The Gandalf had settled into orbit of Centauri Prime, a message had been sent, and they were sitting out there, beyond the planetary defenses, \ on full alert. Oddly no ships had come out and meet them, nor had there been any ships in the area when they jumped in. But, Patterson was not taking any chances.
Right now the only one who did not have anything to do was Michael Keegan. He was bored just tapping on the table in the flight briefing room, the only one in there as everyone else had tasks to do to prepare the ship for war.
Patterson had Charlie and Delta flight on emrgecy alert. So Alpha had nothing to do, most of them were reading books or catching up on mail. He was too wired for that, and the only people who he cared about were on the ship, and subsequently busy.
He heard the door open and saw Anders standing there. He saluted crisply and Keegan returned the favor, standing and moving to join the Squadrons' mechanic.
"Sir." Anders greeted closing the door behind him.
"Chief." Keegan greeted heartily.
"You wanted to see me sir?" Chief Anders said.
"Yeah actually, I wanted to thank you."
"Sir?"
"For saving my life in the battle of the ship yards."
"Oh it was nothing sir, I would do it for anyone."
"I know but given our problems-" Keegan cleared his throat nervously.
"It was nothing." Anders said again.
"Just wanted to let you know I appreciate. And that me and Stacia are going to a restaurant that she knows on Earth when this is all over, wanted to know if you could come?"
"I will think about it…sir" he said saluting as he left the room.
On the bridge Captain Patterson was sitting in his chair, his own fingers were tapping on the arm rest of his chair. He was waiting too. All the stations were manned and ready, and there was a nervous energy.
He could feel it, and that feeling made him feel restless and uneasy, just waiting to spring into action.
The Centauri knew they were there. But no attack, no return hail. It made him nervous.
But Vintari was in one of the emergency disaster bunkers in the ship to try and protect him from the environment and from attack in the event of one.
He glanced curiously at communications as the station started to beep. "Captain, we are receiving a real time hail from the planet surface."
"Put it up." Patterson said.
"About time." Norman grumbled underneath his breath.
On the screen a young looking Centauri resolved himself, a curious but haughty look on his face as he regarded the Earth Alliance officers. Patterson's lips unintentionally pulled back into a feral sneer.
The Centauri on the screen resolved himself into a more neutral expression as he spoke. "Your message has been received, and permission has been granted, you may land your forces on our planet in order for an audience with the Emperor."
"Why the delay?" Patterson said evenly and diplomatically.
"Well you have to understand that the appearance of an Earth Alliance Warship that claims to be carrying an exiled former prince would cause a bit of a-" the man's eyes twinkled aggressively and his lips moved in a ironic smile, "shock. Naturally the Centarum would have had to convene on this matter to determine an appropriate course of action. Which, you will be seen."
"I understand." Patterson said.
The screen turned off.
"Well, that was easy." Norman said simply.
"Indeed….coms, alert Vintari to meet us in the main hangar in five minutes."
"Us?" Norman said taken aback.
"That's right I am leading this mission." Patterson said getting out of his chair and marching on down to the hangar.
Norman followed him down into the hangar as, Patterson went into the locker to get his battle gear.
"Sir, Earth Alliance regulations state that I cannot let you go and must go into your place in a dangerous and hostile environment."
"Indeed, but this is also a foreign power and the Captain has the discretion to go down being the senior officer available at the present time. Ah Captain." Patterson said as Jose came out of his own armory. "Are your men assembled?"
"Yes sir."
"Good mount up." Patterson said as he too approached the shuttle, and then turned in the doorway as Norman made a grunting noise.
"Colonel, its going to be a long haul, I need to do this, I feel it. Take good care of her, don't lose her."
"Yes sir," Norman said reluctantly.
Patterson turned and entered the ship, his stomach tightened and bubbled with absolute excitement, like he had never felt for years. The war would rest on the actions that were about to be taken by his crew.
The convoy assembled with five shuttles and Alpha squadron launched towards the planet. On full alert, but with their targeting systems off, approaching the atmosphere of the Centauri planet quickly, but yet cautiously.
The small armada of ships burst into the lower atmosphere of the planet and began to level off at about eight kilometers up. Shedding speed slightly moving in all the more cautiously.
Auto cannons were hidden amongst the buildings, getting a better lock on for the ships, until it was too late.
"Sir!" The EWO said n a panic as the low beam lock on finally tripped the alert sensors.
The convoy scattered, throwing off counter measures.
The ion battery fire opened up on the convoy from multiple directions, blowing the wing off one of the shuttles., causing it to go into a spin and explode on the ground.
Michael Keegan was in his fighter and ran a panicked but expert eye over the combat systems as he maneuvered away. Fighters were approaching his position from the other direction, by about 15-20 kilometers away. The trap was properly laid.
He then kicked his fighter into a radical turn, even then straining his inertial systems as he turned to face the threat and ignore the fire power coming at him from the surface below. Their only saving grace was the fact that his stealth systems were operating fully, forcing the enemy to close to point blank range.
His mind finished analyzing the information flooding into it and he started to bark orders to the assembled pilots.
"Alpha's 1-4 plus 6 move on to take the fighter force, Alphas 7-12 hit the planetary cannons and clear the way for our forces."
He got clicks back in response.
"Sir, I should join up with you and fight the fighters." The thick accent of Alpha 5 drifted over the nets.
