Date: June 27, 2098
Location: Kankool Air-Space Base, Planet Hempret
Time: 1834 (6:34 p.m.) local time, 0254 (2:54 a.m.) Earth EST
My name is AJ Mavick. I am a 22-year-old member of the United Earth Space Force, the UESF. For many years, since humans discovered faster-than-light travel in 2064, we have been roaming the galaxy, looking for other civilizations. And we have found them. First, there were the Limphons, and we made peace with them. Then, we met the Jacroons. The Jacroons attacked our diplomats as soon as they arrived in their system. For fifteen long years, the war between the Jacroons and humans raged. I joined five years ago as a pilot for the UESF. I flew S-46 Slingshots until Lockheed-Boeing built the S-49 Starchasers. Finally, the humans won. The last battle of the Human-Jacroon War was the Battle of Jacroon over the Jacroon home world. The entire First and Second Earth Armadas were involved in the battle, surrounding the entire planet. Twenty-seven squadrons of starfighters had flown around the planet, blasting fighters and capital ships out of existence. The most intense fighting had come during the middle of the space battle when my squadron, the Flaming Dragons, had to attack the Jacroon control ship nearly by themselves. Only eight H-23 heavy bombers would accompany our twelve-fighter squadron in attacking the biggest, most powerful craft the Jacroon Navy had. Only one thing made the job easier. Almost all of the fighters protecting the main ship had left, going off to attack our capital ships in their protective ring around the planet. Sixteen Jacroon fighters were left to guard the control ship. Commander Gordon Goering told us our strategy as we streaked in at the behemoth. "Flights One and Three, on me. Lt. Commander Mavick, take Two Flight and guard the bombers. One and Two Flights, spread formation. Execute." I throttled back my fighter and slipped into formation with the bombers. "This is Lt. Commander AJ Mavick with Two Flight. We'll be your escorts this evening. What's your pleasure?" "Ace? Little brother, is that you?" A voice shouted over the comm. unit. "David? What are you doing here? I thought you were on assignment in the Outer Rim against pirates." "I was, but command wanted the best for this mission, so here we are. As for our pleasure, just keep those fighter off our backs." "Will do, David." I switched to Two Flight's radio frequency, "Alright, here's how we do this. I'll take Bombers One and Two, Six, take Three and Four, Seven, you have Five and Six, and Eight has Seven and Eight. Got it?" A string of affirmatives rang out over the comm. system as the fighters moved to cover their respective charges. Ahead, I watched as the rest of the squadron boiled into a raging dogfight with the rest of the Jacroon fighters. I saw many Jacroon fighters flare out of existence on my sensor board, but so far, no Flaming Dragons had gone down. As my flight of fighters escorting the bombers came into view, I saw two Flaming Dragon fighters in trouble. One, it turned out to be Flaming Dragon Two, Flt. Officer Paul Smith. He shot out of the fray with two fighters on his tail. He dodged left and right, trying to shake the fighters off his tail. "Pull up, Two!" I yelled into the comm. system. "No can do, Five. Vertical controls are shot. Can you pick these rats off my tail?" "On my way, Two. Bomber One, you have control of your flight. Two Flight, form a screen in front of those bombers and nail those fighters, but save your missiles. We're going to need those later. Let's go, Two Flight." A chorus of clicks rang out over the radio, indicating understanding of the order. I shot after the fighters on Paul's tail. For only being able to dodge from side to side, Paul was doing a marvelous job of staying alive. However, no one could dodge forever. Even as I flew in behind the Jacroon fighters, I saw two shots hit Paul's aft shields, breaking them. I blasted a snapshot off at the fighter who was hanging back more than the other. My dual burst of laser fire slammed into his unshielded aft, exploding his engines and penetrating his cockpit. The craft exploded brilliantly, breaking down the starboard shields of his wingman. I sideslipped over to the side of that ship preparing to fire the killing shot. Just as I tightened my finger on the trigger, the Jacroon fighter fired its final shot. The shot hit just behind the cockpit before blowing through it. Paul's fighter didn't explode right away, but began a slow, lazy roll down and to the right. The shot had killed Paul with one burst, leaving the fighter without intelligence at the controls. I bloodlessly killed Paul's murderer, but I didn't celebrate. I wanted to mourn for Paul, but there was work to be done. Mourning of comrades came later, after the mission was done. "Control, Two is gone, repeat, gone. He took a blast right through the cockpit." "I copy, Five." Commander Goering replied. "I know you did all you could." As I turned back into the fight, I saw another fighter shoot out of the fray with three fighters on his tail. It was Flt. Officer Frank Norman, Flaming Dragon Twelve. Frank was doing a