Operation Chimera (16 page)

“Stuff it, Keg, we get the point.” Liam’s voice was followed by a metallic clank.

“Holy cripes, guys. Space is beige? What’s wrong with the viewfinder? Why is everything all peachy and purple, shouldn’t it be black what”―clank―“Thank you, sir!”

“Need to get that droid’s AI reformatted.” Aaron sighed over the comm.

Hologram Emma grinned. “I think he’s kind of cute.”

Michael laughed. With her eyes covered by helmet, she looked sinister in an adorable sort of way. He frowned.
That’s the kind of thing Aaron would think.
An indicator blinked on to his left, expanding into an information pane with only some of the data fields filled in.

“Anyone else seeing that?” asked Liam.

“Seeing what,” replied Zavex. “All I can see is the back end of a Manta.”

“Yeah, the derelict is still transmitting IFF codes.” Michael slid his visor up to rub the bridge of his nose. A bead of sweat ran down his cheek. “Terran codes that tag it as the
Lewis and Clark
.”

“Or at least half of it,” added Aaron.

“Dust me…” Liam gasped. “That ship disappeared almost ninety years ago.

“Shall I ‘ave a look then?” Emma sounded enthused. “Rather would like to.”

“Now that we know what it is, we can’t just turn away.”

“Fine,” said Michael. “Sylph, go in careful. Everyone else follow at ten thousand meters.”

The rear end of the Mosquito flared bright white as she rammed the throttle all the way up, turning the little fighter into a comet of light that left the rest of them behind.

“Lieutenant Loring, what the hell are you doing? I said careful.”

Emma clenched her body tight against the inertial forces; the shift from 5000 m/sec to 12,500 m/sec in three seconds overwhelmed the dampeners and left her feeling about six Gs. The hulk expanded to fill her canopy. When she was close, she swerved toward it, and then rolled through a turn to skim along its side. The dull-green metal had no reaction to the violent passage of her ship. After careening over several gaping holes, she throttled back to a slow cruise. Intact metal ‘ground’ beneath her point of view showed no signs of weapon strikes or attack; at this range, her Betty provided a better schematic. The image, which was transmitted back to the rest of Green Wing, compared the floating derelict to archival schematics of the
Lewis & Clark.
The ship looked as though some colossus twisted it apart aft of center; this was the smaller hunk, the rear third.

Emma glanced at a flashing white dot on a screen at the top right of her console. “Green Leader, this is Sylph, copy?”

“Go ahead,” said Michael.

“I’m not sure I believe this myself, but I’m picking up a single human life form on board.”

reen Wing closed in on the
Lewis & Clark
, approaching with a reverence usually reserved for the dead. The wreckage occupied a space devoid of nebula gas, a massive bubble of nothingness inside the haze. Emma brought the Mosquito to a dead stop, whirling the nose about to face her incoming allies. Red light flooded her cockpit from a dozen warning panels. Short-range sensors drew a red blob on the far side of the derelict, which split into two red dots, and then six. Half went around one side of the hulk while the rest went the other way.

What the heck? Where did they…
“Hostiles, inbound.” Emma accelerated, spinning to the left into the pack of three that went low.

She aimed for the one in the center. Just as she squeezed the trigger, shapes moved at the rear of her target, spreading to either side. Her shot missed as she realized she was nose to nose with not three enemies, but nine. A pair of D11 “Krait” light fighters tailed three larger D14 “Monitors” so close the sensors could not tell them apart. The Mosquito streaked through their cluster, causing the Draxx ships to scatter into a cloud. In a spiraling roll, she pulled away and dove around the edge of the dead capital ship.

“I read eighteen contacts. Six D14s, each with a pair of D11s on their backsides.”

The entire Draxx formation on that side came about and pursued the little fighter that just buzzed them. Emma turned to the right, flying along the hull to the next edge, where she pulled off a kick turn and brought her ship to a dead stop, vertical against what used to be the bridge tower.

“Betty, emergency cold, now.”

The mosquito went dark.

Nine Draxx ships shot by, unable to pick her out of the background metal.

“Guess we get to find out what the particle beams do.” Excitement shined through Aaron’s voice.

“I am more concerned that the Draxx are here,” said Zavex.

“Hunter, right, I’m left. Zavex, cover the Manta.” Michael rolled out of formation, leveling off two after two spins left.

Aaron was ahead of him already, flying straight at the far-right Monitor, behind a stream of particle beams. The Draxx pilot risked two shots before he pulled away. Aaron rotated ninety degrees, putting his ship harmlessly between two incoming orange beams. He corrected left just enough to annihilate one of the Kraits as the other dove hard and left away from it.

