Con-Red: Recourse (42 page)

“Engage at will Knights,” Styker relayed
to his squadron and moved his eyes over a pair of the incoming DragonRays, “good hunting.”

Without any other sensors he used the optical lockon feature and mentally told the system to target those craft.  A pair of invisible laser beams quickly crossed the closing distance and
intersected with both of the designated fighters.  That information was quickly transferred to the already waiting missiles inside two of the three internal weapons bays.  Another mental command initiated the fire sequence and both MP-212C Kiba projectiles were ejected from the fighter before accelerating towards their targets, following the laser designator the entire time. 

Other Dragonfires followed suit with missile attacks of their own and quickly answered in kind by the enemy squadron.  Watching the enemy
advance and the missiles streak out to meet them Styker saw tiny ignitions of light under each of the enemy fighters.  He didn’t need active sensors at that point to know what was happening.  “Missiles inbound!” he called out as the flight commander and instantly put his Dragonfire into a drive to initiate evasive action.  At the same time he activated his Electronic Countermeasures Array.

Out in space the two groups of opposing missiles crossed each other on their way to various targets.  The enemy’s ability to use sensors gave them a big advantage in the engagement, their missiles were able to follo
w every action performed by Knight Squadron.  With the UPF squadron now activating its ECAs, however, it would make the missiles jobs much more difficult.  UPF weapons, on the other hand, had to rely on their own sensor systems at the moment as each fighter conducted evasive maneuvers that at times caused them to lose their laser designation link.  The Federation missiles had the ability to track targets on visual profile alone if needed.  When getting close to their target the Kibas also used infrared detectors to track heat output in the coldness of space.  With help from the ECA the two forces were now well matched.

A series of laser
bolts shot out from one of the pirate fighters and knocked out two of the incoming UPF missiles, amazing Styker with their precision during his high-G rolls and turns.  As he pointed his fighter back at the enemy Commander Telwin watched as an enemy missile raced by his cockpit.  He waited a second for it to come back around to target him, but his countermeasures proved to be effective and the weapon continued moving straight without seeing him.  Some of the other missiles didn’t missile, however, and impacted some of the Regal CBG’s fighters.  Most of those detonated against the heavy shields surrounding each fighter, but one did manage to cause some damage to Knight Five, disabling one of its engines and warping part of its tail.  Both of these damaged items were redundant and allowed the fighter to keep on with the engagement without much trouble. 

Commander Telwin mentally took note of the damaged craft and
tried to see how effective his own squadron’s missiles had been.  Without sensors it was hard to track those launched projectiles.  The spectroscopic array, however, informed him that it was now only tracking eight enemy ships instead of the original ten.  It wasn’t much of a victory, but considering the heavy enemy jamming it was all Styker could hope for.  At least their numbers now evened out, which Styker hoped would help his unit perceiver.

Finally after what seemed like forever, but was in fact only seconds, the two squadrons came together in a large dogfight.  As trained the Federation fighters attacked in pairs after selecting a single pirate
DragonRay each.  From the corner of his eyes Styker could see his three remaining pairs flower in all directions to execute their missions.  On his TacLink display he could see that Knight Two, his wingman for the battle, had taken up position behind him.  Without having to say anything Styker swung the fighter around to hunt for the enemy and knew that Two would follow his every move.  Together they accelerated after one of his fighter pairs that now had a DragonRay on its tail. 

As they descende
d on the enemy’s rear he saw that it was already firing on his squadron mates with blue and red energy beams.  Some of these missed as the Dragonfires maneuvered to throw off the enemy’s aim, but others hit their target, impacting against one of the fighter’s shields.  At the same time a pair of new missiles detached from the pirate craft’s wing hardpoints and targeted the pair’s trailing Federation Naval fighter.  This new attack seemed to go unnoticed by the Dragonfire for a long second since most of its early warning systems were being jammed.

“
Savage, missiles on your tail!” Styker shouted as a quick warning to his second-in-command and triggered his own lasers at the enemy fighter without a complete lock, while dispatching a missile of his own.  He hoped to distract the pirate long enough to get the upper hand.

He watched the
Kiba race away ahead of his fighter before curving towards the enemy as Styker engaged its visual lock.  All he had to do was follow the target with his eyes and the Dragonfire fired out its designator beam automatically.  The pirate ship must have detected the laser lock or seen the launch and broke off its attack to try and evade the incoming projectile.  Its turn mistakenly put it right into Styker’s line of fire.  Never one to waste a presented opportunity he fired on the enemy once more with his beam weapons set on cycle.  The four particle beams slammed into the craft’s top shields.  Their combined assault was enough to bring down the defensive barrier and allow the following laser bolts to hammer its heavily armored body.  Styker saw them impact along the DragonRay’s body and starboard wing. 

The body’s armor plating only blackened and
melted slighting on the outside, but the wing was less so and the lasers punched right through its entire thickness.  This sort of damage would have in no way impeded the fighter’s performance, but unfortunately for the pilot there was a missile hanging off of one of the wing’s hardpoints.  One of the laser beams struck this warhead and caused it to explode, shredding the entire wing and destroying one of the craft’s engines.  Even so the heavy fighter would have survived if wasn’t for the Kiba missile that struck its underside at that same moment.  That missile pieced the fuselage and exploded inside the ship ripping it apart in a brilliant ball of fire.

While this was all happening
Savage, in Knight Three, had been busy trying to avoid the missiles directed at him as well.  Both of these projectiles were guided by the launching fighter’s sensor systems, but their locks were constantly being disrupted by the heavy jamming being put out from Three’s ECA unit.  One of the missiles shot over the top of the fighter after losing senor contact and began to come back around to relocate the target.  There was no such luck with the second projectile and it slammed into the top of the Dragonfire.  Unlike the other explosive missiles this one was a pulse type weapon.  Its detonation showered the intended craft with a heavy barrage of directed ionizing radiation.  The direct impact instantly disabled the fighter’s shields and passed into the interior of the ship.  Styker turned back towards the craft in time to see its four engine nozzles flicker out.  The Dragonfire continued flying through space on its remaining momentum.

