Chapter 29

Bill watched as the rest of his strike force assembled around him, right after having left warp-space.

The small group was weaving between formations of bombers launching their long-range payload into important facilities on Macbeth. Somewhere to the distant right of the bomber group, enemy fighters were dancing around defensive fire from the bombers, doing as much damage to the formation that they could.

Again Macbeth loomed before Bill, that world where the Katinians had suffered their greatest defeats. This was the third time Bill would be doing battle over it, and he knew that it wasn't going to be the last.

"Husky Leader, this is Lance Leader. Are you in position?"

Bill flew to the right of the bomber, in line with its gigantic wing. "That's affirmative, Lance leader. Ready when you are."

"All right standby, countdown from ten, nine…"

Bill started storing power to his engines, making ready to launch himself upon Macbeth.

When Lance leader got to zero, Bill released the power, giving him the boost needed to keep up with the missiles that were now springing from the bombers, scores upon scores of them, towards Macbeth. Though flying amongst a flurry of missiles would be considered dangerous for most, Bill's crew expertly kept pace with them and stayed in formation, even as the outer edges of Macbeth's atmosphere began to blunt their approach. No enemy fighters came up to meet them, small wonder since the incoming missiles around Bill were but a small part of the overall bombing mission, and the enemy fighters would be most likely used elsewhere.

As Bill watched the ground get closer and closer, he began to make out the details of the bombing target- a large starfighter base which was already beginning to scramble one of its squadrons. Bill waited a couple of seconds, then accelerated even more, outpacing the missiles, bringing the ground on even faster. At the last moment, he hauled back on his flight stick, pulling level with the ground at only a few meters height. Not long after the G-force and the shuddering of his straining starfighter ceased, the full brunt of the missile strike hit the base, utterly consuming it in seconds. Red fireballs bloomed up behind Bill's group, swelling out over launch tunnels, sensor assemblies and starfighter hangars. Bill led his flight around a mountain, away from the carnage of the bombing run.

"All right people, hug the deck as closely as you can. This'll get rough if we're spotted."

The flight rounded another hill, bearing down into a long, huge valley. The valley floor was wide in places, narrow in others, but on the whole extremely flat. Rising up around the valley like sheer walls, were mountains at least ten miles high. It was as if a great wedge had been shoved into the ground at that place, but of course the truth probably was that some civilization that existed many millennia ago had struck deep into the heart of a mountain range in search of metals and wealth.

A transmission crackled into Bill's headset from Husky Four. "Husky Leader, scanner has detected the memory core. Two-hundred and twelve miles away, I'll relay the navigation data to you guys."

At that, Bill's HUD displayed a dot somewhere to the left with a distance indicator on it. He led the flight through the valley towards it.

The trees racing by under Bill's fighter, often less than a wingspan away, gave Bill a good indication of the speed he was going- pretty damn fast. Behind him his group was flying along in a similar manner, though the transports, being cumbersome as they were, flew at a greater height. The group passed between two monstrous mountains, sticking to the valley floor, as yet unchallenged by enemy fire.

As the group flew into the middle of the great valley, Benny's voice came through again. "Confirmed, scanner points to them being inside a mountain, probably in a mine or something."

It was true, the dot was somewhere inside a mountain on the far side of the valley, the distance indicator telling Bill that it was around a mile into the mountain itself.

"Leader, this is Twelve, the jungle floor is thick with vegetation. Our transports don't have the weight to bring trees down and we need stealth to do this, which means we can't bomb a hole in the canopy, so we'll need to land in a clearing nearby."

But Bill could only make out one solitary clearing, a good two miles from the black spot on the mountainside which he guessed was the mine entrance. "All right, we'll land in the clearing at bearing 225. I'll go ahead to make a sweep, then bring in the transports. All units circle until further orders." Bill turned towards the clearing, seeing that it was easily large enough to hold both transports and all six fighters. It was also perfectly circular.

Bill didn't need to be warned. He turned a hard right over the clearing, seeing two enemy transports and a body of enemy infantry milling around in the clearing. He accelerated away from them, as hastily fired rifle bolts sailed past around his fighter.

