Project Starfighter (48 page)

He saw Athena making various
adjustments to the shield weightings as he struck down his opponents,
not interfering with her decisions, as she, too, left the flying and
choice of opponent up to him.

Would you like a body?
he
asked her, as they continued.

A human body?
Athena replied.
Yes, I would like that.

Maybe you could take one from the
six thousand WEAPCO employees?
Chris suggested.

Unethical
, she responded.
I
would only take one that was willing.

Perhaps we can make you one,
then? They are bound to have something like that on Earth.

Athena did not reply, but Chris
sensed her smiling and growing warm.

He relaxed the timeslip, slowing his
perception of the world to half speed, as he gunned towards a small
corvette that was out of range of the twins. He was about to target
its most vulnerable points, when he held back on pulling the trigger.
It would prove a useful addition to their ranks, if Phoebe or Ursula
could stretch that far. But as he came in closer, he saw the ship
begin to rupture, explosions tearing through it. In seconds there was
nothing left, except for hundreds of spinning shards of debris.

What had caused it to go up? Chris
hunted around for signs of a Fer-de-Lance, cycling rapidly through
the craft on his radar, and looking all about his cockpit. Kethlan
was nowhere to be seen.

“What happened?” he asked of the
others.

“It killed itself,” Ursula said.

“What?”

“It killed itself. Rather than
accept capture, it self destructed.”

“Is that something you think
they’ll all start doing?” Chris asked.

“Hard to tell,” Phoebe said. “It
could have just been the AI specific to that ship.”

Chris nodded, preparing to take on
what remained of WEAPCO’s forces, when he saw that all other guns
on the field had fallen silent. Once again, the battle was over
before he knew it. He had needed to make less use of the timeslip
this time, surfacing from it far more often. Real elapsed time since
they had made the initial jump in to Sol – just over one hour. They
had just two more defence lines to hit before they reached Earth. He
turned to look at the force they had amassed so far, seeing that it
was far larger than he had initially expected. He felt his confidence
swell. Nothing could stop them.

“Phoebe, Ursula, how are you
holding up?” he asked, checking in on the women once more. He
wanted to ensure that they weren’t buckling under the weight of the
task.

“We’re okay,” Phoebe said.
“We’re distributing the command amongst the drones, and having
them delegate duties.”

“We could probably handle an army
twice this size, if we wanted to,” Ursula added. “I don’t want
to, though. I have plans for when we reach Sol, and I will have to
lean on Phoebe for a time to get it done.”

That would explain why they were
taking longer to take control of the craft than originally promised.
Ursula was saving herself for something, conserving her strength.
“Anything you want to share about that plan?” Chris asked.

“No. It’s just something I need
to do,” Ursula said.

There was a hardness to her voice
that told Chris that asking any more questions would not get him an
answer and might only serve to anger the woman. Indeed, he could feel
her fire coming over his comms already. He would trust things to her.

“Chris,” Sid called. He sounded
concerned.

“What’s up?”

“I’m picking up a distress
call.”

Chris frowned, feeling Athena’s
added hesitation. “A distress call?”

“Yes. Coming from the vicinity of
Jupiter. Four craft, stranded and in need of assistance. They need to
be carried back to Spirit.”

It’s clearly a trap
, Athena
said.
Who would be sending a distress call within Sol?
The
others echoed her thoughts.

“Jupiter is our next destination,
anyway,” Chris said. “So we will find out soon enough.” But he
hesitated. What if they were to jump to Jupiter only to have their
entire fleet blown to pieces, WEAPCO somehow getting through Phoebe
and Ursula’s mental barriers? The Corporation could well have
decided to draw them there, anticipating that the group intended to
move against Earth sooner.

“Athena,” Chris started, “how
many of those ships would you feel comfortable commanding?”

Six, at most.

“And if you were to control a
larger, hop-capable one?”

It makes no difference
,
Athena said.
Size isn’t a factor, just the number of minds.

“Chris, what are you planning?”
Sid interrupted.

“I’m going in alone,” he
replied.

