The Honour of the Knights, Stephen J. Sweeney [reading women .txt] 📗

a halt.

In the brief calm that followed, he considered the scene before him: they were five lone fighters, pitted against a frigate, dozens of Imperial starfighters, and a monstrous forty-five-hundred-metre battleship. But they were also five fighters that had caused their opponents considerable upset. His hand tightened on the stick, readying himself for the anticipated push.

Estelle was quick to issue new instructions to the team, aiming to capitalize on the break in the enemy's attacks whilst they reorganised themselves, and ordering Kelly, Enrique, and Chaz forward to take down the frigate that was still exchanging long distance fire with Leviathan. She then ordered Dodds to follow her lead, and the two swung about, the pilot becoming aware of the reasons for splitting the team – Emerging from a jump point, just behind where the three allied carriers had gathered themselves, was the expected second and final frigate.

An eager Estelle raced ahead of him and he shot after her, surging through their own ranks to tackle the approaching warship.

* * *

As Estelle and Dodds headed toward the second frigate, Kelly, Enrique, and Chaz made for the first. Missiles, plasma bolts, and laser sprayed towards the three as the frigate's cannons focused on them. They avoided much of the barrage, the missiles that sought them falling to the starfighter's countermeasures. What remained of the frigate's attack was easily fended off by their shielding.

With Kelly's lead, the three tackled their target in a similar manner to the way they had done time and time again on Xalan: starting with their lasers, they circled the vessel until the biting red beams had made significant impacts on its defences. Next, they flew up and around, racing lengthways across it, bombarding the topside with their own missiles. Finally, they looped back around, skimming over the surfaces and concentrating their cannons on the weakest structural points.

All the while the frigate returned fire, bolts, beams, and missiles chasing the three starfighters, all failing to stave off the attack. It was not long before the midsection began to come apart, explosions haemorrhaging the hull and bulkheads, and began to tear the frigate apart.

Soon after, the three Knights pulled out of their assault and re-focused on the Imperial fighters, who had been able to do little else except standby helpless as the ATAFs dispatched the ship they had escorted in.

* * *

Dodds and Estelle plunged into the second frigate's fighter escort as they streaked past Griffin, lending support to the carrier's defences that had been caught on the back foot.

“The first frigate has been taken down,” Estelle said, not a few minutes into their engagement.

“Already?” Dodds said in disbelief. He could have put full trust in his radar, but instead he wheeled around to witness the final moments of the frigate, as it was torn asunder by the explosions that continued to issue forth. He lingered for a while, aware of the fire striking him, but paying it no more attention than he had before.

The questions returned: just what was this thing that he sat in? Had the Confederation really built this alone? And if they had, for what purpose? This was not just the next step up, it was a leap; and giant one at that.

Estelle's voice dragged him back. “We need to hurry up, Dodds. These guys won't be able to handle the fighters themselves and Griffin is in trouble if that frigate gets any closer.”

He adjusted his heading to pass over Griffin and onward to meet the approaching frigate. As he drew closer, he concluded that the quickest solution to the problem of the frigate was to employ the use of his fighter's plasma accelerator. Having only used the weapon during the first few days of the ATAF's simulated courses, a real world test was long overdue.

Traversing the craft's system menus, he located the screen he needed to activate the weapon, only to be confronted with an access denial. He nevertheless tapped the screen a few times in defiance. The console did nothing, save for emit a dull bleep, further enforcing its rejection.

“My accelerator has been locked,” Dodds said. “If yours isn't working either, then we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way.” Estelle said nothing and Dodds returned his full attention back towards their target, discovering the reasons for her sudden silence.

A large explosion appeared at the stern of the Imperial frigate, followed by another. The vessel began to come apart, venting gases and chemicals, and trailing chunks of hull and bulkhead in its wake. An enormous hail of cannon fire came from somewhere behind, slamming into the stricken vessel and putting an end to its involvement in the battle.

“Hawke,” Estelle said, as Ifrit came into view.

* * *

With Rissard next to him, Zackaria watched the destruction of the two frigates in silence, their short-lived victory coming to a swift end. He turned and signalled to the crew that they were to leave at once. He felt no disappointment over their loss, nor in the direction the battle had turned. He had gained considerable knowledge and insight into his enemy; experience that would prove invaluable in the future.

* * *

Parks glowered, observing a feed of the spinning remains of the second frigate. True to his word, Hawke had engaged the enemy vessel as it had jumped into position behind the three carriers, effecting a flank. Hawke's belief that the enemy might attempt such a manoeuvre had come to a head, and he had made good on his own proposal to await such a move and step in to undo it. Parks couldn't fault him for that.

He looked back to another feed of two ATAFs chasing after the wing of fighters that had arrived with the frigate. The fighters were pulling away from the battle, heading back towards Dragon. Likewise, another group were retreating from the three ATAFs that had taken down the first frigate.

“Griffin, this is de Winter. Enemy forces appear to be withdrawing. Should we pursue?”

“Stand down,” Parks said. “Let them go. I don't want anyone to throw their lives away needlessly.”

They did so, and as he watched, Dragon turned away from the allied forces. A jump point formed beyond, and the battleship, along with the enormous squadrons of Imperial starfighters, accelerated in, disappearing from sight. Though chatter and noise still filled the bridge, Parks felt an ominous silence descend upon him. It appeared that the danger had passed, yet he continued to stare at the feed, expecting at any moment the mighty vessel to reappear. It did not.

