Con-Red: Recourse (58 page)

“Excellent, I’m glad to hear.  Are we ready for Phase Three?” Redic asked while studying his survey team’s report once again on the other screen.

“
I believe we can be ready.  We might need another week to run further simulations, but everything looks good in order to proceed.”

“Can those simulations be completed onboard a vessel?  I think a most suitable planet has been found for Phase Three,” he reached over and transmitted the survey data collected.

Dr. Hamulson got the report seconds later and looked down into her palm to quickly browse over the data, “yes…yes I believe this will do just fine.  And we can certainly transfer the necessary equipment onto a vessel provided it is of proper size.”

“Very well.  One will arrive at Crix
in approximately nineteen hours.  Please have everything ready for transfer by then.  Project Destiny is officially a go from this point on.  The person I am placing to oversee the deployment will accompany you and your team on this journey.”

“Understood Mr. Skyler.  I will get everything prepared and ready for your ship’s arrival.”

“Thank you doctor.  We shall keep in touch,” Redic nodded and
watched the women immediately turn away in order to get everything prepared, just before her image faded.

“It’s
the dawn to a new day,” Redic added quietly under his breath as he pushed the chair from his desk.

“Yes it certainly
seems that way,” a soothing familiar voice replied from behind him.

Seemingly out of nowhere Michelle’s warm hands materialized from behind him and ran over his shoulders.  Redic smiled slowly at the feeling of her mass
age and relaxed back against her arms.  He felt her lean over and kiss his cheek with her soft lips.  She always seemed to have a knack of knowing when he needed her at his side and how to make his world a better place.

“I’m proud of yo
u for pursuing this project Red.  I know how much its cost you, but in the end it will be worth it.” Redic felt her hands finally surround him and he turned his head to look into her eyes, “all of humanity will benefit from it more than all the war sales.”

“If I ask you to do something without any questions asked, will you Em?” he asked after a moment’s pause in her arms.

“Of course,” she replied without any visible hesitation, “I trust you completely.”

“I need you to take Reddie and go oversee Project Destiny. 
The
Skipray
is stocked and ready for you.  It will take you to the system I have chosen.  Dr. Hamulson will meet you there.”

Without a word Michelle gave him a slow nod of acknowledgement and lean
ed in closer until her lips met his.  Redic stood and held her tight in his arms for a moment before looking into her eyes.  He smiled gently while running a hand through her long hair, “I think we still have time for that trip to the zoo.”

A renewed barrage of light blue laser beams shot through space and barely missed the maneuvering Dragonfires of Knight Squad
ron.  Styker sat in the cockpit of Knight One and jabbed the control stick sideways causing the heavy fighter to flip port side into a quick roll just in time to miss one of these enemy beams.  As many an enemy found out only too late, the Dragonfire’s response time and maneuvering capability were in contradiction to other craft of its size and weight.  It had always been a more than formidable opponent, but its latest rendition in the form of the Block E model had taken that level of performance even further.  While the Cyclone drivers still enjoyed many bragging rights, Styker knew that his Dragonfire Es were not far behind and even exceeded those new interceptors in terms of shields, armor, and internal ordinance space.

In true combat what mattered most was the capability and fortitude of the pilot.  The quality of the machine they flew helped, but Commander Telwin knew from experience that even the finest fighter in the galaxy was
usually no match for a skilled adversary.  There was also of course the element of luck that every warrior in history could attest to.  Styker had hundreds of personal stories about how such a silly notion had saved his life.  His life was also filled with just as many instances of pure gut instinct.  It was always a distinct feeling inside him, like a hard to explain twinge in the back of his skull or one that helped direct his actions.  That same feeling took him over at that very moment and Styker distinctively pulled back on the flight controller, sending the fighter into a vertical climb.  This tactical display showed a detonation beneath him and a decrease in his shield levels.

“They scattered mines Knights, watch yourselves,” he called out in warning to the rest of his squadron, while turning back towards the floating
enemy frigate some six hundred kilometers away.

The rest of the Knights acknowledged his warning and continued to fight through the heavy defensive fire on their attack run. 
Flying in tight pairs the squadron had dispersed across three kilometers of open space in the hopes of thinning out the frigate’s defenses.  The constantly maneuvering AF-103s were giving the targeting systems onboard the opposing vessel a good testing, making them readjust with each successive shot.  Even so Styker knew that Knight Squadron’s luck could change for the worst at any moment.  Because of this they would need to complete their mission sooner rather than later.

“Release Decoys,” Knight Lead commanded
and triggered his own launch, watching the drone speed away from under his fighter.

