Thanks once more to reviewers; I got my exams out of the way so updates should be more frequent from now on.
Chapter 8: Familiar faces


"Colonel Zane, this is Orillion." Juni's radio had taken damage and she could barely make out the words in the midst of all the static. What she heard sounded more like, 'Co…Z…i…Orill…" Common sense helped her to piece together the indistinguishable words.

"Get your fighters onboard the Osiris now!" The static filled message continued, "We'll cover you."

"Got it." Juni snapped in reply, "Alright people, you heard him. Disengage and land onboard the Osiris. Alpha 5, you first."
Alpha 5, also known as Nathan Remington, was barely managing to keep his ship from taking anymore fire then it already had. All but two of his ships gun ports and his rear turret had been destroyed, his left engine was in flames and his fighter's wings were gone.

Juni's damaged radio meant that her message was as garbled as Orillion's had been, but with the new battleship's arrival and the status of his fighter, the message would have been clear even if Juni had only glared at him.

A flash of purple in front of him told Nathan that another Nomad fighter was firing at him. He hastily pulled his fighter around and pointed it at the Osiris before activating his afterburners.

The Nomad refused to give up the potential kill so easily. The alien fighter swung round and followed the flaming Defender towards the Osirs. Nathan's rear turret fired at the pursuing Nomad but barely scratched the hull. It normally took continuous fire from a full compliment of weapons to destroy a Nomad fighter; one turret was about as likely to have a notable effect as a spear would against a brick wall.

The Nomad fired again; bright purple flashes flew gracefully past Nathan's ship. The next flashes came closer. The near miss still caused Nathan's fighter to shudder slightly.

Fire from the alien ship stopped momentarily, Nathan stared at the image in his rear view display and felt a sharp surge of panic as he realised what was happening. The Nomad was now taking the time to line Nathan up in its sights as opposed to firing blindly. He considered breaking off, trying to evade the enemy, but that would probably only result in the Nomad following him, his already slim chance of reaching the Osiris vanishing, and his destruction coming a few seconds later.

The enemy ship accelerated slightly, coming closer to Nathan's ship. It was taunting him, letting irrational hope of reaching the Osiris sink in before it delivered the deadly blow.

Luckily for Nathan, the Order dealt a deadly blow to the Nomad first.

Two, almost simultaneous explosions on the Nomad fighters hull caused it to break away from the engagement. The third catapult missile sailed past the Nomad and exploded a few seconds later.

Nathan watched in confussion, and relief, as the two Order fighters chased the Nomad away from him, the same fighter exploded a few seconds later and the two order pilots moved off in search of new targets.

"Liberty Defender, you are cleared to land, get onboard now!" The harsh commanding voice was unfamiliar to Nathan, and the message was not exactly typical of the landing instructions he was used to. He didn't argue however, and continued his flight towards the Osiris.
A surge of relief filled Valerie as she saw that Nathan had made it into the flight deck of the Osiris. This almost instantly gave way to the rage that had filled her after she had witnessed Mathias' untimely death.

She found a suitable outlet for her emotions in the form of two Nomad fighters, the two which had torn Mathias's ship to dust.

They didn't notice her at first. They were too busy taking pot shots at an Anubis class heavy fighter that was firing at a gunboat. Valerie bared her teeth in a bloodthirsty grin at her good fortune, lined one target up in her sights, and fired.

The blows didn't visually appear to affect the Nomad ship in the slightest, but her HUD told her that the enemy ship's hull was weakening. The Nomad soon realised the same thing as it pulled away from its target and attempted to flee.

Valerie fired four missiles at the fighter as it began it's evasive manoeuvres. Two of them hit, but those two were enough to send it spinning out of control with barely any hull strength left.

Unbidden, Valerie remembered something that a young Libertarian ensign had told her shortly before the mission had started.

"I know ma'am" the voice recited in her head, "I can't resist it though, seeing the pirates run whilst one of my missiles quickly catches up to them and blasts them to pieces, beautiful stuff."

"Thank you Mr. Alvarez." Valerie said quietly before sending another missile into the crippled Nomad ship, the resulting explosion was beautiful, in more ways then one.

The second Nomad fighter proved more troublesome. It had witnessed the destruction of its wingman and seemed eager for vengeance. The fighter placed itself behind Valerie and fired.

The sharp jolt send Valerie flying forward, her harness pulled her back into her seat and after recovering as best as she could from the initial shock, she punched her acceleration and swerved away from the attacking Nomad.

The enemy fighter stayed with her and continued firing. Valerie deployed a series of mines in the enemies path, trying to get it off of her back, all of these were shot down effortlessly.

"Alpha 2, come about to…"

The voice of the pilot who was offering assistance died suddenly after a brief, static filled scream. Valerie contemplated the incident in momentary confussion before her attention returned to the Nomad behind her; which had vanished.
"How long until they're in firing range?" Asked Casper Orillion on the command deck of the Osiris. The Nomad battleship which had been largely silent in the battle was now heading straight for the Osiris, along with three gunboats and fifteen fighters.

