Lieutenant 1st-grade Kelson gingerly nudged his Raptor-class fighter out of the Ardor 18's jam-packed hangar bay and tilted the craft's pointy nose down towards Dekata 2. He thrusted forward, clearing the way for the rest of the matte-black fighters to exit the destroyer's modular port hangar bay.
All four destroyers had been outfitted as carriers for this mission and, through the use of vertical racks and careful organization, had crammed forty fighters into each ship, giving the task force a sizeable fighter presence while still allowing the Iron Will to be equipped with power and shield enhancements instead of hangar mods.
Kelson drifted toward the atmosphere while letting the rest of the assault force close up and into attack formation. Off to his left he noted two fighters passing him by and moving ahead of the formation. Those would be the drone fighters, being remotely flown by pilots in pods onboard the carriers. They would do a flyby of the Insectoid base and draw out any hidden batteries or other surprises before the manned fighter force moved in to engage.
"Lead, this is Six. I show twenty-some fighters launching from the base."
Kelson glanced at his displays, quickly confirmed Ensign Pasdt's report, then opened his intra-squadron comm. "Bombers head to ground, fighters advance and intercept hostiles."
Eight black diamonds streaked forward in a loose vertical "X" formation with Kelson's raptor in the leading central point. He toggled the sensor data on the Insectoid fighters to one of his secondary screens and frowned. "Hold back missiles and torpedoes," he said to those of his squadron equipped with them. "They aren't showing any shields…but their engine signatures are impressive. Expect them to be agile…try and hit them on approach."
Kelson hesitated during an eerily silent moment as the two forces rapidly closed distance and he began to feel the first effects of his transition into the upper atmosphere. He glanced at his weapons display one last time…all six laser cannons in his two lateral mods were in the green, as was his shield generator located in the third mod that made up the forward tip of his ship.
Kelson's thumb depressed and a hailfire of tiny blue splinters lept out from the lateral "tips" of the fighter's diamond design and disappeared into the distance. He held in the trigger, gently rocking the nose of the fighter back and forth as his squadron did likewise. Sporadic spurts of green energy began streaking back at them as a few tiny explosions appeared ahead.
"Break!" he ordered, tugging his stick down a moment after the other raptors were clear. The Insectoid fighters burst up from below and passed between the expanding raptor formation, then broke up into threes and engaged the Humans at close range.
Throttling back, Kelson's Raptor did a quick fore to aft flip, then reengaged thrust in the opposite direction as the Lieutenant picked out one of the wispy green fighters and followed it. Kelson flicked fire control back to full power bursts and fired off two potent shots that missed wide as the Insectoid flipped and rolled out laterally, brining Kelson around on its tail directly into the path of another green-white fighter.
The Shadow Alliance pilot took a shot to his shields before he broke hard starboard and out of their immediate field of fire. One his sensors the fighter he was chasing rejoined with its threesome and pursued him with an alarming closing rate.
"Two…I need you. Head to head."
"I see you," Lieutenant Anderson said, redirecting her fighter to match Kelson's approach. "Permission to use missiles?"
"Granted," Kelson grunted as he spun his ship around its axis as another underpowered blast impacted his aft shields.
"Get readyyyy…" she said, holding the last syllable, "…now!"
Kelson threw his fighter through the hardest turn he could manage, clearing Anderson's line of fire. A split second after he did, two missiles slid by his wake and connected with one of the fighters' starboard sides as it turned to follow Kelson, impacting its larger cross section in a muted explosion that was more flying parts than flames.
Before he could thank his fellow pilot a number of fast moving blurs raced past his cockpit viewscreen. The images, relayed from external cameras outside the armored hull, moved too fast for him to identify…but he guessed from the explosions that followed that it must have been the fighters from Ardor 21 finally catching up to the furball.
"All clear, Lead," Anderson reported.
Kelson quickly checked his sensors. "Follow the bombers down and provide cover."