"All units be advised, LZ is hot, repeat, LZ is hot. Two transports and a company of infantry. Twelve, I want you to isolate their frequency and jam their transmissions. Transports, stay clear of the fighting, and Husky Five, stay with them. Everyone else, follow me and strafe the clearing. Take out their transports first."

Four fighters broke off from the escort formation and converged behind Bill, who had now looped his fighter to make another pass on the clearing. He brought his shields up and activated his lasers. Then he went to full speed and charged at the clearing.

His rapidly firing shots caught one transport in the cockpit and punched holes along the length of the second, causing the latter to explode violently. Sticks, following in his wake, finished off the first transport Bill had hit. Behind them, the other three pilots strafed the ground troops, vaporizing each one they hit. The feeble return fire glanced harmlessly off their starfighters' shields. On the ground, there was a mad dash as the exposed ground troops made for the relative safety of the forest.

Bill turned his ship and tore through the enemy troops again, strafing the forest near the clearing. "Demon Leader, I need you to head to bearing 089. Intel says that's the nearest air base. Don't activate your sensors, they might detect you. Just stay close to the ground, land if you can, at good distance, and if you see any fighters take off, let us know, blow them out of the sky and bomb the base."

"Got it, Husky Leader." Gus' fighter turned abruptly, then hastened away over the mountains and out of sight.

The enemy troops had now been driven well into the forest by the strafings, and Bill felt that it was time to be a little hasty and proceed with the mission.

"All right, move the transports in. Watch the northern end, I think there's still a concentration of enemy troops near the treeline."

As if in confirmation, an anti-aircraft laser bolt flashed by Bill's tail, missing only by virtue of a sudden engine boost. Bill flipped to avoid another one, and centered his crosshairs on the long, black cylinder that was aimed at his fighter. Four laser bolts dispatched the weapon and its operator.

The two transports came rumbling in, swerving left or right every now and then to avoid the enemy fire. Heavy concentrations of enemy troops still existed reasonably close to the clearing, and the transports' gunners did their best to scatter these threats.

At Bill's instruction the two Katinian transports touched down, using the burning hulks of the enemy transports as shields against the firepower coming in from the northern end of the clearing.

Suddenly, fire started pouring from the southern treeline, striking the transports and scoring their armor plating. They couldn't activate their shields on the ground, and a couple of their troops had already disembarked, suddenly forced to seek shelter behind rocks, or in little divots on the ground. The gunners manning the rapid-fire lasers on the transports' doors opened fire, pouring wave after wave of laser fire into the enemy positions, splintering great trees and searing the ground, but still their firepower paled in comparison to the combined weaponry of the enemy troops.

"Husky Leader, we're getting mauled out here! We need fighter support now!"

"It's on its way, hold tight. All fighters concentrate fire on the southern treeline!" Bill replied.

Five fighters then strafed the south end of the clearing, momentarily halting enemy fire, but once they passed, the rifles opened fire again.

"This is taking too long." Bill said. "All forces lay down suppression fire onto the enemy positions just long enough to get our troops off and into the trees. After that all units take to the air and provide aerial cover."
"Confirmed. Here we go!" Yelled Bulldog Leader, initiating the action by offloading a wall of laser bolts into the trees south of the clearing, causing the enemy fire to falter. As the other four fighters mimicked the move, the troops on Bill's transports jumped out and made a sprint for the trees. Those already on the ground that sought cover also jumped up and ran, making best use of the momentary respite to reach cover.

"All ground troops away. We're lifting off." Said Fuzzy, and the two transports went airborne amidst a storm of rifle fire. The gunners remaining on the transports continued to fire into the enemy positions, while the starfighters set about dealing with the increasingly large number of anti-aircraft emplacements springing up.

Bill knew his forces on the ground would likely be outnumbered fifty to one, but with speed and good co-ordination, they could easily be in and out without even having anyone injured.

Luck could still spiral this thing one way or another. Bill thought. I hope it goes our way, because if it doesn't, we are, at the very least, royally screwed.