“Chris, don’t be stupid! You
don’t know what’s out there!”

“And neither do you. If things
turns ugly, I’m just going to turn around and come straight back
here. I just need to make sure that they aren’t planning on somehow
severing Phoebe and Ursula’s control.”

“And what if they do, and destroy
the hop-capable ship?”

“I’ll signal you if things get
out of control. You up for this, Athena?”

He felt hesitation before she
answered.
Yes, I trust you.

“Good. Get us over there.”

~

Chris
arrived in the vicinity of Jupiter only a few minutes later. The
scene there was as promised – four craft, all starfighters, nothing
more. Nothing else appeared to be on its way, either. Chris felt
uncomfortable. Something about this looked awfully familiar; the
number of craft, the formation they held. The Cyclones might be
WEAPCO craft, but ... He knew of only four people who might be
occupying those seats.

Chris ...
Athena began.

The Firefly’s console suddenly
jingled, and Chris felt a shiver rumble up his spine. He answered the
comms request.

“Hello, boy,” a gruff male voice
said.

“Tyler,” Chris said. “What are
you doing here?”

“Things took a bit of a bad turn
during the whole Immortal League affair,” the mercenary started.
“After the fight at the shipyard, we entered into a running battle
with Mal’s cultists. One that we didn’t win. We lost the
A.B.C.,
and just about every member of the Pack who didn’t turn coward and
run away.”

Chris noted that the Cyclones were
holding position, not making even the slightest of course
adjustments. There was no one else around, just them. Chris had a
strong feeling he knew what this was all about.

Tyler continued, “WEAPCO caught up
with us after we retreated from our final battle with Mal’s horde,
those cultist bastards only letting us get away because of the death
of their leader. WEAPCO had been looking for us ever since Mission
3412 failed to go their way. Kline Kethlan cut us a deal. He said
that he would allow us all to go free and return to our ‘private
enterprise’ so long as we dealt with the problem of a certain
Firefly pilot and his three accomplices.”

Chris’ hand tightened on the
joystick. “So, they’ve hired you to kill me?”

“In a word, yes,” Tyler said,
nonchalantly. “It was also fortunate for us that you picked up
Overlook. Had you not done so, the Wade-Ellen Corporation might have
never uncovered his ploy to overthrow the CEO and seize power.
Disguising himself as Mal was a pretty clever move. When he set off
to go after that precursor technology, I never thought he’d come
back alive. And ... well, he didn’t. That leaves me as sole heir to
New Chile. WEAPCO might not realise it yet, but they’ve actually
made me very, very powerful indeed.

“So, as you can see, everything
has worked out very well for us. There only remains one problem, boy.
You.”

Chris was flabbergasted. “How
could you, Tyler? We were allies. We had a deal!”

“A limited one at best. And,
besides, I’m a mercenary. What did you expect?”

Tyler’s Cyclone’s engines came
online and the fighter started forward, the three other Cyclones
following after.

“Now,” the leader of the Wolf
Pack said, “if you’d do me a favour and die quickly, I have a
cheque to earn ...”

F
our
Cyclones. On paper, far more powerful than the Firefly; better
armoured, better shielded, better armed. All in all, they were fully
capable of besting their predecessor in a straight fight. But Chris
wasn’t flying an ordinary Firefly. The upgrades that Sid had
introduced now matched – perhaps even bettered – the
specifications of the Cyclones. And, of course, Chris had Athena. The
timeslip was the single greatest advantage he possessed, the thing
that would give him the edge in this engagement and pretty much
assure his victory.

He prepared to engage it. Nothing
happened.

Chris swore.

Chris, we have a problem
,
Athena said.

“I know, I know!” Chris said. He
stared out at the incoming Cyclones, it very clear to him that not
only had Kethlan offered the mercenaries monetary compensation for
this task but had also supplied them with some sort of jamming
system. Chris wondered briefly if Kethlan himself might be present in
one of those Cyclones.

I can still control the Firefly’s
systems
, Athena told him.
But I can’t provide you with any
assistance beyond that.

