Starstorm (Starstorm Saga) (24 page)

Trey heard the confidence in Duke’s voice. He knew that Duke was very experienced at fighting pirates. He also knew that some of the other Colonial pilots had never even seen combat.

Well they were about to get a serious lesson on Zidian aggression
. “There they are,” said Trey as he spotted the enemy craft through his cockpit. Being a fighter pilot as long as he had, had given him eagle’s eyes. Scanners and other instruments were all well and good, but in the heat of a dog fight there was no substitute for human sight.

A few seconds later, Trey’s hunch was proven correct. There were ten Zidian fighters not five and they were rapidly growing closer. Trey spoke into the radio.

“Okay guys, listen up. We’ll fight them hit and run. Don’t leave your wingman. We’re going in at full speed. Once the fight starts keep moving. Your speed and maneuverability will be your only defenses.”

Trey looked at the Zidian ships. They still hadn’t broken formation. Duke was about to give the order to attack, when a hail of blue laser fire poured out of the Zidian fighters. Three of the Colonial Fighters exploded without ever having fired a shot. The others managed to avoid the hail of laser fire. Laser bolts streaked past, as Trey’s fighter cut right through the Zidian formation. He blazed away with his single plasma cannon at the enemy ships. His two wingmen did likewise. One of them took a hit as they cleared the Zidian formation. The damaged fighter trailed plasma fire as the pilot banked hard and rammed it head on into one of the Zidian fighters.

The Zidians then broke formation and went after the human craft.

“They’re on my six!” Trey heard one pilot yell. Laser blasts were everywhere as the screams of dying pilots sounded over the radio. Then laser bolts were all around Trey and coming from behind him.

“Trey, you’ve picked up one on your tail!” said Duke over the radio. A Zidian fighter was indeed engaged in a hot pursuit of Trey’s Colonial Fighter. Trey swerved his fighter back and forth avoiding the deadly stream of laser bolts being fired at him. From experience Trey knew what to do with over-zealous pursuers. He led the Zidian on. He headed straight for another one of the Zidian fighters as if he was going to ram it head on. He then pulled up at the last second. The pursuing fighter tried to dodge but was too slow. It crashed straight into the other Zidian ship.

Trey barely had time to savor his double victory. A Zidian ship was now pursuing Duke.

Duke, you always were better at defense than attack!

Duke tried desperately to avoid the many laser blasts that the bogie was firing at him. One of the laser bolts caught the starboard side of his fighter. There was a flash and sparks in the cockpit of Duke’s fighter. An automated voice began talking.

“Warning.... system failure. Main circuits severed. Plasma leak in primary fuel line.”

Duke quickly switched his systems over to the auxiliary circuits which he hoped and prayed were still intact. He also activated the secondary fuel line, but it was only a backup system. His effective speed was cut in half, and the Zidian began to close in for the kill. The alien never got his chance. Trey had pulled in close behind him and put the Zidian in his sights. Trey’s plasma cannon shot out a torrent of super-heated plasma that slammed right into the rear of the Zidian ship. The enemy fighter exploded into a fire ball that Trey’s ship barely avoided.

“That was a close one!” yelled Duke.

The shuttle carrying Jack Thunder pulled into a Space Force orbital platform high in orbit above Mars. Two pilots were there waiting on him. Ensign Lesley Chantze and Ensign Desmond Francis. As Jack got off of the shuttle Ensign Chantze came to rigid attention and saluted. Short, fair, and skinny he looked more like a boy than a fighter pilot.

“Lieutenant, sir!” Jack returned the salute awkwardly. Being in charge was going to take some getting used to.

“I’m Lesley Chantze and this my pal Desmond Francis. They call us Les and Des.”

Des was a big guy with a full face and short sandy hair.

“I’m Jack Thunder. We don’t have much time. We have to launch immediately!” Jack hurried to get himself a flight suit. Les and Des were already in theirs. While Jack was suiting up, Les turned to Des.

“He’s one of the two aces they told us about,” he said quietly. “He fought at Neptune and Saturn.”

Jack finished zipping up his flight suit.

“So what’s going on, Lieutenant?”

