30. Orders
William crashed the IBG into the docking bay hitting the cradle with enough force to melt the ship into the latches normally used for securing the ships. That ship was not going to fly anywhere and the cradle was going to be completely refurbished before it could be used again. William recovered from the impact and jumped out of the wreckage sprinting for the Valkyrie that sported a large Banzai 01 below the cockpit. He vaulted into the cockpit and hit the launch button before the system had powered up. Nothing happened and a red light popped up instead telling him that a message was waiting and needed to be answered. He swore and punched the receive button.
"Banzai 01, what do you want?"
"This is Colonel Masatinha. I need you for a special mission."
"Sir, with all due respect I need to go and lead my pilots against the Serco."
"Negative. I have someone that needs to be escorted off the station now. And I need a pilot for that vessel."
"Honestly Sir, I am needed in the fight."
"No. Get over to the transport Atlas and do as you are told. Masatinha out."
William punched the radio hard cracking two knuckles on his left hand. He pushed the tactical frequency and called Jan.
"Banzai 02 this is 01."
"Go for 02."
He heard the strain in her voice and winced, she had to be in a fight right now.
"Baby, I have been re-tasked. I cannot come and help you."
"Crap, we could use you. Stand by."
William winced as he could hear the impacts on the Valkyrie through the radio."
"Crap he is good. We'll take them my love. 02 out."
William put his hand on the radio with the affection he could muster. He needed to be out there, not flying a crappy support vessel. He got out of the Valkyrie and ran over to the Atlas that was opposite in the launch bay. He pushed the power button and opened the pre flight coded destination. Deneb; cargo two passengers, both frozen. What the hell was so important that they couldn't wait? He launched and opened his radio on the tactical net. He checked his weapons load and was moderately satisfied. The mega-positron and flares suited his combat style fine, not that he was going to do anything on this flight. Besides, with all the medical facilities in the cargo bay of his ship he was so heavy that he could not dodge if they paid him.
He launched and turboed immediately for the jump point.
"All Banzai, 07 is down. Pod active."
That was lance corporal Tatting, the freckled kid from Divinia. William wished him well as he chucked away towards the jump point.
###
Janice shouted a curse at the pilot in the SVG as the ship dodged stream upon stream of neutrons. She dodged the incoming rays herself as well, but maybe once per twenty shot the neutron beams tore armour off her Valk. The SVG moved in once more in a forward barrel roll and Janice fired a stream where the SVG would be in half a second. But it wasn't, once more dodging her shots and sniping a single pack of neutrons into her own front. The SVG danced outwards again no doubt setting up for another run.
"All Banzai, 08 and 04 are down. Pods active."
The enemy was down to four Proms and two SVG's, one of them the one she was fighting. A large explosion signalled the end of another Prom and they were now equal in number. She focused on the SVG again and tried to compensate for the dodging. There was a tendency to dodge down and left every time and she set her strafe up to compensate. The SVG moved in again in a forward barrel roll and Jan fired a stream of neutrons where she believed the smaller ship would be. She was rewarded with twin hits on the SVG but was hit by another stream herself. She glanced at the armour status and winced at the 2% she had left. Another explosion, this time a double removing a Prom along with a Valkyrie, lighted space in flames of red.
"All Banzai, 03 is down. Pod active."
The SVG danced inwards again, this time dodging in a diamond shape pattern almost straight at Janice. She disabled the auto aim function and sprayed the area with neutrons hitting the SVG again and at the same time dodging the incoming fire. The SVG rolled slowly and strafed closer and closer to Janice's Valk eventually hitting it. The life support pod detected the impending danger and launched her sideways while the fireball expanded slowly like a flower opening to the morning sun.
"All Banzai, 02 is down. Pod active. 05 assuming control."
Janice was not aware, she had lost conscience when the pod was ejected and she would not wake up again before being picked up by the recovery ship.
###
Cat flew through the expanding ball of debris, ignoring the life support pod and targeting a new Valkyrie, this one fighting a Prom. A well-placed set of shots exploded the heavy fighter and she targeted the next Valkyrie. Only two of the Itani left now and she called for the recovery Atlas. She sent the prom off to assist the other Prom and went to help the SVG's that were deep in the red both of them. The Valkyrie saw her close and dodged to the side at the cost of a hit from one of the SVG's. Slowly rolling and boosting up, the Itani pilot repaid the kindness with a twin hit across the wings of the lead Vulture, exploding it. The dance of violence continued with streams of neutrons marring the space all around the ships. The last two Proms exploded with 0.1-second delay, the force from the destruction of one spilling over and destroying the other.
A new wormhole exit spawned the recovery Atlas along with a SVG and the surviving Valkyrie boosted hard to intercept it and deny the Serco to rescue their own pilots.
"Cat this is Kael. Defend the Atlas at all costs."
Cat was reassured that the Serco commander was still in charge and broke off her engagement to intercept the Valkyrie before it could harm the Atlas. The Itani pilot managed to fire several shots into the recovery ship before Cat came into range, but broke off and turned to Cat's SVG. Cat dodged hard left and down while rolling slowly, defeating the auto aim on the opponents ship. The Itani knew of this tactics however and countered with a slow backwards roll as well while keeping the fire up criss-crossing space in front and to the sides of her with powerful neutron streams. A flashing of red in her HUD indicated a hit on her left wing and she dodged right and up almost as per reflex avoiding the long burst of neutrons that followed her. Cat disabled the auto aim function and depressed the trigger spraying a burst in a small cone around the Valkyrie. One of the shots hit true and the larger fighter exploded to a victory shout from Cat.
The other Itani ship had exploded as well finally succumbing to the two SVG's. She opened a connection to the Atlas and queried the amount of pods. Satisfied that her fellow soldiers had been saved, she flew over to the other SVG's to provide protection for the recovery ship. At least something could be salvaged from this crap mission.
"Cat this is Kael."
"Go for Cat."
"Bad news Cat. I just received our new orders."
"You’ve gotta be kidding, are we going to attack the station again?"
She glanced at her damage readout and frowned at the 37% left. Not a good start for an assault.
"Worse. I received orders from the highest authority to eliminate all Itani pilots."
"So what, we already did that."
"No Cat, the pods."
Cat felt bile rising in her throat; that was so wrong. You didn't kill unarmed and chanceless pilots.
"Roger Sir. Is that an order Sir."
"Don't be like that Cat. I'll send you a copy. It is signed by Grand Inquisitor Ahriman himself. Sorry about this Cat, but you are it."
Cat almost spat at the screen but remembered that she was wearing a full-face helmet.
"I'll go to the secondary sector and the station sector. You eliminate the ones here. That is an order, acknowledge."
"Wilco Kael. Or should I say Asteroth?"
"Yeah, whatever. The Lady be with you Cat."
He disappeared along with the other SVG leaving her alone with the Itani life support pods. She grimaced and sent a small prayer to the Lady as she aligned the first pod in her targeting reticule.
"The Lady's peace to you Itani."
She depressed the trigger tearing the Itani pilot to pieces along with the pod. Eight to go.
