“Five mother ships destroyed, over!” someone yelled over the comm to the Solar Warden fleet as it moved into attack position opposite the enemy assault force. “Three more crippled! Two have their shields down, but they’re attempting to re-assemble them, over.”
“Oleander, Rapace, target those two mother ships and destroy them before they manage to reactivate their shields, over,” Rear Admiral Reynolds voice ordered over the comm.
“The last two mother ships are moving to intercept us, over!”
“Dreadnaught, Ironclad, and Destrier, follow Nautilus in to engage those two mother ships, over.” Reynolds ordered.
“Eleven destroyers eliminated. Six more are crippled, over.”
“Parallax and Avarice–target the remaining destroyers, over.”
“Over 500 of the saucers have been eliminated,” Scarecrow read from his tactical display. “Over 200 are crippled, so that leaves us just over 250 to engage, over.”
“That’s less than two for each of us,” Hutch said. “Aurora Attack Wing, Aurora Tactical One. Enemy squadrons are scattered and in disarray. Commence targeting. Attack pattern ‘Shotgun.’ Execute, over.”
Oleander and Rapace wasted no time as they moved into position and began firing on the two mother ships, just as one of them managed to raise its shields. The second one was too late, and it exploded into a fiery ball as Rapace’s directed energy weapons sliced through its command deck and into its very heart. Both Solar Warden carriers shuddered with dreadful force at the shock wave caused by the resultant detonation, which also triggered its partner’s shields to fluctuate once more.
The Solar Warden carriers then turned their weapons on the second mother ship. It took their fire and its shields held–at least for a moment. It attempted to return fire, but one of its shield grids collapsed and Oleander lived up to its name–beautiful, but deadly. She sliced off a large section of the mother ship’s rim, which began a cascade effect, spreading across the enemy vessel’s bulk, to result in yet another brilliant blast.
Nautilus and her companions swung around the damaged and crippled ships to engage the pair of intact mother ships. The four Solar Warden carriers opened up with a devastating salvo from all batteries simultaneously, but the enemy vessels took their fire. They responded in kind, targeting Nautilus alone. The Solar Warden flagship was being pummeled by a fearsome barrage of enemy weapons fire.
As the huge reptilian raised its fearsome blade weapon over its head to strike a double-fisted blow that would have cleaved Cooper in two, one of her Marines next to her lunged forward and with all his strength, thrust his machete at the giant lizard. The Marine struck the enemy combatant on an oblique angle in the center of its chest and drove his own heavy bladed weapon clean through its thorax. The thick tip of the machete protruded out its back next to its air supply as slick, oily lizard blood gushed out around the blade tip.
Before it expired, the reptilian managed to swing its own weapon, bringing it down in a deadly arc to slice off the Marine’s extended arm at the elbow. Both combatants fell backwards in opposite directions convulsing in their respective death-throes.
Cooper caught her Marine as he fell towards her and laid him down on the ground in the center of the press. She struggled in vain to staunch the flow of blood spurting from the Marine’s now quivering stump. Much to her dismay, she realized that there was nothing she could do for her dying Marine.
Cooper stood and spun around to see another reptilian that had made it up to the parapet suddenly reach up and tear off its breathing apparatus. Then, as its wicked jaws stretched wide, it lunged at a Marine not ten feet down the line from her. It caught the Marine’s neck and shoulder in its powerful jaws and pulling him up over its head, began shaking him back and forth in a violent motion much like a shark, its serrated rows of teeth slicing through body armor, environmental suit, flesh and bones, spraying blood in every direction as it did. Cooper watched in horror as the Marine’s body split asunder, his torso being flung in one direction while his arm, shoulder and head flew in another. The massive lizard then threw its own head back again and roared in triumph, its hideous maw smeared with the Marine’s blood. The deafening victory cry sent a chill up Cooper’s spine.
Several Marines who still had power in their rifles turned and opened fire on the triumphant reptilian’s head. The huge, scale-encrusted cranium exploded in a brilliant flash of yellow mist while the over-sized body twitched with violence and stiffened as it fell back into the chest of a comrade who had come up behind it.
Cooper gripped her Ka-bar tightly and steeled herself, trying not to let the grisly scene rattle her. To flinch now would invite certain death …
“Shield control!” Reynolds shouted. “Increase power to the MFD array to 100 percent and channel it to the shields. We don’t need maneuverability here. We’ll use the extra power to stay in the fight longer.”