much better job of dodging the fire, but there was more of it for him to dodge. I flew in firing a spray of shots, just aiming to scatter the fighters. Only one fighter was spooked, and peeled off at a right angle downward, away from Frank. Most of my shots struck the fighter at the back of the formation, hitting first at the bow, then tracing back, through the cockpit, and finally exploding the engines. Another of the fighters pulled off Frank's tail to avoid the debris, leaving him with only one to worry about. Frank made a tight turn, swapping nose for tail in the space of one hundred fifty meters, putting him directly on the last fighter's tail. I swept after both of them, following Frank in case he needed help. Frank launched a missile at the final fighter, and as close as he was, the fighter had no time to dodge. The missile slammed into the rear of the fighter, utterly destroying the fighter's aft shields and still had enough energy to blow through the hull. The fireball rapidly expanded, and Frank pulled up to avoid it. Which is right when his craft hit a Jacroon fighter. At the speed the two ships were going, there was no time to dodge. Frank's bow shields sparked, then imploded as the slender nose of his fighter penetrated the Jacroon fighter before snapping off right in front of the cockpit. Unspent T-85 missiles fell out of the nose down towards the planet below. Frank's fighter exploded along with the Jacroon fighter, and the dual explosion nearly blinded me. I again keyed my comm. system to report bad news. "One, we just lost Twelve." "Are you sure, Five?" the Commander asked. "Positive, sir. He fighter slammed into an enemy." "Roger that, Five. Get back to your escorts." "Roger that, sir." I pulled my fighter in a steep turn to get it back to the bombers. They had advanced significantly while I was away, and it would take me several seconds to catch up with them. As I flew towards the bombers, I listened to the comm. chatter over my radio. "Blue Five, this is Four, recommend you juke.now. Eight, recommend you shoot.now." "This is Red Nine. Red Ten is gone, repeat, gone." "Green Eleven here. I need some help!" "Will someone get this guy off my six?" "Red Ten here, Nine. I'm here, where are you?" "Then who's that cloud of debris, Ten?" "Help. I can't hold her! She's gonna blow!" "Wait. Nine, where's Twelve?" "This is Gold Seven reporting. Shields: out, engines: out, lasers: out. I only have communications. I'm dead in space and I need some help over here." "Grey Two just banked into a capital ship, she's gone." "Black Six, ejecting! Send the medical shuttle!" "I'm still not seeing Twelve, Nine." "The Dominance is going down, She got hit by missiles. Get away from it. Watch the debris. Mark escape pod locations!" I finally swept into formation with the bombers. "Six, on me. Seven and Eight, watch the rear." "Seven and Eight here, sir, roger." "Roger that." Watching for other fighters coming in at the bombers, I saw another of my squad mates, Flt. Officer Brain Wilson, Flaming Dragon Four, in trouble. He shot down a fighter right under the shadow of the Jacroon control ship. Heavy lasers shot out at him nearly hitting. Though the heavy lasers were not usually used to shoot down snubfighters, the sheer volume of the fire meant they couldn't miss forever. "Four, this is Five. Brian, start to swerve.now!" Brain threw his ship into a spin pilots call the swerve. The gunners, thrown off balance by the move, missed wildly as the tried to hit Brian's rapidly moving ship. A beam of light shot out towards Brain's ship, but at first it looked as if it had missed. Then Brain's ship rolled, revealing the port side of the ship completely gone. Half of Brian's body was still sitting in half the seat, but the fighter kept rolling, dumping his body out into space. I switched on my radio again, "Bombers One through Six, you are free to start your run." "Rodger that, Ace, keep those fighters off our backs." "Will do, David. Six, Seven, and Eight, we are holding the backdoor open." "Yes, sir." Kyle and Dave said. We all decelerated to cover the backs of the bombers. David's bomber took the lead of his eight-bomber squadron towards the Jacroon control ship. "Flaming Dragon One, my ships only have six missiles left each. We only have enough power to break the shields and maybe do a little damage, but your squadron's missiles will be needed to bring that ship down." "Rodger that, Bomber One. We can only spare four missiles from each member of my squad. We have escort duty later and will need our last two." "Got it, Flaming Dragon One. Have your squad key their targeting data to my computer. After they fire their four missiles, I'll take their telemetry off my computer, and then my guys will fire their last two missiles. Let's hope this works. Let's roll, boys!" The bombers streaked in at the control ship in a spread formation to spread out the gunners fire. The other Flaming Dragons positioned themselves at multiple points around the control ship to maximize the amount of fire and the number of targets. "Fire first pair of missiles on my mark.three.two.one.mark!" Thirty-four T- 