The Angel of Death

A pilot was racing down the hall on the bunk deck towards the barracks. He poked his head in the room long enough to say, "Hey, guys! Get to Pilot Country! The Omegas are putting on their show for the CAG and the Commodore!" The pilots who were just lounging about on their bunks looked at one another for a brief instant and then scrambled to get up and get to Pilot Country.


Casey and Stiletto were sitting at the bar while Maestro and Zero had ringside seats to the action. The Omegas had only been flying in the simulators for about 15 minutes and had already managed to destroy close to 40 assorted Nephilim fighters between them. Tracer, Chameleon, and Wabo were getting a bit banged up while the others were still flying without a scratch. Bitch charged two Lampreys at full afterburner and buzzed right between them. Then she looped back and blasted them to pieces with her guns. The crowd cheered and applauded. Princess was playing cat-and-mouse with an Ace. She began a barrel roll and pulled up hard on the flight stick. She continued her loop and came straight down towards the cockpit of the Ace's Devil Ray. She fired a friend-or-foe missile and opened up with full guns until he was dust. The crowd was ecstatic. Elsewhere, Midnight was racing about, being obnoxious to various enemy fighters, and getting them to engage him. They fired upon him, but he just dodged and rolled and came out unharmed. Every so often he would open fire and hit one of the six just enough to keep its attention on him. Then, with no warning, he kicked in his afterburners and sped away from all six of them. The crowd had no clue what he was up to, and some even began murmuring that he was ditching the other members of his squad. The six enemy fighters that he had been picking on gave chase, but were rapidly being left behind. When it looked that Midnight had outrun them he did a 180-degree turn and came charging back at them. People looked at his targeting display to see what he could possibly be up to. Targeting grids came up on all of the fighters that were giving chase and Midnight opened fire with one of his multi-target missiles. The missile broke up into six pieces and impacted on the bows of all six enemy fighters. Midnight simply flew past the new debris field that used to be the six Nephilim fighters.

"That was amazing!" yelled Maestro.

"Very impressive," agreed Zero.

Maniac was genuinely impressed by their performance thus far. "They're okay," he said in that mocking macho tone of his.

Drake, for once, was speechless. She watched enthralled at the job these pilots were doing. They flew like seasoned veterans and were totally fearless. More than that, they flew as a team. If one was in trouble, another lended support instantly. They seemed totally unconcerned with the amount of enemy ships surrounding them, or what they had to get through to help another teammate. She wished she could hear what they were saying to one another to keep themselves alert and motivated. Maybe they were as good as they bragged they were, or better.


The crowd continued to cheer for them each time they tagged an enemy ship. It was forty-five minutes in and they still were flying like they owned the skies. The Nephilim had gotten in only a few good shots. People began to think that only time and endurance would slow the Omegas down. They were all dangerously low on missiles by this time, their afterburner fuel was nearly spent, and all of their decoys were used up. Unfairly, the simulation did not have a finite number of enemies. Suddenly, an enemy missile pounded into the aft side of Waborita's Cobra. Within seconds his Cobra began to break up and he barely had enough time to eject. His display screen went black and the hatch to his simulator lifted. He stood up and got out with a great intake of fresh air. He was sweating a little and flexing his hand to get some circulation back into it. Pilots came over to congratulate him on the job he had done. Maniac had a smile on his face and gave him a thumbs up sign. He smiled in return and gave Drake a salute. Then, without a word, he walked out the door.


The new Nephilim warrior crawled towards its fighter. Its glowing eyes pierced through the blackness of the bay where the fighter was housed. Once inside, it let out a hiss of utter hate as the engine began to power up.


Waborita walked back in with a package and a bottle under his arm. He arrived back just in time to see Tracer climbing out of his simulator. Though the crowd was cheering and congratulating him, he looked pissed. He had been snuck by a cluster of Mantas just before he could take an Ace out of the equation. Waborita smiled and walked over to him. "Can't get 'em all," he said. "But if it makes you feel any better, at least you didn't get tagged first."

"Yeah," Tracer said, quickly saluting Maniac and Drake. "I know. But it still sucks."

Waborita just smiled again and he and Tracer moved through the crowd to where Maestro and Zero were sitting.


The new Nephilim warrior's fighter sped from the bay and headed out into the darkness. Its many limbs moved over the controls, accomplishing multiple tasks at once. Telemetry data was downloaded and viewed in seconds.


Waborita and Tracer were cheering on with the rest of the pilots. They high-fived one another as Rapier and Bitch tag-teamed a Devil Ray and blew it out of the sky. They turned their attention to Midnight's display and could see that a couple of Mantas plus a Devil Ray were buzzing around him. While they were watching him take out the Devil Ray, Chameleon's display beeped. They turned to look at her display just in time to see her eject. A Lamprey had opened on her with all that it had while she was chasing down two Mantas. Her simulator hatch opened and she sat there for a moment. With an exasperated sigh, she climbed out of the simulator and stretched. Pilots came over to her to congratulate her. She took their compliments in stride, saluted Maniac and Drake, and walked over to where Waborita and Tracer were sitting.


The Nephilim warrior took in all of its computer's data. Its mandibles clicked as it plotted its new course and destination. On its console was a tactical display of the Palau.


Chameleon sat in Maestro's lap and put her arms about his neck. Waborita, Tracer, and Zero all smirked. Maestro shifted a little in his seat at his sudden predicament.

"Hey, soldier," she said. "Care to buy a lady a drink when this is all over?"