“Increasing MFD power, aye,” was the reply. “Transferring additional power to shields.”
In no time, Nautilus’ shield intensity display suddenly spiked to 800 percent.
“That ought to buy us a few more minutes,” Reynolds said. “Tactical. Launch missiles.” Reynolds then switched his comm to inter-ship. “Reynolds to Dreadnaught, Ironclad and Destrier. Launch missiles at will, over.”
“Launching now, over,” came a triple reply.
A dozen heavy missiles took flight from each Solar Warden carrier and streaked across the blackness of space toward the pair of mother ships. The enemy attempted to target the missiles as they approached, turning their fire away from Nautilus as they did, giving it a much-needed reprieve. However, the missiles had shields of their own, and the enemy fire was insufficient to destroy all of them before they found their mark. Both enemy craft shook with brutal force as the squadron of remaining missiles pounded into their shields.
One of the mother ships must have suffered damage the Solar Warden sensors didn’t detect. It wasn’t able to bear the double blow of the Solar Warden directed energy and particle cannons, coupled with the devastating force of the missile’s detonation. Its shields began to buckle, and in no time, the continuous fire from the Solar Warden batteries took their toll. Nautilus’ stream of fire punched through their shields and devastated the command deck, the primary target on all of the enemy mother ships. The rest of the mammoth saucer was torn apart in a flash of white-hot intensity.
The Solar Warden carriers detected increasing damage to the second mother ship. Before it would go the way of its partner, it jumped to FTL and quit the battle.
“Nautilus, Dreadnaught. How bad are you, Admiral?” Captain Reed inquired over the comm. “Can you continue, over?”
“Dreadnaught, Nautilus. We’ve only suffered minor damage, thank God,” Reynolds replied. “Our fire control teams are handling it. Time to render aid to Avarice and Parallax. They’re both taking heavy fire from the remaining destroyers, over.”
“Nautilus, Destrier. What about the mother ship that just fled, Admiral?” Rear Admiral Lopez joined the conversation. “Shouldn’t a pair of us plot a pursuit course, over?”
“Destrier, Nautilus. Let it go,” Reynolds ordered. “It was badly damaged. We’ll hunt it down later. Right now, we need to assist our own ships, over.”
Parallax and Avarice were in a tussle. The six destroyers had surrounded them and were raking them with weapons fire. As the four other Solar Warden carriers approached, Parallax and Avarice turned their fire to a single destroyer. It couldn’t take the concentrated fire, and promptly ignited in a bright flash. Then for an unknown reason, Parallax’s shields appeared ineffective, and one of the enemy destroyer’s directed energy beams began to slice into its hull.
“Nautilus to Battle Group! Target that destroyer and fire, over!” Reynolds shouted over the comm to the other three Solar Warden ships now approaching.
All four opened up on the single large saucer, vaporizing it and cutting off its attack on Parallax. On Reynolds order, Captain Carter directed Nautilus’ helm to position the flagship between Parallax and the remaining four destroyers.
“Now it’s my turn to ask,” Reynolds called to Captain Nakamura over the comm. “Parallax, Nautilus. How bad are you Captain, over?”
“Nautilus, Parallax. No vital systems have been hit,” Nakamura said. “If they had, we wouldn’t be speaking to each other right now. But we are venting atmosphere. We’ve had to seal off several sections. I don’t know how many of my crew are trapped down there. I just hope most of them managed to get to their emergency survival stations.
“I don’t understand it, Admiral,” Nakamura said. “Our shields were strong. There’s no reason–”
“Captain!” One of Nakamura’s bridge officers shouted in the background. “You need to see this, Sir.”
“Parallax, Nautilus. You’re out of this fight, Ken. Look to your people. We’ll take it from here, over.”
While Reynolds was conversing with Captain Nakamura, the other four Solar Warden ships were targeting the remaining destroyers. They were almost equally matched. They had approximately the same displacement, their shields and weapons comparable. The enemy destroyers attempted to gain the upper hand by initiating a series of maneuvers around the Solar Warden carriers, attempting to avoid fire while still targeting the carriers themselves.