"Three minutes." Came the reply from Lord Hakera of Kusari, who had returned to assist the Order of the front lines. When news reached his ears of renewed Nomad activities in Sirius, he had insisted on returning to the Osiris, unwilling to stay on Honshu and hope for the best.

"Launch all remaining fighters; send everything we can spare at that thing's escorts. All turrets, target the battleship the second into firing range. Hakera, get to a fighter."

"Aye sir."
The first of the remaining fighters were in space less then a minute after Orillion had given the order. There were twelve order fighters in total that were flying to defend their ship. Five Anubis class fighters and seven modified dagger class light fighters. Several of the Order's fighters had also noticed that their flagship was under attack and had moved to engage escort fighters or gunboats.

The Nomads were loosing. Order fighters, as well as those belonging to the houses who had decided to stand and fight when the battle first seemed to be going well, had destroyed many of the enemy fighters in only a few short minutes. Most however, had simply vanished without a trace. None of the pilots who had noticed this were paying much attention to the fact, given the circumstances.

"All Anubis class fighters," Hakera said to the twelve pilots accompanying him, "engage the gunboats. Daggers, keep the fighters off of our backs."

"Yes sir." Came the simultaneous response from the pilots.

A fierce battle was already underway by the time the twelve ships were in firing range. Two Nomad fighters had already been destroyed, as had two Kusari fighters and one Liberty defender.

The five Anubis class fighters descended upon the closest gunboat. Each fighter pounded it with their guns and the occasional torpedo. The fleshy hull tore apart after only a few seconds.
Trent, who was flying an Eagle class civilian heavy fighter, was having the most luck against the Nomads. This in turn had allowed him to take a few pot shots at the battleship with the occasional Sunslayer torpedo. He doubted he could do any real damage to it before it reached the Osiris, but he figured that every little helped.

"Trent!" The voice of Lord Hakera sounded suddenly over the radio.

"Hakera?" Trent replied in disbelief.

"Engage the fighters." With that, the image of Hakera's face vanished.

After a moment of confussion, Trent found a suitable target in front of him and opened fire.
The gunners onboard the Osiris didn't need to wait for anyone to tell them to fire. They sent gunshot after gunshot flying towards the Nomad battleship, which was in turn sending gunshots back towards them.

Only one of the gunboats was still left alive. The other had been taken out by the five Order fighters, as well as Juni. The fire from this beast was focused mainly on the fighters that were shooting at it. The Osiris' gunners ignored it trusting that their own fighters would see it off without too much trouble.

Orillion stared at the status display in front of him and tried to discern from it how the battle was progressing. There was too much happening however; the Osiris and the Nomad ship were loosing hull integrity at almost the exact same speed. There seemed to be no majority of fighters exploding, despite the Osiris' greater numbers.

"Com, instruct the house fighters that are still out their to focus their fire on the battleship." He said after a few moments.

"Yes sir." Came the response.
Nathan Remington, who had been issued a new Defender and thrown back into the fight, wasted no time in launching whatever he could at the Nomad battleship. Fighters were pounding at it from all angles; trails of light were flying gracefully into the hull which was now weakening with much greater speed.

The Nomad fighters were trying desperately to pick off the fighter's attacking their battleship. After roughly two minutes they were able to pick off one Anubis and a Crusader. Unfortunately for them however, there were still too many Order fighters, and Trent, firing at them. Their distraction led to five early Nomad deaths.

The battleship veered away from the Osiris, its captain, (if it had one), had decided that they couldn't win against the Order and needed to get the ship away from danger.

The Order had other ideas.

The pounding on the Nomad's hull continued. The remaining gunboat had been torched by the five fighters, which were now launching every torpedo they had at the battleship.

A blue explosion punched segments of the hull into space. This was followed by a second, then a third. Finally, the battleship was little more then a memory.

Cheering broke out onboard the Osiris and in every surviving fighter. With the exception of Valerie's and Nathan's. They had paid too high a price for this victory.

"Alright people," Boomed Juni's triumphant voice, "Let's get out of here."

To be continued.
Right, now for replies:

daredevil2000: Contrary to what this chapter may suggest, asking me when I'm going to update won't get me to update sooner. It's harder to get inspired for this story. And in answer to your question, the Osiris is the most powerful battleship in the game, I think. Thanks for reviewing.

Bob Rijke: I know I said that Hakera wouldn't be turning up, or something similar, but I think it'll be better with him in it. Anyway, thanks for reviewing.

Jummeh: I'm not planning to kill everyone, but one or two deaths might be good for dramatic effect or some such filth. Anyway, thanks for reviewing. They should really have left it at one Matrix film in my opinion.