“We’ve got inbound bogies. Commander Knight and a squadron of colonial fighters have already engaged them. We’ve got to give them back up!” “

“You mean were going into combat?” Les and Des had both been pulled out of flight school less than half way through their training due to the crisis. Neither of them had ever been in anything close to combat. Jack realized this. Les looked extremely nervous.

“You were just saying how you were looking forward to getting in the action,” said Des to Les. Jack put his hand on Les’s shoulder. “You guys just stick with me and we’ll get through this.” They manned their Star Swords and moments later they had shot down the launch tunnels and were on their way to the fight.

Squad Member Brel flew his ship in perfect formation with the other ten Zidian Fighters in his group. Their mission was to scout out the human home world. Brel was still getting used to being a squad member. He had earned his previous rank of Squad Leader as a battle field promotion. This campaign, however, had served as a disaster for him. He had considered himself an excellent squad leader. In the past, he had had many victories. Having failed in his own recon mission, he found it odd to be doing the same thing again.

At least if we fail this time I will not be to blame.

All of a sudden, his perimeter alarm went off. He heard another pilot’s voice over the transmitter.

“Enemy transport ships detected in sector 4. Should we break off and engage?”

“Negative,” came the reply from the squad leader. “Our orders are not to engage enemy craft unless absolutely necessary.”

Good
, thought Brel. This Squad Leader wasn’t a complete idiot at least. Brel had found the humans to be a very cunning and very ferocious enemy. He had found out the hard way that far from being an intensely primitive foe, the Humans were in many ways as skilled in combat as any other enemy he had ever engaged. Where they lacked in technology, the humans made up in cunning and ferocity.

Brel checked his scanners. They were on approach to the outer regions of the human home world, the small planet known as Earth. Brel hoped that they would be able to conduct their scans of the area and get out without a fight. But he knew deep down that that was not going to happen. It wasn’t long before his perimeter alarm went off again. There was an entire group of human fighters dead ahead and coming straight at them. Brel readied himself to deal out some payback to the enemy.

A few moments later, the human ships were finally in visual range. The ten Star Swords boosted and cut straight threw the Zidian formation weapons blazing. The Zidians opened fire at almost the same moment. The rapid exchange of fire destroyed both a Zidian fighter and one of the human ships. There had also been a collision between a Star Sword and one of the Zidian ships. Brel had just barely avoided hitting an enemy craft head on himself.

“Take evasive action!” roared the squad leader over the transmitter. The eight human ships were already coming about. Brel pulled back on his throttle and accelerated. He pulled his ship up into a big loop just as the plasma bursts from a human ship had begun to streak past him. He had planned on coming full circle, and getting behind the Star Sword. But the human ship was very maneuverable, and followed Brel into his loop while still firing its plasma cannons.

As Brel completed the maneuver, the human was still in close pursuit. However, Brel also found that he himself was now behind another Star Sword. Brel wasted no time whatsoever in dispatching the ship in front of him with a hail of blue laser fire. The Star Sword exploded with a bright flash into a ball of burning plasma. At that exact moment, Brel cut to the left. His pursuer, momentarily disoriented from the explosion, had cut to the right. Brel came about as quickly as he could and before the human could figure out what had happened, Brel managed to slip behind him. The Star Sword never even got a chance to go into evasive action. Brel had it dead in his sights and opened up with everything he had. The human ship was destroyed.

Brel looked out his cockpit. Over half the ships on both sides had been destroyed. There were four Zidian ships left and three Star Swords. Brel checked his scanner. There were ten more human ships on the way. All of Brel’s comrades who were left were in fierce dogfights. Brel was about to jump behind one of the humans when the squad leader’s voice came over the transmitter.

“Squad member Brel, get as close to the human home world as you can and get the scans!”

Brel came about at full speed and headed straight for the small blue orb visible dead ahead that was the Earth. He knew he had to get a lot closer to get his scans. He also knew there were a lot of human ships in his way. He just didn’t see how he was going to pull it off.

