“No, Kelly, but it is still swiveling in our direction.”
“Angie, he’s got some sort of turret swiveling in our direction. He may be on to us.”
“Didn’t that mosquito looking thing have some kind of comms turret on the upper hull?”
“Yeah, I think it did. If he’s stopped moving and is getting his comms turret pointing back our way, he must be getting ready to send any data he collected back to his forces. I say we jump him. Maybe we can stop him from getting his data home.”
“I agree, fire up and let’s go get him.”
Angie fired her main engines and blasted out of the hole in the rock. Kelly followed close behind. As they cleared the asteroid field, the magnetic interference on their sensors cleared. The image of the scout ship appeared in high resolution on their screens. They were looking at one of the K’Rang mosquito ships about 40,000 km in front of them. They moved their throttles beyond the detent to give them maximum speed to close the gap quickly. It would only be a few seconds and they would be on them.
“Shadow Warrior, our data will be ready to transmit in 15 seconds. The communications turret is deployed and lined up with our relay satellite near the frontier.”
The Shadow Technician looked down at his control panel and saw the orange light come on and waited for it to progress to red. With the large amount of data they had collected it would take a while. As he waited he returned his sensors from emphasis on front coverage to all around coverage. A bright spot appeared instantly directly behind them. It resolved quickly to indicate two human interceptors closing on them at a high rate of speed.
“Shadow Warrior, two human interceptor ships in-spiral of us at 30,000 km and closing fast! Evasive maneuvers now!”
After a split second’s hesitation to look at the sensor scope, the Shadow Warrior rotated the ship 90 degrees and applied full power. This caused their ship to shoot upward perpendicular to the human ships approach. He looked over his shoulder at the technician and said, “Send our data, now!”
“Shadow Warrior, it will require a few more seconds to compress and be ready to send.” He looked down at his instruments and said, “It will be 20 more seconds before the data can be sent.”
“Shadow Technician, send the data as soon as it is ready. Do not ask for permission. Just send it. We must get that data back to the home world.”
“Kelly, follow me. Let’s cut the corner on this guy and cut him off from getting back in-spiral.”
“Make the turn, I’ll be right here beside you. Just let me know when you are going to turn toward me or slow down quickly.”
The two fighters, wingtip to wingtip, turned up at an angle and headed to where the scout ship would be in a few seconds.
“Kelly, what is that turret doing?”
“Hang on. Wanda, what is the turret doing? Transmit to Angie and I both.”
“LT Shappelle, the turret keeps pointing in-spiral. It does not appear to be a weapon turret. I believe it is a communications turret. I am recording the position of the scout ship and the angle of the turret. We should be able to triangulate the location of wherever it is pointing to.”
“Good work, Wanda. Keep tracking that turret. Fleet will want to know where it is pointing.”
The two fighters were closing the distance on the scout ship. They turned in closer as the distance reduced. The scout ship would not be able to get in-spiral of the two fighters.
“Shadow Warrior, we cannot outrun these two fighters. We should turn out-spiral. If we can get them to close with us, we may be able to cause them to overshoot and pass us by. We should then be able to get turned back in-spiral.”
“Shadow Technician, power up our weapons. I am going to try and split these two ships apart. If we can get between them, you will need to be ready to fire on both of them. This tactic was briefed to me as effective against these pilots. Is the data ready to be transmitted?”
“Not yet, Shadow Warrior. It will be ten seconds more and then will take 32 seconds to transmit. I recommend that you turn toward the fleet once it begins to transmit. This will give us the best chance of getting and maintaining lock on the relay satellite. They won’t fire on us if they think they may be able to capture us. Do you want me to prepare the ship for self — destruct?”
“Yes, Shadow Technician M’Drek. If I determine there is no hope, we will make the ultimate sacrifice for the Empire.”
“They’ve turned out-spiral, Angie. We should see CPT Chang’s four-ship flight appear any moment now.”
“Slow down to military power. Let’s not overshoot this guy. As long as he’s running toward the fleet, let him think he can get away.”
The fleet disposition showed on Kelly’s tactical monitor. The fleet was still arrayed in gunnery formation. The Tenacious and Transcendent were still on the port side of the fleet against the asteroid field. They would not warp to their position in-spiral until CPT Chang’s flight advanced. The scout ship flew straight at the fleet.
“Kelly, do you think this guy is running at full power or is he sandbagging us?”
“I think he is powered back some. I expect him to do something to try and throw us off any second now. I am powering up two mini-seekers in case he should split us up. He may fool us, but he won’t get away.”
“Don’t shoot without asking for permission from fleet. Remember our orders.”
“You should power up two mini-seekers too. If this guy should get one of us, the survivor shouldn’t take a chance on him getting away.”
“Good idea, powering up. Here comes Chang’s flight.”
“Shadow Warrior, there are four more interceptor ships that have just appeared 20,000 km in front of us. We need five more seconds before our data is sent. I will inform you when the transmission is acknowledged.”
“Excellent, Shadow Technician. I will hold course until the data is sent. Then I am going to see how brave these humans are. I am going to fly right at them. If they destroy us, we have still succeeded in our mission. If we get through them, I am going to turn into the asteroid field. Let’s see how good pilots these humans are. If we make it into the asteroid field, I want you to shoot nearby asteroids to throw debris in their path. We may just live through this, M’Drek.”
CPT Chang led his flight forward out of the asteroid field. His flight was positioned to block the scout ship from reaching the fleet. He expected the scout ship to turn away any second. His flight were all seasoned pilots. They had trained together two years, and he knew their every move. As they advanced toward the scout ship, he spread his two-ship teams apart. He intended to chase this scout ship down himself. The lieutenants Shappelle and Blake would get to watch his flight in action. He would thank them afterwards for running the scout into his snare.
He keyed his mike and spoke to his flight. “Careful with this guy, I don’t think he realizes we are here yet. Prepare to shoot his engines once he comes in range. We’ll see if we can stop him without damaging the ship too much. LT O’Brien, you take the port engine, I’ll take the starboard one. LT Connell, you take out that turret on the roof. LT Obagwe, see if you can take out his life support. Aim carefully; we want these guys alive and the ship as intact as possible.”
“Shadow Warrior, the data transmission is complete. The transmission has been acknowledged. You may take any action you wish now. We have successfully completed our mission. Our names will be read in the scrolls of M’Drella.”
“Tighten your seat straps, Shadow Technician. I am about to test these pilots’ skills. Turn your sensor recorders on and prepare a data pod for launch if we do not make it. Maybe we can get some more data back to home world after we are no more. If you wish to send a personal message to your clan, you may do so. I will be
