Chapter 16

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Once we had all assembled on the Prometheus, I made another roll call. I was stalling, I knew, but I didn't really want to go out there, even on a patrol. It wasn't that I was worried for myself. I was ready to join my brother at any time, but I didn't want to lose my squadron. I had come to care about my men, and I cared for their safety. 

From the faces on the support crew, I knew they shared my thoughts. They were all trying to smile, but their grins were fake and their eyes were pained. It was nice to know they cared. I called over my chief technician, Tom Charter and said, "Give them luck, Tom. I've done all I can to reassure them, but it'll help some of them more if you do it too." 

He gave me a salute and one of his silly grins, then said, "Aye Aye. I'll be damned busy, but I'll make a special effort to talk to a few of them." Turns out he only got a chance to talk to one of my pilots. Never found out who, though. 

Once I gave the 'go ahead', it took us all of twenty minutes to launch the active members of our squadron. I wanted to keep a close eye on bay 5B, where Thallin's experimental fighter was being stowed, but it wasn't visible from my position. I was tempted to ask David to look for me, but thought better of it. Instead, I gazed at the rings of Saturn and it's moons. Saturn was in its half-phase and formed an absolutely stunning picture. Once I had a free moment, I pulled out my little camera and snapped up a couple shots. 

Over the Comm, I ordered the wing commanders to take 3-Vic formations with their members, with Beta wing staying with mine. Then we flew out on our respective patrol patterns. I had Delta wing thirty kilometres to my 4 O'Clock, Omega wing thirty to my ten, and Sigma wing thirty to my one. Once every hour, though, I rotated positions to keep everyone on their toes. 

I heard Commander Hayes' voice over the command link: "Attention escort units. SDF-1 is descending into the rings. Maintain relative positions." 

I let each of my units respond to the command before I replied myself, "Roger, Control. Black squadron maintaining." 

After a few seconds, I heard Commander Fokker, the elite leader of Skull squadron, start the attack with an, "Okay, let's get 'em!" 

I turned off that channel. I knew what would be coming over it in a few moments. Screams of death and pain. After a few seconds, I saw explosions and laser fire coming from the location of the battle, and Corporal Zance opened a link with me, a frightened expression on his face. I knew what he was thinking, so I said, "Just turn it off, Tim. You don't have to listen to it, but make sure you're still listening to patrol and command frequencies." 

He nodded silently and closed the link. <I think I know what they're all thinking. I only hope I'm wrong. The brass have to know what they're doing.>After a few minutes of floating and trying not to look at the flashing balls of light coming from above me, my comm link flashed to life again. 

It was Marshall, looking both terrified and solid at the same time. "Black Leader, this is Black Twelve! We've be..." Then the picture broke up and the rest was random static. 

"Repeat, Black Twelve. I've lost your signal," I said, but the link was almost entirely gone. <What's happened? He looked a little upset.> Then I opened a link with Sergeant Nielsen. His wing was one of the best in the squadron. "Omega Leader, take your wing back to the SDF-1. Gamma might be in trouble." 

"Sir!" He replied, looking at something off screen. "I think we might be in trouble. I've got multiple hostiles appearing dead below us. They're approaching fast." 

Delta Three, Corporal Walker, chimed in too, "Black Leader, I count three swarms of enemy pods approaching from our eleven o'clock! Correction.. FIVE!" 

"Omega, go get Gamma! We'll take care of these." Then, to everyone, "Hostile units to our twelve. Engage with caution and watch your wingman's back!" 

I ordered my wing to spread it's formation and to increase speed. "Ready or not, Guys and Gals, here we go." 