Meanwhile, Hutch, Scarecrow and Zvi had their hands full. Hutch’s initial tactic of blanketing cover fire destroyed several of their enemy counterparts, but in no time they recovered and began to organize themselves into wolf packs, attempting to single out a stray TR-3B, or one that was on the edge of the delta formations that the Solar Warden pilots were wont to incorporate in their attack scenarios.
As one of the wolf packs approached his air wing, Scarecrow, in a pre-planned strategy, would creep out ahead. Then, as the enemy saucers attempted to single him out, he would dart into the middle of their formation as Vince targeted and destroyed several at a time. While the remainder of the enemy was preoccupied with their attempt to eliminate Scarecrow, his attack wing would then move in to target and decimate them. After two such engagements, the enemy wolf packs learned their lesson and would scatter in all directions just as Scarecrow was about to launch into them. They would come about and take turns targeting the TR-3B’s on the points of the delta formation as before. Scarecrow lost one of his pilots in such a maneuver.
Time to change tactics. He cursed under his breath. “Aurora Attack Wing Two, execute attack plan ‘Raptor,’ over.”
Scarecrow spotted an enemy wolf pack attempting to harass Zvi’s attack wing, which was already engaged with a second group of saucers. The Nautilus TR-3Bs formed into a double row and swept past the enemy pack, targeting several saucers at once. After being hit simultaneously by three or four TR-3Bs, the enemy targets would succumb. The second pack scattered while Zvi’s wing continued to engage the first.
“Scarecrow, Bad Boy. Just like Red Flag eh, Scarecrow?” Zvi said over the comm. “You come to my rescue at the precise moment, over.”
“Bad Boy, Scarecrow. Nothing you can’t handle,” Scarecrow replied. “If I remember correctly, I was usually the one that needed rescuing.” Scarecrow noticed another wolf pack approaching. “Oops, no time to talk. I see some snakeheads that need to be spanked, over.” With that, Scarecrow and his attack wing peeled off and confronted the approaching enemy saucers.
“Captain!” Parallax’s sensor officer shouted over his shoulder. “We’ve got multiple transports. All over the ship!”
“Shield status?”
“Shields are at full strength, Captain,” the shield officer said over his shoulder, “But for some reason they’re ineffective.”
“Just as I thought.” Captain Nakamura leapt from his chair and spun to face the sensor officer as he tapped his comm tattoo. “To all Marine units–we have incursions at these locations.” He motioned to the sensor officer. “Lieutenant, relay the coordinates.”
The sensor officer nodded as he transmitted, releasing a nervous sigh.
“When you’re finished, begin your scan.” Captain Nakamura added. “Shields!” He turned back to the shield team. “Use the algorithm we developed and begin oscillating the shield frequency. That should eliminate any more incursions.”
“Aye, Sir.”
Several minutes passed.
“Got him, Captain,” the sensor officer said.
Nakamura smiled with satisfaction as he tapped his comm a second time. “Sergeant Major, we’re sending you the intel now,” he said.
“Roger that. We’re oscar-mike.”
“Remember, I want him alive.”
“Aye, Captain.”
The Red Boots fire team moved down the passageway towards the shield control room, located aft of the MFD array chamber. They did their best to avoid the numerous firefights now underway throughout Parallax. However, the sergeant major and his team were forced to fight their way through several engagements between other Marine teams and the reptilians who had boarded Parallax via their transporters.
“Sergeant Major,” Captain Nakamura’s voice crackled through the comm. “Report status, over.”
“Almost there, Captain. We got delayed. There are snakeheads everywhere. I lost one man, but my scanner shows no more distractions between us and our objective, over.”
“Good. The spy is attempting to hack our shield algorithm. He may be getting close, over.”
“Almost on him. One more mike, over.”
“Remember, I want him–”
“Alive. Aye, Captain. Ramirez out.”
The Parallax shield grid was controlled from a team station on the command deck, but a secondary control room contained all of the vital circuitry and power relay systems. A group of four officers coordinated with their command deck counterparts to ensure the shields functioned at peak efficiency during an engagement.
The sergeant major and his team burst through the hatch to find those four officers lying on the deck in pools of their own blood. Their killer was hunched over an ARI display, frantically attempting to break into the algorithm as it scrolled across the wraith-like monitor. He paused and sat up straight when he heard the hatch hiss open.
“I was ordered to take you alive,” the sergeant major spoke with an electronic lilt through his helmet microphone. The spy sat motionless.