Nine other drones joined his to form a new squadron of contacts on the enemy vessel’s sensors.  Each of the decoys broadcast larger signatures and readjusted course in order to draw some of the incoming fire from Knight Squadron.  Styker watched this happen almost instantly as one of the drones quickly disintegrated
, but the rest continued on with ever changing evasive maneuvers.  The frigate’s automated defensive systems quickly shifted to engage these new inbound threats and made the Knights secondary targets.  Despite this Styker knew that any second now the men and women monitoring those automated systems would realize the diversion and redirect the weapons accordingly.

Not waiting another second in order to take advantage of the lull in weapons fire he gave the go ahead to close on the enemy.  Punching the throttle entirely forward he felt the
engines roar to life behind him.  The rapid acceleration pushed him into his pilot’s seat instantly as the fighter lurched forward.  Slowly the inertial compensators adjusted to the new stresses and the commander brought the Dragonfire around in a lateral arc towards the capital ship’s rear.  He tried his best to keep the AF-103 maneuvering without pause in order to not get stuck by laser fire.

“Eight
hit, repeat I’m hit,” came the sudden exclamation from Knight Eight, “breaking off and turning back to starting position.”

Styker acknowledge the man and continued on towards his target.  The sensor display in front of him showed the Dragonfire breaking formation and slowly moving away from the battle zone.  The remaining squad members closed around his position, however, and continued to the target.  At the same time two other of the drones detonated on the other side of the engagement.  Commander Telwin could already feel more of the frigate’s weapons shifting fire back towards his real formation.  He sent his craft into another barrel roll just as another blue ray passed close by and another of his men called out to declare a hit.

“Knights, target Hotel One as planned,” he commanded and trained his eyes on the still distant enemy warship.

The Dragonfire’s
system had already designated the target and fed the data into the guidance system on the missiles being housed in the internal launch bays.  On his command the fighter unleashed the first of four Kiba missiles, showing them all drop out and launch in quick succession.  The rest of the squadron followed suit and released their own weapons.  Within seconds Styker’s sensor display lit up with thirty-six simulated MP-212 warheads streaking away towards the distant target beyond.  That enemy was in actuality one of the Federation Navy’s brand new Griffin class corvettes and at the moment she was simulating an enemy frigate for the purpose of this exercise.

“Enemy fighters!” warned Knight Two at that moment before going completely silent.

Styker saw the holographic display quickly flash at that moment to show the simulated destruction of Lieutenant Kelvin ‘Quick’ Qickowski. “Knights launch countermeasures and plow through them before engaging.”

He quickly increased the gain on his detection array and rescanned the area where Quick got taken out.  At the same time Knight Lead turned towards that area himself.  Completing his turn he was quickly presented with a heads-up-display filled with an entire squadron of ten enemy fighter craft.  With only eight members left the squadron was surprised and outnumbered.  The opposing commander had deployed his fighters and had kept them floating powered down in space in order to help prevent their detection.  Unfortunately Styker had flown the Knight’s right into them.

The zoomed in forward display let him see the Dragonfire assault fighters accelerate and fly right through the center of the enemy concentration, sending them scattering in order to avoid collision.  Each pilot quickly reversed their course once that happened and tried their best to put themselves behind the now accelerating enemy craft.  Styker noted with great interested that the enemy fighters maneuvered exactly as the alien fighters had in the video shown them and in the simulations.  This wasn’t a coincidence.  The Pegasus autonomous combat vehicles were loaded with flight algorithms collected from data salvaged off the
Federation
and were now being used to help train the naval pilots.

With the help of his advanced neural implants Styker picked out one of the fast flying fighters from a distance and plotted its course and speed.  That information allowed him to make a highly educated estimate as where it would be in the next few seconds.  Shifting the Dragonfire’s nose gently to the side he waited a split second before triggering the
dual particle cannons.  Bursts of three rapid shots fired out from each barrel and almost instantly closed the distance between Knight One and the enemy fighter.  The first pair missed wide, but the others struck home along the entire length of the smaller craft.  Styker saw its shields flash a sky blue before the drone instantly shut down.

“Got
one on my tail, trying to evade,” Knight Four’s calm voice came over the squadron’s TacLink.

Before the statement was even completed St
yker saw Patricia ‘Marks’ Holton’s fighter fly past in front of him with one of the opposing drones at her rear.  He proudly noted the coat of arms at the rear end of the other Dragonfire, featuring a knight’s helmet with a pair of broadswords crossed behind it.  “I’m on it Marks,” Styker replied immediately and accelerated deeper into the fray.  In seconds he was sliding in behind the Pegasus ACV that was trying its best to score a kill on his squadron mate. 

