What seemed to be an eternity passed and then he saw the man visibly pale, right hand clenching tight around the pistol grip.
The aide looked back at Geoff.
'Sir. Admiral Banbridge, the Chief of Staff, and we don't know how many other officers are dead. The entire top floor of the building has been blown apart.'
'Merciful God,' Geoff whispered, bowing his head.
'I'm going to keep you secure right here, sir. We have had an incident and we don't know what the hell is going on yet.'
An incident, Geoff thought. Most of the fleet's top command were most likely dead and it's called an incident.
'Hunter, break off, break off!'
Ian switched off his visual and audio back to Bannockburn. The order to abandon Paladin was simply too hard to stomach. The wave of Kilrathi fighters was now less than five thousand clicks off and closing in fast, their maneuvering scoops popped wide open to break after the high speed run in from the cruiser that had launched them. There was a slim chance that he might be able to pop off the two fighters on the forward left edge of their sweep, thereby punching a hole through for Paladin to follow.
He could imagine that Paladin was swearing a blue streak at the moment, but to hell with him if he didn't want to be saved.
Ian turned in towards the approaching fighters, toggled up his IFF missiles and dumped them off in a long range spread to stir things up. The missiles leaped forward and several of the approaching Kilrathi fighters pulled into sharp turns. As soon as the tail of the nearest one was exposed Hunter fired off an infrared tracker which instantly locked on to the fighter's engines which were glowing white hot from the high speed approach. The missile slammed up the exhaust nozzle of the fighter and detonated.
First kill of the new war, he thought grimly.
Within seconds the fight was on. several Dralthi fighters peeling off to swing in on Hunter, while the forward edge of the strike, six Grikath fighters, pushed straight on towards Bannockburn. Paladin let loose with his remaining salvo of flechettes and then toggled off a battery of IFFs from his gatling mount missile launcher. Space was a mad confusion of explosions and Ian pulled a tight turn to try and shake off an incoming infra tracker, firing off a flare, which the missile went for, detonating silently a kilometer behind him.
A Grikath shot directly across his starboard bow and with a perfectly timed deflection Ian nailed him solidly amidships and turned inside of the Cat, firing three more rapid mass driver rounds into the Grikath which blew apart.
He spared a quick glance at his tactical display and saw that the Kilrathi cruisers were spread out into an open sweep, coming up behind the wave of fighters in case there was anything still to be finished off. Behind them more than a dozen patrol craft and a light frigate were coming in as a second wave, while from the other direction half a dozen patrol corvettes were closing, pushing Bannockburn into the trap. A wave of fast moving fighters was moving ahead, above, and below to close the trap.
With a sickening finality he realized the futility of the gesture he had just offered. The game was up. He switched back on to Paladin's channel.
'Not looking good, buddy.'
'Hunter, break free, make the run, I'll provide support.'
'Like hell, they're on me, now run for it and get that damn information out, otherwise this whole thing is useless.'
'Hunter, damn it, get the hell . . .'
'I think its the other way around, buddy, I'll cover you, now run for it. When you get to the Vacuum Breathers buddy, lift the first round for me.'
'Hunter!'
He punched ahead of Bannockburn, moving to break up the forward screen so Paladin could slip through
A spread of half a dozen missiles leaped forward from the next Kilrathi attack group, the new IFF and radar trackers. Ian swallowed hard and keyed up his own transponder to draw the missiles in.
The warbling tone in Ian's head set clicked to a steady hum, increasing in pitch. The incoming were all locked on to his ship. He pulled up hard, leading the missiles away from Bannockburn.
'Pop out, Ian!' Paladin shouted, and then there was another voice on the radio.
'Green two, Green two, this is Green one, strike on the way.'
Ian started to reach down to pull the ejector D ring when he saw a fighter lining up to hit Bannockburn from above.
He dropped the ring, lined up on the target and toggled off the one missile strapped beneath his fighter. Even as it streaked away he knew the game had finally caught up with him at last. He bit down hard on his cigar and closed his eyes.
Six Kilrathi IFF's impacted across the stern of Ian Hunter St. John's Ferret.
Jason leaned over the tactical display on the screen, watching as Normandy launched her fighters. Already one of the cruisers was turning back around as he cleared the north pole of the planet at an altitude of three hundred clicks, just barely skimming above the edge of the atmosphere, accelerating fast.
If only I had a full bay of fighters, he cursed silently, we'd swamp them under. Normandy had already launched her full load of fighters, twenty, and Doomsday along with two other pilots had taken out the remaining three fighters in his own bay. He could already sense that this was going to he a ship-to-ship action and he didn't relish the idea of facing a cruiser head on with a light escort carrier.
'Knew you wouldn't leave me in the lurch, laddie.'
Paladin's wavery image appeared on the screen.
'You certainly brought along enough company, Paladin.'
'Aye, that I did. Get ready for a coded burst, unscramble it and you'll see why.'
Seconds later the signal came through and Jason turned to watch his communications officer decode it. He started to see the holo read out and turned to one of his watch officers.
'Get down that corridor fast and tell those gorillas guarding the door to send Vance up here on the double!'
'Fighters are breaking off from attack on Paladin, returning to cover cruiser,' the combat information officer announced, looking back at Jason.
They must have detected the burst signal and realized we're carrying the football now, Jason thought.
'I already got it on our system,' Vance said, coming on to the bridge and Jason realized that with the gear down in the fighter bay Vance would already know.
'Look at the size of those damn ships,' Jason whispered, and he looked back at Vance who was intently studying the screen.
'Should we send the signal?' Vance asked.
Jason looked back at the holo. Their cover was fully blown now. He knew that was the end result the moment he made the decision to come up and save Paladin. He knew as well that if Paladin had come back empty- handed he would be in very hot water for having blown the mission cover just to save a friend. But then again it was extremely difficult to argue with success, and his decision would now be viewed as the right move and the personal reasons for Paladin and Ian forgotten.
The Kilrathi already had a visual lock on his ship. Within seconds they'd known the type and model and would quickly figure out it was Tarawa with Normandy right alongside. The antenna array atop his carrier would definitely tip them off as well as to the mission of his ship. If not for the information they had, it would be a diplomatic explosion. There was no sense in giving the Kilrathi the first jump on that front. If the information was released after the Kilrathi started screaming about the border violation the information might be dismissed as an attempt to cover up.
'Send it out now,' Jason said.
'Good decision, son,' Vance said with a grin and he turned back towards the flight deck. A minute later Jason noticed the momentary flicker in the ship's— battle lighting as the translight burst signal went out, repeated a minute later by a second burst for good measure.