I maxed my range on the radar and noticed, to my dismay, that the bandits below us had chosen to chase Omega wing. <Damnit. It's too late to help them now. I hope they can take care of themselves.> I thought, counting the kilometres 'til we were within firing range of the now approaching enemy. Three of the swarms had coalesced into one large one and were throttling toward us. There were too many to count. <I hope that we can take care of ourselves.>"Five seconds 'til missile range. Fire a half rack, maximum spread... NOW!" I yelled, launching six missiles into the closest group of battle pods. I then selected one of the officer pods as my primary target, tracking him. The missiles hit their targets, creating fiery blossoms within a cloud of angry white hornets, and I noticed several incoming missiles coming in return. "Everybody break! Take evasive..." I stopped talking, kicking my Veritech aside and dodging two streaming projectiles. I saw a flare above and behind me, we had taken our own hits. <Shit.> "Engage! All wings engage!" I yelled, kicking my burners full. 

I managed to maintain my lock on that officer's pod and riddled it with shells as I passed. I killed my thrusters and, flipping my nose this way and that, I fired on one pod after another, killing some and annoying others. Fortunately, I was moving too fast for them to target me effectively, and their shots missed me by a long ways. Once I was through the swarm, I spun my fighter around and started firing on the pods that were following me. I could imagine that my black painted Veritech would be hard to see without radar, so I flipped on my active ECCM system. It would broadcast my general location to everyone in the system, but it would make me difficult to target. At least, I hoped so. 

Five seconds away from the swarm, I throttled my way back in for another pass. Bad idea. There were two officer pods waiting for me, and they had expected such a maneouver. I kicked and dodged the beams and shells they fired at me, returning fire with my gun pod and forward lasers. They moved and I missed, flying past them at full throttle. They fired a few shots at me as I spun about, they were following. I spent too much time trying to dodge their blasts to worry about firing back, though. <I'm gonna lose this one...> Eventually, they would hit me and I'd be dead. 

A silver trimmed Veritech zipped by at that moment, gun pod blazing, destroying one of the officer pods, while his wing man, a gold battloid, got the second one. "Way to go Augustine! Walker!" I yelled. They flew back into the fray and I applied thrust to follow. The battle continued on, but there were far too many pods and we were losing fighters. Black Two took a shot to the engines, and I had to send Three after his spinning fighter. Clancy took a particle beam through the cockpit and Black Twenty-One was killed in another missile swarm. Others were lost or damaged, but I couldn't keep track. We either had to get help or retreat. There was no way we could finish them all off before being whittled down. 

"This is Black Leader," I applied over the combat link. We require assistance in sector Thirteen-Thirteen." <I don't like those numbers.> "Luna Squadron, can you assist?" I got no answer. No luck. So I fought with increased vigour. 

Soon Nineteen was out of commission, as was another I didn't identify. There were still over seventy pods chasing us about, and they had learned how to counter my slip-and-shoot maneouver. That was one thing the simulator couldn't do. We had no openings for escape, and most of us were nearly out of ammunition. I, myself, had just finished my first clip. I cursed, not realising my comm was still active, "Where's the fucking Cavalry when you need it?" 

Suddenly, in answer to my question, a hummed cavalry trumpet sounded over my comm. Then twelve pods exploded within my view. <What? Who's got missiles left?> Then Thallin's experimental Veritech flew by, gun pod blazing, and destroyed two pods as it passed them. 

"Allll RIGHT!" I yelled. I flipped about and thrusted to follow the VX-001, firing my cannon at the pods on its tail. Two of the four exploded, and one of them burned to a stop directly in my path. <Oh SHIT!> I pulled hard to the right, but couldn't completely change my path. My left wing smashed into the pod, slicing a piece out of it and destroying my wing. It took me a few seconds to regain control, because my comm had flashed on, with Commander Hayes in the view screen. 

"Black Squadron, we need assistance at the SDF-1. Your Gamma wing is in need of assistance. Over," she said. 

"I'm sorry, Commander," I replied, fighting with the controls, "but we're a little busy right now. We'll get there as soon as we can. Over." 

"Acknowledged, Black Leader. Out." Her image disappeared from my screen, to be replaced by Black Three's. 