Major Trippet sat in one of the Ardor 18's control pods, yet, save for the lack of G-forces, he would have swore he was actually in the drone fighter that he was remotely controlling down on the plant's surface.
A bead of sweat ran down his forehead but he didn't dare swipe it away, it was taking all his concentration just to keep his drone fighter in the air. He'd lost his starboard weapons mod when a ground-based turret tower had drilled through his ship's shields with a single, well placed shot.
It was one of five turrets that he'd located around the base, and one of two that had been hidden within the surrounding forest and raised into firing position after they had flown past. The low-powered turbolaser had done damage to his starboard engine mount as well as messing with his repulsorlift coils. This left him hobbling along over the treetops while he transmitted targeting data back to the approaching bombers.
The concealed turret towers had retracted back into the forest, but it did them little good…their positions had already been marked. A flurry of long-range torpedoes blasted through the vegetation and cut through the spire-like turrets at ground level, toppling the constructs, which flattened the surrounding trees as they fell. For good measure the bombers deposited a single energy bomblet into the depression in the vegetation as they passed over.
The volatile energy held within the tiny containment forcefield obliterated the fallen turrets upon contact, bending and breaking trees outward with the ensuing concussion wave. When the dust would settle half an hour later, the aerial view would show nothing but rubble and cracked wood.
With the five turrets destroyed the bombers closed and deposited their bomblets on the base itself. Trippet, having gained a measure of control over his damaged craft, circled back to the Insectoid base and contributed what he could to the damage via his intact port weapons mod.
He strafed the few Insectoids that were returning fire with hand weapons and blew apart a mound of supplies with a well placed missile…all the while keeping his distance from the base as the extended-length raptors bombed the sith-spit out of the Insectoid structures.
Within minutes the recall order came and Trippet slowly made for space as he collected scans of the decimated base that would be added to the intel report along with every other image from the fighters and ships in orbit. He inspected the destruction on his secondary monitor as he finessed the lift coils into compensating for the off-center thrust of his single good engine.
Aside from the burning rubble and glowing craters he spotted a few moving dots around the perimeter of the base. He guessed they were surviving Insectoids that would have to be hunted down by their ground troops…but he doubted that there were too many left. The energy bombs that the raptors used were designed to do damage to surface and subsurface targets alike. The Alliance army shouldn't have too much trouble cleaning up…odd though that they had recalled the fighters. Usually ground ops required at least minimal aerial support.
"Fighters have cleared the atmosphere and are returning to the destroyers," Captain Gireti relayed to Jyr from the comms station. "We have one damaged fighter requesting to land in the Iron Will's bay for repairs. Apparently the pilot doesn't think they'll have room onboard the destroyer."
"Your call, Captain," Aer-ki said, shrugging his shoulders. With the shield augment mods installed, the only hangar bay on the Iron Will was a small portside bay.
Gireti nodded. "I think we can make room," he said, motioning to one of his junior officers. The trim woman nodded and briskly jogged off the bridge.
"Sensors," Jyr said, addressing the Major currently at that station, "are we still clear?"
"Yes, sir. Both realspace and hyperspace sensors are clear."
"Bring in the transport," Jyr ordered.
Two minutes later a medium-sized freighter dropped out of hyperspace along with two frigates serving escort. The freighter moved into an extremely high orbit, far away from any conceivable in-system traffic and opened its cargo bay.
A stealth-plated reconnaissance satellite floated out with a gentle nudge from the freighter's tractor beam. Ten minutes later the Iron Will received the first telemetry update from the in-system scout…which included a decent, long range photo of the remains of the Insectoid base as it slowly rotated across the horizon and temporarily out of view. Should the base ever be rebuilt, they would be able to remotely monitor the construction.
"Time to leave, Captain," Jyr said, finally taking the Admiral's seat. "We can't afford to be here when their reinforcements arrive."
"Especially if they send that Hive ship," Gireti commented.
Aer-ki nodded. "Right now that ship is beyond our touch."
"Right now?" Gireti asked.
The Jedi Guardian smiled. "We're working on it."