“Reckless, man, reckless,” said Michael, weaving. He flicked the side-stick button and trailed a missile reticule over the far left Monitor. “Come on, chicken out…”

A pulse of energy spread out from the enemy ship, tracing lines of static on his screens for a moment. The Draxx pulled back and went straight ‘up.’ Michael shoved the throttle into the red, rolling through a hastily aimed barrage of energy orbs from the two light fighters. The targeting computer scare chased the Draxx into a perfect fleeing position, letting him get right on its rear end.

The two small fighters were now able to fall in behind him just as easily, however. Michael squinted at the rear view as two pod-bodied Kraits tucked in on his rear end. The tiny ship resembled an egg with four winglets, each tipped with an energy lance twice as long as the main body. Yellow light glowed into orbs at the tips, seconds before a stream of globules rained past him.

Michael jinked back and forth, trying to put the aiming point for the particle beams on the back end of the Monitor. The rough, bumpy hull of the reptilian’s ship shimmered as a section parted to allow a small one-laser turret to protrude out of a hatch along the rear face. The console screamed at him as the two Kraits on his tail came closer and closer to hitting him.

“Dragon, give me two seconds of straight and level, in three… two…”

Liam… what the hell is he doing… This better be good.
Michael disregarded his pursuers and tapped the stick into firing position on the twin-bodied Monitor; the right side contained the pilot and life support systems, the left held most of the electronics and the power core. Michael aimed for that. He swerved out of the way of a laser blast from the rear-firing turret and squeezed the trigger. At the same moment his particle cannons ripped into the Monitor, a single shaft of blue light pierced both Kraits behind him.

Silent, glimmering clouds of plasma and metal fragments expanded in a cone, following the path the Kraits had been going. Michael dove away from the crippled Monitor, letting the useless thing spiral off into the void. Two tumbles later, the strut connecting the halves failed, and it broke apart.

A flash came from above as Aaron vapped another Monitor he had been chasing. His fighter came pirouetting through clusters of smoldering wreckage and rolled into a close range knife-fight with its last Krait escort.

Liam spun the Manta around, facing the other nine ships coming in from the
Lewis &
Clark. Four neutron beams fired at once, piercing the center Monitor as well as the escorts staying close enough to fool sensors. At the sight of three ships dead in one shot, the other two packs scattered. The one remaining Monitor group close to Green Wing all converged on the Manta.

“Oh, dear. I do think those incoming ships are on the hostile side,” said Keg, as he zoomed up through the ceiling hatch and plugged in to the turret controls.

Zavex, hovering on Liam’s wing, dispersed the incoming trio with particle beam fire. One chance shot shaved a wing off a Krait, sending it into a sideways spin that resulted in a spectacular, but silent, detonation.

Keg sent streams of red pulse lasers after the other Krait, more intent on keeping it from getting a firing position on the Manta than hitting it. At that instant, the Mosquito appeared over the surface of the derelict. The engine radiance behind it made it look like a small star with a dark spot at the center.

Emma overtook one of the Draxx wings with ease, firing her twin pulse lasers just past the Kraits as she pursued the larger Monitor. They took the bait, swerving onto her exposed tail, wobbling back and forth in an effort to train their weapons on the erratic gnat in their sights.

Emma’s index finger hovered over the trigger, waiting. She flipped left and rolled right, glued to the rear end of the Monitor close enough to reach out and stab it with a sword. After six seconds, the Draxx medium fighter gave up trying to shake her―trusting its armor to shrug off the tiny weapons her ship carried. It came about, heading for Michael’s Glaive from the side, twin particle cannons firing in an alternating ripple from where its wings met the body. Emma throttled back, easing her ship into a flat glide.

When the Kraits tucked in close behind her, she waited for the telltale yellow glow at the tips of their lance-cannons. As soon as the light formed, she pushed the throttle and twisted the stick. The Mosquito nosed over and shot straight to the left as the Kraits riddled their ally with dozens of plasma spheres. The Monitor detonated in place, taking the Kraits with it as their fixation on the Mosquito had brought them in too close.

Zavex circled with the second to last Monitor, keeping its attention off Liam while Aaron struggled to tail the other medium fighter and avoid its light escort. Michael joined in that fray, pouncing on the pursuing Krait. Pulse lasers streamed from three wingtips, knocking the green ovoid into a flaming spiral that burst into fragments after three whorls.

With the light fighter off his ass, Aaron put two clean particle beams through the Monitor he pursued and swerved away from the tumbling shrapnel. Michael pulled up alongside him, noting some scorch marks on his left wing.