No, Kethlan probably wasn’t here.
If he had been, Athena would have been reduced to nothing more but a
spectator. “Flight control?” Chris asked.

Down to you
, Athena said.

Chris detected nervousness in her
voice. “What about the Mirages or the corvette? Are you still able
to order them around?” He was sure he knew the answer to that
question already.

No. They’re not responding.

A snap glance to the radar revealed
that the six WEAPCO ships that had accompanied Chris and Athena here
hadn’t moved since they had arrived. It was four against one.
Almost.

“Send a message to Sid,” Chris
said. “Tell him to get his butt over here, now!”

Signalling is blocked.

Chris told himself not to panic,
shielding the feeling as best he could from Athena. He eyed the four
fighters that were accelerating towards him, soon to be within
weapons range. He tried to think of what their first move would be.
Would they unleash a storm of missiles the second they were locked
and ready, or would they do so later, such an opening move being far
too predictable? The four were clinging close to one another, and
there was little doubt in Chris’ mind who his opponents were –
Tyler, Eve, Dar, and Clayton, the leader and senior partners of the
Wolf Pack. Chris had flown with all of them before, seen them fight.
All four were good, very good. And now they were against him.

“We thought that you would come
here alone,” Tyler’s voice came over his comms once again,
forcing its way through, much like how Kethlan had done. “Had you
brought the geek and the little blonde tramp with you, we might have
been forced to fall back to our alternative plan. But as you’re
here alone, boy, we can all have a little fun.”

One of the Cyclones was coming
forward with far more gusto than the others, Chris was certain that
the pilot was either Clayton or Dar. WC-WP-004. Tyler’s own Cyclone
was identifying itself as WC-WP-001, whereas the one that was moving
with added care, WC-WP-002, was clearly Eve. She always approached
situations like this with caution, taking time to evaluate her
position and the standings before striking. Chris tightened his grip
on the flight stick, his eyes shifting rapidly between all four
fighters, as well as his radar. Who to strike first? What to do, how
to react?

I can still give you advice
,
Athena said.

“I’ll be needing plenty of
that,” Chris said.

“It’s nothing personal,” Eve’s
voice came from the Cyclone identified as WC-WP-002. “This is
business, nothing more.”

“Speak for yourself,” Dar said.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks! Besides, he killed
Lorrie. This is payback.” WC-WP-003.

That left Clayton, the mute. He was
the first to open up his cannons against Chris, who slammed the
Firefly’s joystick forward, hard, diving out of the way. He had not
reacted nearly as fast as he would have liked; many of the
mercenary’s plasma bolts had hit home. Had the Firefly not been
upgraded beyond its initial capabilities, Chris was certain that
Clayton’s attack would have pushed the fighter’s defences well
over the danger threshold.

Chris ignored the taunt from Dar
that followed, hearing the blare of the warning siren as a missile
was dispatched at close range. It was destroyed immediately, Athena
activating the counter measures the very instant the missile was
loosed from the Cyclone. Chris did not pause to consider who had
fired it, concentrating only on which target he should engage.

Three o’clock
, Athena
prompted.

Chris pushed the flight stick hard
to the right, seeing the Cyclone that was speeding in that direction,
his HUD visually identifying it. It was Dar, preparing to come around
following his failed attack with the missile. It had been a very long
time since Chris had fought more than a simple one-on-one battle
without the aid of Athena’s timeslip, and he found himself a little
overwhelmed by just how fast and frantic the battle really was. He
had not been called on to think and react this way since his dogfight
against Kethlan. Athena was yet again on hand to give him advice.

Go after the weakest of the pack
first,
she said
. Think like a wolf.

Chris almost smiled, but now Dar was
in his sights. He squeezed the trigger – another action he had not
taken for quite some time – strafing the Cyclone with a torrent of
plasma cannon fire. He quickly found that either his cannons were
much more powerful than he had at first believed, or that the Wolf
Pack’s Cyclones’ shielding wasn’t nearly as strong as it ought
to have been. Either that, or when the fighters were allocated, Dar
had drawn the short straw.