"I think she likes you," said Waborita.

Maestro didn't hear a word of what Waborita had said to him. He just looked Chameleon in her eyes. "Uh," he stammered as he tried to remain casual. "Sure."

Chameleon just smiled, kissed Maestro on the cheek, and turned to watch the rest of the simulation while Maestro, as casually as he could, put his hand on her leg.

The situation was getting desperate. The loss of three of the seven was catching up to the four who remained. Midnight had just taken two nasty laser hits in the side, while a missile had impacted his aft. Princess was not fairing as lucky. She had somehow survived two missile impacts and several laser hits. Most of her systems were either out or in the red. Bitch, on the other hand, was simply out of shields and her afterburners were gone. Miraculously, Rapier was still almost fresh. Though he was out of both afterburner fuel and missiles, everything else was functioning at peak performance.

Stiletto leaned over in Casey's ear. "What do you think?" she asked him.

"I think they are far exceeding Commander Drake's expectations of them," he replied. "As it is, I noticed Maniac licking his chops a few times like he wants to take them on."

"I would pay to see that," said Zero, who had come over to the bar to get a round for himself.

"And who would you bet on, Zero?" pressed Stiletto.

"That would be a tough one to call," Zero replied. "It could go either way."

"My money would be on the Maniac," said Stiletto. "He has more experience from one tour of duty than they all have combined."

"That is a good point," Casey agreed.

"It is a very good point," conceded Zero. "But these guys are flying newer ships than he did. Their toys and gadgets are far more advanced than anything the Maniac has flown in. However, if you put any one of them in a Panther or a Vampire versus Maniac, he would smoke them before they got out of the gate."

The crowd gave a mass moan of dejection as the display screen for Princess went black. An Ace had taken her out with a missile. The hatch to her simulator opened and she got out. "Fuck," she muttered under her breath.

People congratulated her on an outstanding performance. Before she could take two steps, the screen for Bitch went black as well and her hatch opened. She stood up and stretched. The crowd was pointing at her and telling her that she was amazing. As she stepped from her simulator she turned her head to look at Princess. "The same Ace that killed you killed me," she said with her hands on her hips and shaking her head in disgust. The both of them turned to Maniac and Drake and saluted. Then they waded through the crowd to get to their other fallen squad members.


The Nephilim warrior sped off into the darkness towards his destination. It was hell-bent on attacking and killing any ConFed ship it came across, no matter how big or small it was.


Midnight blasted through the Ace that had taken out Princess and Bitch with his guns. No one knew what was keeping his ship intact. If this were a real flight, and he got home in one piece, the flight technicians would have it dry-docked for weeks. The crowd could see that the two pilots were beginning to fly in closer proximity to one another. The crowd heard Rapier's missile lock sensor go off and saw him begin to try and outrun it. Then, out of nowhere, Midnight purposely flew into its path and was destroyed. His simulator opened and he calmly and casually stood up and got out. He turned to look at Drake and Maniac, gave them a quick salute, and walked out of Pilot Country to use the head. Rapier was now all by himself.

Drake had a puzzled look on her face as to what Midnight had done. Maniac had a big cheesy grin on his face. He understood what had happened and chuckled despite himself.

"What's so amusing?" Drake asked.

"Oh," said Maniac. "It's nothing. I just get what he did."

"And what is it that he did?"

"He committed a selfless act. There were two of them left. He was the weaker of the two, so he took the hit so that his friend could keep going longer."

"He allowed himself to die, to give his Wing Commander a better chance to live," said Drake, finally getting the move Midnight had made. "There aren't many pilots who would be willing to do that."

"No," Maniac agreed. "There aren't."

Midnight returned and promptly went over to the rest of the Omegas. They all gave him a pat on the back for a job well done and turned back to Rapier's display screen. He was flying like a man possessed. Fighters were dropping left and right. Two Morays got him in a crossfire and he did a sharp upward turn to avoid it. As he did a Lamprey came right at him from underneath and ripped into him with its guns. His Cobra shook violently and he barrel rolled to get away. The Nephilim were closing in on him now. Three separate Nephilim fighters hit him with their guns and he barely had enough time to hit the eject button before his Cobra broke up to end the simulation. When his hatch cover opened the crowd of assembled pilots cheered as if he has just saved the day for real. He walked over to where Drake and Maniac were standing and gave them a salute. The rest of Omega Squadron got up from their seats and walked over to stand beside him. They all stood at attention and waited for Drake to speak.

"Very impressive," she said. "That was some of the best flying I've seen in a long time. If you can do that for real when the time comes, then this ship and her entire crew will remain safe for the duration of this mission. Good work, pilots."

They all saluted her again. Maniac turned to Zero. "Hey, Zero!" he said. "What was their score?"

Zero got up to take a look. "Damn!" he said aloud.

"Well what was it?" Maniac asked again.

"Total flight time: One hour, 36 minutes, and 47 seconds," he responded. "Total number of kills: 297. That comes to an average of 42.4 kills per pilot, if the computer is correct."

"Outstanding!" shouted Maestro.

Casey and Stiletto just looked at one another and nodded their approval. Drake smiled and dismissed the Omegas. Then she and Maniac turned and left.

"This calls for a celebration!" shouted Waborita as he quickly he ran around the bar and opened his package. He pulled out the Omega shot glasses and lined them up. Then he opened his bottle and poured out. They each took their respective shot glasses and held them high.

"Omega Squadron!" they all shouted together.

To be continued…