“Dragon has departed the system,” he heard from somewhere up the bridge.

It's over, Parks thought to himself. Thank God.

“Yeah, but it looks like it left some of its babies behind,” a voice came. It sounded like Enrique's.

Parks noted that some of the Imperial fighters had not made it into the vicinity of Dragon before it had departed the system. Unable to jump out of Aster, the orphaned craft now looked to be stranded, and for a time they milled around in the area once occupied by their allies. All of a sudden, they changed their heading and began back towards the allied forces.

“Hey, they're coming back,” Enrique said.

The cameras tracking the group began to pan faster.

“They're coming back bloody quickly!” the pilot then added.

The fighters were accelerating at an alarming rate, putting themselves on a collision course with the three ATAFs that remained the furtherest out from the allied forces.

“They're going to ram us!” That was Chaz. “Get out the way!”

Two of the ATAFs moved, the remaining enemy forces shooting past them, several making last-ditch attempts to collide. For a moment, it looked as though their efforts had been in vain. Then came an explosion.

Parks spun from the video relay to the frontal viewport, where even without the feeds, the fading burst was quite visible. A ripple of shock ran the length of the bridge, gasps and curses filling the air. Shouts and cries exploded from the various feeds and the other bridges, all intermixed and indistinguishable, and none providing the one answer Parks needed.

“What happened?” Parks demanded, above the cries. “Someone tell me what the hell just happened?”

“Collision, sir,” Liu answered him.

“Between?”

“One of ours and one of theirs. It looks like both vessels have been destroyed.”

Parks paled. It had been just as he had thought: the pilot had faltered, lingering too long as they tried to decide the best direction to take, to best avoid the dozen or so Imperial fighters that were speeding towards them. In the end, one of the craft had ploughed straight into them. For everything that had happened that day, this was by far the worst. With the destruction of the ATAF, their one hope against the Enemy had been dashed. Everything now seemed hopeless.

He stood staring out the viewport. Seconds later, he shook the shock from his system, remembering that several suicidal Imperial starfighters were still racing toward the allied group.

“Shoot them down!” he shouted.

It did not prove difficult to do so, the craft making no effort to deviate from their course. Cannons from the line of allied vessels blazed, finally putting an end to the battle.

Parks looked back to the two ATAFs that the cameras were still tracking, not far from where the fateful collision had taken place. He caught a glimmer of something as it emitted a faint glow. It appeared to be spinning over and over. It took him a while to realise what it was he was looking at.

* * *

Kelly blinked her eyes open and tried to clear her blurred vision. There was a jumble of noise in her head. It sounded like voices calling out to her and demanding attention. After sometime, she realised it was her craft that was spinning and not her head, and with considerable effort she managed to slow and halt the spin of the fighter, bringing it to a complete stop.

Closing her eyes, she concentrated on her breathing, calming herself so that she did not do the unthinkable and vomit inside her helmet. What was going on? Where was she? In a cockpit, to be sure. The act of slowing the fighter had been somewhat instinctual.

She opened her eyes once more and looked all about the cockpit, then to the nebulas that hung nearby. A forest of spinning metals floated in every direction the eye could see. What looked like the broken, burnt, and scorched hull of some unknown large vessel tumbled.

“Kelly, are you okay?” a dim voice asked.

It seemed to come from all around her. She winced against a dull ache on the left side of her head.

“Kelly?”

“Where are you? What's going on?” she said to the voice.

“You hit an Imperial fighter,” the voice said. “It flew straight into you.”

“It did?” Kelly said. She found that hard to believe. If the voice was telling the truth, shouldn't she be dead? Maybe she was?

“Kelly, are you okay?” the voice said again. “Is anything broken? Are you bleeding anywhere?”

“Enrique, give her a moment,” another voice cut in. “It's obvious she doesn't remember what just happened. Kelly, it's Chaz. You've just had a crash. Don't panic, just stay calm; ignore everyone and take your time. We're right here.”

For a time the voices stopped and Kelly's memory gradually began to rebuild itself as she looked about the cockpit and at the scene outside. She started to recall the events that had led up to her current situation.

“Yes... yes... I'm okay,” she said, several minutes later. “I just can't remember very much about what happened.”

“Sounds like you might be suffering from a concussion,” Chaz said.

Kelly reached up to touch the side of her head, before her hand encountered the helmet she wore. Even so, she rubbed around the area where her head was aching. She must have struck her head hard against the canopy. That would explain the blackout. She still felt quite dizzy, but at least the sick feeling was passing.

“How's the ATAF?” Enrique said. “Are you good to fly it?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“How badly is it damaged?”

She pulled herself together and looked at her read-outs. She squinted at the displays, sceptical of the numbers she was reading and the images she was looking at, thinking the blow to her head might be causing her to see things.

“It's not.”

“At all?” Enrique said, sounding surprised.

“No.” she said. She might have been surprised if she had not been feeling so groggy.

* * *

The report was relayed to Parks, who started to wonder how many other surprises the day had in store for them.

“She's alive?” Liu said. “After that?”

Parks nodded to the helmsman.

“By all rights that fighter should have been destroyed and she should