"I've finally caught Perry, Black Leader. Returning to the skirmish." 

<Good. We need all the guns we can get.> "Righto, Black Two. Hurry on back. The party's just gotten real interesting. Wait. Never mind... Party's over. They're retreating." They were. For some reason, the last thirty pods just took off, back towards the main battle. The VX-001 took off after them. "All remaining units, regroup and count off, with ammunition count." 

Turns out there were only twelve of us still capable of fighting. "All right, people. We're needed at the SDF-1. Let's go." We took off, with the remaining survivors limping and dragging themselves after us. 

The fortress was two minutes away, but our path was clear. On the way back, I announced, "Keep in mind guys, the SDF-1 has got active gravity. It'll pull you towards the hull like a magnet. The main problem with that is, there's no surrounding atmosphere, so our wings won't do us a damned bit of good. Once you're within the fortress' gravity field, you either have to go to guardian or battloid. Got it?" 

There was a general acknowledgment, and then Black Seven piped up. "Hey guys! There's only twenty-three of them! Alright!" 

There was a half-hearted cheer as we vectored towards the bridge, where the remaining pods were clustered. At twenty seconds ETA, I called, on general comm, "Fear not, for Black Squadron has arrived!" and fired my gun pod at a battle pod, but missing. <Damn gravity... distorts the shots.> Then I said, "Sergeant Marshall! Where are you? Report!" 

David's voice came back over the link, but there was no picture, "I'm here Lieutenant. I think. Beside the Bridge Tower." 

<What does he mean, 'I think'? Ah, there he is.> "I see you! We're coming in. Wait there...!" 

He interrupted with: "No go, Lieutenant! There's an officer's pod here somewhere! Don't risk it!" 

"What? Where? ACK!" I yelped as a particle beam buzzed my cockpit. I would have been nailed if I hadn't been grabbed by gravity. I pulled a lever in my cockpit to change to guardian mode and gave a little thrust so I wouldn't hit the deck. The officer's pod was still drawing a bead on me, so I tried a spin dodge and reversed my direction suddenly. It seemed to work, because he didn't fire again, but I flew for cover anyways. 

I ducked behind a protrusion from the deck and checked my radar. No good, there was too much junk in the way. I glanced up at the battle raging above me. Black squadron was finishing off the last of the battle pods, so they didn't need me up there. <Things are just far too interesting down here, anyway.> I grinned. 

I boosted over the top of my hiding place and located the officer's pod. Marshall's Veritech was flying through the air off to one side. I changed my thrust vectors and accelerated towards the battle pod, firing my cannon. This time I compensated for gravity and most of the shells struck home, but the officer had moved just enough to make the shots ineffective. Since it had noticed I was back, however, it fired a few shots at me. I tried to spin clear and dodged all but one of the particle beams, which probably peeled some paint off my fuselage. 

I spun my mecha around for another pass and saw Marshall's mecha land awkwardly in front of the officer's pod with one arm extended in an odd position and the other holding a gun pod. Before the officer could react, Marshall stuck the cannon into its 'eye' and fired. The alien staggered back, throwing sparks and fire. My sensors were picking up a dangerous level of heat coming from it. It was going to explode! 

I called, "Marshall! Get your crazy ass outta there! It's gonna blow!" But I was too late. Even as David's thruster's activated, the enemy pod exploded violently, throwing his mecha back some thirty meters until it impacted with the hull of the SDF-1's bridge. 

I changed to battloid mode and ran over as David's mecha slid out of the huge dent it made in the deck plating. "David, you stupid son of a bitch... you coulda got yourself killed," I said. There was no answer. "David?" <Shit!> I turned around and saw two battloids from my squadron approach. One gold, the other yellow. I couldn't think of their names, so I said, "You two! Pick him up and take him inside." Then I made a general call. "Black squadron! All units form up on flight deck 2, Main SDF hull! We're gonna reload and head back out!" 

Forward to Chapter 17.
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