to small two-man ships that looked remarkably like mosquitoes. They headed to the hanger deck where their ships were prepared for the mission. As they came onto the hangar deck, they did not see their ships. A Marine guard at the base of the stairs stopped them, inspected their ID, and waved another guard over to escort the LTs. He led them through a personnel hatch in the blast shield at the end of the hangar deck, leading to a small area between the blast door and the outer atmospheric door. Their two ships were waiting for them. At least, they assumed they were their two ships.
The fighters had been fitted with some sort of cover that hid the sleek lines of the fighters and made them look more like rocks. Kelly walked over to the officer in charge and asked, “What the hell is that, sir?” pointing at the covering on his fighter.
“That, Lieutenant, is called camouflage. If the K’Rang ship is to pass you by without noticing and flaming your ass, you will need to look more like a harmless rock and less like a sleek deadly Fighter Force F-53 waiting to snatch them up. The camouflage cover is kinetically identical to your bare fighter. It won’t slow you down. It won’t throw you off balance. Other than a slight decrease in vision to the rear, you won’t even know it’s there. If it does become a problem there are explosive bolts to blow the cover. Now come over here to your cockpit and let me show you something.”
Angie and Kelly walked over with the squadron maintenance officer to the open cockpit of LT Shappelle’s fighter.
“If you look here on the panel you will see a slightly different throttle than you are used to. We replaced the standard throttle with an experimental model that electronically increases thrust to your engines. It will give you an additional 25 percent thrust. There is a stop on the throttle that engages at full military power. Push this button on the throttle to gain the additional thrust. Come back here to the rear.”
They followed him around to the rear of the ship.
“We modified your thrusters to help hide the exhaust. I recommend that once you break the magnetic lock from the Tenacious, you run your engines just to get you pointed toward the asteroid field. Then coast until you get within the field and use your retro thrusters to bring you to a stop and position you in among the rocks. Other than that, we did a major tune up and inspection of both ships. If anything was more than two percent out of spec we replaced it. Your ships are better than when they rolled off the factory floor.”
The squadron commander entered the space and came over to them.
“Are you two ready?”
The two came to attention and saluted. The squadron commander returned their salute and told them to be at ease.
“The fleet commanders are about to break up and get ready to return to their ships. The Tenacious’ skiff and two others will pass by this door. You will move out and fly formation with them. The other two skiffs will break off once you reach the Tenacious. Try and be set up at that point to be able to drift up against the Tenacious using only your retro thrusters. If you have any questions or last comments, now is the time, because we need to get you two strapped in and ready to go.”
He waited a second and neither officer said anything. “Okay then, if you need to hit the head, now would be the time.”
Both junior officers assumed stunned looks as they both realized they had left a significant aspect out of their mission preparations. They excused themselves and scurried quickly to the nearest heads. They came back a few minutes later with slightly sheepish looks on their face. The squadron commander and maintenance officer were both laughing as they returned.
“Its okay, Lieutenants, we all have made that mistake at least once. Usually the worst thing that happens is the crew chief makes you clean and disinfect the cockpit. Let’s get you strapped in.”
The crew chiefs stepped in to help the two pilots into their ships. Once they were strapped in and adjusted to their seats, the squadron commander came to each ship and wished them good luck and good hunting.
At a signal from their crew chiefs, they fired up their engines at the idle setting and sealed their cockpits. Both crew chiefs saluted their officers and moved out of the space through the door in the blast shield. The squadron commander and maintenance officer gave them a thumb’s up and also left through the personnel hatch. As the hatch closed and sealed, the lights went out, leaving them in blackness. The sensors in the ship showed the atmosphere in the bay reducing. After a few minutes, the sensors showed zero atmospheres. The outer door of the hangar deck opened. Angie and Kelly raised their ships up off the deck and applied minimal power to move them out into free space.
The Tenacious’ skiff passed by the two fighters and they moved out to join in formation. Two other skiffs came up and lined up next to each of the fighters. They flew along through open space for a few minutes until they could pick the Tenacious out of the blackness. As they ran the length of the Tenacious, the two other skiffs broke off and continued to other ships further on in the darkness. The Tenacious’ skiff pilot said goodbye to the other two skiffs, which was Angie’s and Kelly’s signal to drift into the side of the frigate. They judiciously applied their retro rockets to gently bring their ships against the hull and energize their electromagnetic pads to hold them to the frigate.
After about twenty minutes, the fleet began to move. The Tenacious moved out ahead of the fleet and then began to coast. As the ship ran along the fringe of the asteroid field it increased the radius of its shields, causing asteroids to be moved and ricochet off of each other. The Tenacious sent a signal to the flagship. The encrypted signal was the sign for the two fighter pilots to release from the frigate and move into the asteroid field. The sensors on the Tenacious could barely pick out the two small fighters from the rubble in the asteroid field. Angie and Kelly moved into a small pocket in the side of one of the larger, undisturbed asteroids and settled in to wait.