Commander Telwin was
about to call out for an S&R shuttle over his TacLink to come pick up the stricken pilot when the Dragonfire blasted apart.  Through this large explosion shot out the very pirate craft followed close behind by Knight Four.  All around the battlefield Federation and pirate fighters fought each other in an intensive ballet of death and destruction.  There were victories and losses on both sides, but Styker had to admit that his opponents were highly qualified in their own regard.  The one piece of good news that Styker could see was that his squadron was fighting in a more effective manner than the enemy and were getting the majority of the kills.  His on screen display indicated to him that there were now four enemy fighters remaining, while Knight Squadron still had six fighters in combat.

He hit the throttle again and within a few seconds slid behind another enemy craft that was on the tail of Knight Five’s AF-103E
.  It was the same Dragonfire damaged in the first missile exchange and the pilot was still holding his own against the trailing enemy craft.  Every evasive action that Styker witnessed was effective and caused the pirate’s fire to miss completely in its attack.    The skills of Junior Lieutenant Spencer ‘Ice’ Alervin impressed him greatly and he was deeply proud of the young man, considering he had been a relative new comer to the squadron only months ago.  There was a lot of potential in that one, Styker thought to himself as he adjusted the control stick in his right hand to achieve his own target lock on the DragonRay.

A new transmission from one of his other squadron mates caused the commander pause, however.  “
I’m hit!  Shields down, multiple system failures.  I can’t shake him!”

“On my way Ten.  Come around to Six-Two-Nine,” Styker heard
Karagin, the pilot of Knight Nine, relay to the other pilot.

“Roger that, on my way,” Knight Ten
, Brash, replied before his voice suddenly changed to something more hectic, “engine failure!  Trying to transfer…”

Through the TacLink the sound of a nearby explosion could be hear
d before the entire transmission cut off altogether.  An EV transponder appeared at Knight Ten’s previous position and began transmitting on emergency frequencies.  No other communications appeared from that ejected capsule, though, causing the commander to lose that much more hope.

“Ten, One, sitrep,” Styker called out as he triggered a particle beam burst and watched the enemy fighter barrel roll away from it.  “Ten respond.”

He tried to contact the pilot a few more times before quitting without any luck.  Commander Telwin knew that he needed to focus more on his target at the moment, which was proving to be a rather worthy adversary.  The enemy pilot was able to press his attack again Knight Five and at the same time dodge most of Styker’s fire with fluid evasion maneuvers.  He could almost feel the calmness inside the pirate’s cockpit.  Having trained and flow combat missions for over fifteen years he could almost always differentiate between actions done in panic and those that were truly preplanned.

“Hydra Lead, recommend you commence your attack,” Styker suggested as he watched a large window open up in the pirate fighter screen
from their depleted numbers on his spectroscopic display.

He lased the target with two optically guided designators and unleashed
a pair of missiles at the evading enemy fighter.  As these missiles raced away Styker triggered another round of laser blasts.  In burst mode they showered the space surrounding the DragonRay in beams of deadly energy.  Quickly moving the control stick around, Styker sent his fighter’s nose moving and sliding in ever changing directions, making the laser bolts spread out to cover a large area.  No matter where the enemy maneuvered its fighter was struck with at least a couple of the green beams.  They splashed harmlessly against the enemy’s shields, but were there only to serve as an annoyance before the Kiba missiles struck.

They came to w
ithout two hundred meters when the enemy fighter pulled up and flipped straight on its tail, changing direction in less than a second.  Styker watched a single missile eject from the bottom of the now upside down craft as it unleashed a barrage of intense particle beam fire at one of the inbound missiles.  Most of them missed, but it only took one to detonate the Kiba and at that point Styker knew that it was the same fighter that he had seen destroy the missile in the first engagement.  It was then at his other missile struck the pirate launched one and exploded before it could even reach its target.

Suddenly something feel inside his mind shouted ‘caution’ and forced Knight Lead to slide his Dragonfire sideways just as a pair of laser beams glanced off his forward shields, causing the following particle bolt to miss completely.  The next thing Styker saw was the enemy fighter flashing by his cockpit and through the area he had just occupied.  He told his wingman to take up point for the damaged Knight Five and quickly flipped himself around to follow the enemy.  The AF-103 responded as if it was an extension of his own body, changing direction instantly.  Its superior thrust to weight allowed the lighter fighter to catch up with the other craft in only seconds.

Styker wanted this kill all to himself, but knew he would have to work for it.  Together t
hey danced violently in space, while at the same time the Hydra Squadron Valkyrie bombers cut their way through the thinned out enemy minefield and commenced their assault.  Deadly beams of green and blue energy from his fighter interplayed with red and blue ones fired from the DragonRay as both craft change positions every few moments.  Each time one would get the upper hand and score a number of hits against the other’s shields, only to have the fortunes reversed seconds later, forcing the aggressor to become the prey.

At the moment Styker was the one being chased through space
.  He weaved his fighter in seemingly erratic patterns to try and evade the incoming fire.  Through a transparent display projected within his visual HUD he could see the enemy trying to maneuver behind him for a clear shot thanks to the array of cameras at the rear of the Dragonfire.  Energy beams slashed by his cockpit and around his fighter, barely missing him by fractions of a second.  He pushed his craft into a quick barrel roll to the port side and cut power at the same time, while flipping the fighter back around.  Just as he started the flip Styker felt his fighter shudder and watched the shields flare a deep blue-white before an alarm rang out.