The drone detected his presence and without delay triggered its own evasive maneuvers by breaking off its attack on Knight Four.  A simulated missile launch was detected on sensors a second after the Pegasus rolled away
and Styker saw Patricia release one of her decoy countermeasures from the rear of her Dragonfire.  He didn’t wait around to see its effect, instead pulling hard on his control stick to follow the smaller vehicle into a dive.  Together they created what seemed like a beautifully choreographed dance of war with Styker matching the Pegasus move for move.  While the enemy alien fighters had better dogfight characteristics than standard Dragonfire assault fighters, the upgraded AF-103Es were more than a match.  His fighter even bested the enemy at a number of aspects.   One of these was turn rate and allowed him to get the upper hand when the Pegasus rolled to starboard and tried to come about in order to bear its weapons on him. 

Anticipating this move Styker turned slightly harder and hit his dorsal maneuvering thrusters.  This caused his fighter to slide sideways in space, out of the enemy’s line of fire.  At the same time it brought the opposing drone directly in front of his own craft.  He stared at the now non-maneuvering Pegasus for a split second before squeezing down on the trigger.  A barrage of blue low powered training bolts
fired from his weapons and slammed into the ACV’s shields causing it to deactivate almost instantly.  Traveling at high speed Styker didn’t even hit the brakes as he flew straight past the now motionless drone and back into the thick of the fragmented dogfight.

He noticed that his squadron was doing well against the simulated enemy fighters.  His sensor displays changed once more, bringing up a new floating image of the frigate that Knights had just attacked moments before.  The software had finally calculated the estimated damage of his missile strike.
  It had not been enough to destroy the ship, but the Kiba missiles had damaged the frigate considerably, affecting much of its combat performance.  That was probably the reason for the now rather sporadic fire coming from the vessel instead of the sustained defense they had experienced previously, Styker thought to himself.

Grateful for the effect he mentally changed the sensor display back to that of the surrounding area and veered starboard towards another enemy fighter.  He was in the process of closing in
behind the small craft when a loud warning alarm rang out throughout the cockpit.  Styker’s entire display instantly changed from a soft blue, dedicated to friendly-on-friendly simulation missions, to a deep red of actual hostile engagements.  The HUD within the canopy blinked to life.  It zoomed out from Knight Squadron’s immediate position to show the Rahias region as a whole.  There, in the northeastern most section, two of the dozens of early warning sensor buoys that had been scattered throughout since the
Regal’s
arrival lit up brightly and broadcast a detection signal.

“Gravitons detected!” Styker suddenly called out to the entire Federation naval force in the area as the reality of the situation finally hit him, “enemies detected!  Repeat enemies detected!  Knights form up and prepare for contact.  Shields and weapons full.  Recall all ACVs.
  Simulation‘s over.”

“Admiral on the bridge!” Captain Nickolas Hinnamen announced loudly over the klaxon ringing throughout the
Regal’s
bridge.

“Report, Captain,” Admiral Achyuta Singh requested as he confidently strode through the reinforced armored blastdoors at the rear of the command deck before the
y slid closed once more.  The combat alerts sounded throughout the ship, calling its entire crew to battle stations in preparation for combat.  Every weapons system on the great vessel powered up at once and slid out of its protective exterior shell, while the internal missile ordinance proceeded through their quick self-diagnostic checks.

“Buoys Twenty-three and Twenty-four detected a wave of graviton emissions. 
I made the decision to call out an all ships battle station and scramble our fighters.  Regela is searching the area for any signs of enemy vessels.  The battle group is forming up as planned though, sir,” Nickolas answered the commanding officer as he looked back towards the large holographic area map floating over the tactical table along the left side of the bridge.

“Very good Captain.  This could very well be the fight we have been waiting for.  Please encourage our teams on Rahias to expedite the evacuation, there might not be much time remaining.
”

Achyuta took a long look at the tactical map and studied it for a moment. 
After only a few seconds he had memorized the entire map as well as the locations of every asset he had at his disposal.  Most of his forces were concentrated around the large scientific facility they were here to defend.  A number of them, however, were spread out throughout the surrounding space.  There were two small patrol vessels from Pisces moving along the western and southern boarders and a larger Griffin class corvette that now hung in space directly between the
Regal
and the two detection buoys.  Besides these warships were also a trio of fighter squadrons operating from the carrier and some of her escorts.  Admiral Singh knew they were on rotating training missions to keep their skills sharp.