“Not going to happen,” he replied. He spun around as he jumped from his seat, firing an FX-5 at the sergeant major’s chest. His H.A.R.N.E.S. body armor absorbed the blast while both of his Marines returned fire with their FX-15s. One fired high, the other didn’t. The spy’s head exploded while his chest split open, leaving little above his waist to drop lifeless to the deck.
“The Skipper ordered us to take this guy alive,” the sergeant major said as he reached up and dropped his bevor, causing his face shield to snap up and disappear inside his helmet. He turned to the Marine on his left, then the one on his right. “You two couldn’t have just shot out his kneecaps?”
“Sorry, Sarge,” the Marines replied with a sheepish look.
“Command deck, this is Sergeant Major Ramirez. The threat has been eliminated. Request you send replacement crew to man the shield control room ASAP, over.”
“Status of the spy, over?” Nakamura asked.
“Sorry, Skipper. He didn’t leave us much choice. Oh, and you better send a cleanup crew as well. We have five fatalities –” he glanced down at the spy’s remains. “Um … better make that four and a half, over.”
The aerial conflict continued for some time, and at one point, a wolf pack of enemy saucers attempted to target Parallax’s damaged hull. Nautilus, still holding position next to it, began targeting the group, but to no avail. They avoided the carrier’s battery fire as they harassed the wounded Solar Warden ship.
Out of nowhere, Hutch and Bad Boy’s attack wings swept over and under Parallax, firing as they came, decimating the enemy wolf pack.
The other six Solar Warden carriers managed to terminate the four destroyers and began eliminating the crippled enemy ships. Two mother ships managed to partially assemble their shields, and offered a semblance of resistance as they were approached. They opened fire as they were surrounded by the Solar Warden carriers, who wasted no time in returning fire. The enemy ships were struck by directed energy bursts from the numerous Solar Warden batteries, but withstood the assault until their adversaries launched a barrage of missiles. The weakened shields were unable to repel the dual attack, and one of the mother ships ignited in an incandescent flash. Its partner was too close, and the blast ripped through its shields and into the hull, fragmenting the damaged vessel, which succumbed in a brilliant detonation of its own.
One final mother ship attempted to fire on Avarice and Dreadnaught as they approached, but as it did so, its entire weapons grid ignited and the damaged mother ship detonated before the Solar Warden carriers managed to fire a single shot.
Hutch’s attack wing was still engaging the enemy saucers when the last mother ship ignited in a fiery blast. A group of saucers were attempting to defend their Mother when it exploded, and they were destroyed with it.
“Aurora Tactical One to Aurora Attack Wing. A group of enemy saucers has broken off and is vectoring down towards the Mars Base.” Hutch’s voice shouted over the comm. “They may be attempting a kamikaze run. Don’t let them escape, over.”
“Aurora Tactical Two–Three! On it, over.” Scarecrow and Bad Boy responded in unison. Their attack wings swept away from the conflict as they careened after the group.
“Scarecrow, Bad Boy. Remember that time at Red Flag, over?” Zvi said over the comm.
“Bad Boy, Scarecrow. You mean when those four F-15s made a run for it, over?”
“Scarecrow, Bad Boy. That’s the one, over.”
“Take point, Bad Boy.” Scarecrow smiled. “We’ll close the gap from behind, over.”
The two pilots briefed their attack wings on a strategy they had used many years before in the skies over Eielson Air Force Base. Zvi and his wing jumped to FTL while Scarecrow approached from abaft. His air wing pushed their TR-3Bs up to almost a quarter light speed and began firing on the enemy saucers as they closed the gap in mere seconds.
Bad Boy’s attack wing dropped out of FTL in front of them, firing as they approached. Scarecrow’s wing dropped below to avoid collision as his old friend greased the 20 enemy birds. The few that avoided destruction were taken out from below by Scarecrow’s air wing, with the TR-3B’s bird-brain system redirecting their fire as Bad boy’s wing split off around them. The two Solar Warden attack wings then darted back to rejoin the fleet.
“Nautilus command to all Solar Warden ships and their attack wings,” Reynold’s voice broke over the comm. “Bravo Zulu ladies and gentlemen! We’ve done it. We’ve successfully engaged a superior enemy force and defeated them. Bravo Zulu, all of you. You have my admiration, and my deepest thanks, over.”