Chapter Twenty One

O
n the bridge of the Krusha, Akdon stood upon his platform watching what little of the developments of the recon missions that his scanners allowed him to see. Akdon had to fight very hard to keep himself calm. The interference of the human sun was extremely agitating to him. Kaydan entered the bridge and climbed up the command platform to stand next to him. Akdon never took his dark eyes off the screen and acknowledged Kaydan’s presence only with a stiff nod.

“Commander our final check is complete, this ship is ready to execute a hyperspace jump. We are awaiting the remainder of the fleet to likewise finish preparing themselves.”

“Very good, Sub Commander,” said Akdon.

Kaydan turned his attention to the screen. “How are the recon missions going?” “The Humans are putting up stiff resistance and at this distance our scans are not reliable.”

“What about the squad sent to investigate the area around the human sun to attempt to find an answer to what is causing all the interference?”

“They should be on approach now.”

Back on Mars, in the control room of the Command Center, Captains Doran Slobadik and Hudson, as well as Colonel Travis, Admiral Shirley, Commander Wells, and Commander April Kelley were all likewise watching events unfold on a view screen.

“Sir, Space Force command reports that they have intercepted the enemy force on approach to Earth,” stated the comm officer.

“What can you tell about the fight going on here in the Mars zone?” asked Captain Doran.

“Not much sir. It’s pretty hot up there. Lieutenant Thunder should be arriving on the scene shortly.”

April stared at the screen. She could see the three images that represented the Star Swords steadily making their way toward the fight. She knew that Jack was in the lead.

He’s been through worse than this
, she told herself.
He’ll be fine
.

“What about the enemy ships headed for the deep inner solar system?” asked Admiral Shirley.

“They’ve just passed Venus’s orbital line. The Japanese and the Russians have assured us that they can handle them.”

“I hope they are right,” said Captain Doran.

Three Japanese Dragon class patrol ships flew in a perfect formation. The large fighters bristled with weapons and each one had a crew of five. Major Suramato, the commander of the lead Dragon, sat in the center of the cockpit. In front of him to his left and right sat the pilot and the Navigator. Behind him sat his weapons officer and his engineer.

“Radar check,” ordered Suramato.

“Ten contacts dead ahead, Major,” replied the pilot.

“Estimated time to intercept Navigator?”

“Two minutes, Major.”

Suramato nodded. “Weapons officer, charge up all the plasma cannons. Signal the others to prepare for combat!”

The other ships charged up their own weapons. The oncoming Zidian ships made no effort to avoid the Japanese craft barring there path.

“Sir, all craft report ready.”

“Excellent. It looks as though our enemies believe that they are more than a match for us because they out number us. Well we’ll give them a welcome that they won’t soon forget.” Suramato was confident. His three dragons had a lot of fire power.

“Thirty seconds sir!”

“Here we go!”

The ten Zidian ships were in for a big surprise. Commander Suramato’s ships greeted the Zidian squadron with a hail of plasma fire. Two of the Zidians were instantly destroyed. The aliens had been so taken by surprise that they scattered in all directions.

Suramato was proud of his ships. The Zidians had learned the hard way that for a single ship a Dragon packed a lot of fire power. Three Dragons were a considerable obstacle.

The Zidians began to fire their laser bolts at the Japanese ships. There bulky size made them easy targets. Suramato felt his ship shake as it took several enemy hits.

“Damage report!”

“Structural integrity is holding, sir!”

“Continue firing!”

One of the Zidian ships made a pass at Suramato’s Dragon firing its lasers. The blue laser bolts slammed into the Human ship’s armored hull. The Dragon returned the Zidian in kind with a volley of plasma fire. The Zidian was blown away. Without their shields to protect them, Zidian fighters just as fragile as their human counterparts. The Zidian pilots quickly learned that going nose to nose with the Dragons was suicide but they soon figured out their weakness. The Dragons were not maneuverable at all and their side armor was weaker than the front. Their rear armor was virtually nonexistent.

They began going at the Japanese ships from the sides and the rear. The Dragons tried to keep up with the zooming Zidian fighters, but the large patrol ships reacted sluggishly. It wasn’t long before the Dragon on Suramato’s right exploded. It had taken several direct hits to its engine. Suramato heard the death cries of its crew as it happened.