"Negative. We cannot afford it, follow the shuttles down and make sure they land safe." Keegan said, his brow furrowing as he concentrated on the displays in front of him.
"Understood" the reluctant pilot said in response.
Colonel Norman looked up startled as an alert sounded from a station as a young Petty Officer moved to answer the hail.
"Sir, the task force has been jumped, they are being attacked by Centauri ground and space forces."
Norman mulled this information over and wondered what he could do about it other then launch more fighters.
But he was interrupted again by yet another call, "sir, multiple Jump Points are-"
The ensign himself was interrupted as the lights flickered and the ship rocked nearly removing the decking from the un prepared Colonel.
"Sir, four Centauri cruisers just emerged from hyperspace and have opened fire on us!" the same Ensign said panicked.
"I can see Ensign." He said in a huff. "Deploy defense grid to maximum and put all remaining fighters on stand by and prepare to repel the enemy ships."
The four Cruisers moved in a diamond formation as they rained down plasma on the Earth Alliance Destroyer, causing explosions to ripple across the hull and armor.
The shuttles hit the ground outside an industrial complex hard, bouncing off the ground hard before finally settling on the ground.
Personnel from them poured out of the shuttles and instantly ran for cover as half of the Alpha squadron eliminated the anti air batteries on the ground before moving to rejoin the battle taking place in the air.
Michael Keegan twisted his fighter around, rolling it over, just barely avoiding an air to air missile which exploded when it failed to require a viable target.
He let the fighter pass him and then put a missile into its intake manifold, ripping the ship in several component pieces.
He looked around and saw that they were alone now, and that the shuttles had landed.
"Alright Alpha Squadron this is Alpha 1, all remaining fighters head back to the barn, evac the site there is nothing further we can do for the ground forces."
He then rolled himself up and headed into the upper atmosphere for breaking out into space, on his scanners he could just make out the battle that was developing between the two forces.
He raised the Gandalf. "Gandalf, Gandalf, this is Alpha squadron requesting permission to land."
Colonel Norman sighed internally, too many things to deal with. The thick acidic taste of burnt circuits greeted his lips as he considered his course of action.
"Helm, lay in a course back, we have to cut them off and intercept them or they will be picked off by the batteries of the Centauri as they come in for a landing."
The helm and tactical officers analyzed the orders, and it was the tactical officer who had the concern "we have to reposition ourselves to the cruisers, they will hit us then and do major damage to us when we move to pick up the fighters, and we have already suffered extreme damage."
"Understood." Colonel Norman thought for a second, "launch those defense satellites, put them in a missile and fire them."
"That will take a couple of moments." Tactical warned.
"Then quit yakking and get to work." Colonel Norman snapped.
Michael Keegan's fighter force cleared the atmosphere and sped for the Gandalf, his fighters were about to land, though one fighter short.
But, his radar sounded the alarm and he ran his eyes over it as he saw another group of Centauri fighters exiting the atmosphere and moving to intercept them before they could make it back to the barn.
He cursed to himself before deciding on an action. "Alright everyone else go back to the barn, move it." He ordered.
"Negative." his second said.
"I will buy you time, we do not have enough firepower to take them out, only to buy time, which we cannot do if most of us go."
"Yes, sir." his second said reluctantly, knowing that he could not convince Keegan to change his mind.
Keegan shredded his speed slightly, letting the enemy fighter squadron catch up to him slightly, descending on him. He closed his eyes and held a breath there and then, turned back in.
He jacked the throttle up to full spearing right through the enemy formation which turned and twisted and scattered to get out of the way.
He had already bought his squadron valuable seconds to get away.
The Gandalf launched two missiles into deep space, which separated as dozens of defense satellites deployed, firing pulses covering their retreat back towards the fighters.
Keegan spun back in, having three fighters right behind him and two in his canopy trying to escape him, he achieved missile lock and fired his last two weapons, blowing them to shreds, his heart soared as he flew through the debris cloud that was spreading in his flight path.
He then spun on his retros and broke down back into the planet's atmosphere. Speeding down into the lower area of the planet before he would return, he then heard the message on his head set.
"Get back here, sir, we have safely landed on the Gandalf and are just waiting on you to get here before we jump."
He smiled relieved, his mission was complete.
In that instant a fighter achieved lock on him and fired a missile, which flew at him hard, causing the world to heave and rock and spin in front of him.
He tried to shake his head to clear it, but the world was still spinning in front of his face shield and was growing larger in his canopy.
He ran a rapid eye over his systems and controls, and he was loosing altitude rapidly. And had no more control over his speed, direction.
He made ready to eject from his fallen angel, but he was not in a right position to do so.
As the ground rapidly came up to meet him, as he crashed to the surface.
"Sir, Keegan is down." The flight control officer said paling slightly.
Norman felt the pain but he still had a ship to salvage, especially since the four cruisers were rapidly catching up on them, and were about to unleash the full power of their weapons, and of their fighter squadrons. He simply did not have the time.
"Prepare to jump on the exit vector."
"Colonel we cannot leave him down there!" Alpha 2 protested.
"I know but the orders was to ensure the safety of this ship, with the damage that we have taken in the initial strike, there is no guarantee that we can." Norman said with a slight growl.
"Course laid in Colonel." Helm announced.
"Jump" He said decisively.
The Gandalf transferred back into the hyperspace, the Centauri Cruisers in hot pursuit.