85 missiles shot out from various points around the Jacroon control ship heading towards the specific point marked by David's computer. The missiles all hit almost simultaneously, but failed to penetrate. "The shield is still at seventy-five percent strength. We have to hope that the next salvo breaks the shields, or we'll have to start going in with lasers." David reported. "Dave, my computer just told me this. There wasn't more damage to the shields because the Jacroon sensors detected your target and shifted shield power to that specific point. The trick is to target the same spot, and then just before we fire, change the target. The missiles will alter their target automatically, and the change might be quick enough so that they won't be able to get their shields shifted in time." "It's worth a try, Ace. Alright, everyone, you heard him. Just key your missiles to my targeting again; I'll do the hard work." Dave targeted the ship again. "All ships, target on my mark. Three.two.one.mark!" Another thirty-four missiles shot out towards the Jacroon capital ship. Mid-flight, the missiles suddenly swerved up towards the bridge. The Jacroons weren't able to switch move their shields fast enough, and all the missiles slammed into the nearly unshielded hull. Explosions blossomed over the hull as lightning skittered up the hull. The ship shuddered as a silent blast ripped through it. Entire pieces of the hull were thrown in space, spiraling in silent testament to those killed on board. Suddenly, an emergency transmission blasted over the channel. "Attention, all UESF forces. Get clear of the Jacroon capital ship, her reactor levels are fluctuating all over the place. She's gonna blow. Get the hell out of there!" "Holy shit!" I yelled, pulling my control stick back to my chest. My fighter flipped over in a one hundred eighty degree turn and blasted away from the Jacroon capital ship. Light filled the area behind me as an explosion blossomed from deep inside the ship. The explosion moved out in a circular pattern around the ship, turning metal into liquid in the blink of an eye and incinerating crew members before they even had the chance to yell. The ship exploded brilliantly, sending huge chunks of debris flying into space. "Yahoo!" "We did it! We really fucking did it!" "Shut up!" Admiral Harris yelled. "The battle isn't fucking over yet." The comm. channels got very quiet after that. After mopping up the battle in space, the starfighters flew down and strafed the troops and airbases on the surface. The Flaming Dragons had the duty of escorting troop transport ships down to the planet. This didn't sound like much, but it turned out to be the most dangerous duty in the mission. Anti-aircraft fire shot up at the ships and reserve fighters had flown in firing wildly. "Group, this is Leader. I have three squadrons of reserve fighters flying in from our right. Lt. Commander Mavick, you're with me. Lt. Mitchell, you now have command of Group Two. Group One, on me. Let's go roll some heads. Group Two, stay with the transports until further orders." Commander Gordon Goering said. He peeled off to the right, with Lt. Kyle McLenese, Lt. Max Carper and me following him. "Break into Diamond Formation, high-low." The four S-49 Starchasers shifted immediately into a formation with two fighters about one hundred meters apart one above the other, while the other two split the two fighters about one hundred twenty meters side to side. The quick switch startled the incoming fighters, making them swerve to try to retarget us. Two swerved right into one another, one exploding on impact, and the other spiraling down to the mountains below in flames. "Group Two, as soon as the first squadron passes us, attack them from behind. Make it quick, we don't want to be attacked from two different directions. Group One, scatter spray of T-85 missiles towards the incoming fighters." Eight T-85 missiles shot out towards the incoming squadrons, taking out five in the first squadron, two in the second, and one in the third. "Break into wing pairs and engage at will. Mavick, on me." "Yes sir." I pulled in behind Goering as we shot towards the remaining seven fighters in the first squadron. One major advantage the UESF fighters had over the Jacroon's was our deflector shields. A stray shot that hit one of our comrades wasn't likely to do much damage. However, if a stray shot hit a Jacroon fighter, it could severely damage or destroy the craft. Commander Goering aimed straight for the center of the seven fighter squadron. I understood his tactic immediately. I tucked in behind him and followed his lead directly into the center of the weakened squadron. Hit them right where it counts, right down the middle, I thought, Let them fire now. They did. Scarlet bolts of energy flashed all around me and the Commander. I took a minor hit on my aft shields, but otherwise, I had no other damage. The same could not be said for the reserve Jacroon fighters. Our tactic decimated them, without us even having to fire a shot. All totaled, five fighters of the seven were destroyed by the time the Commander and I emerged from the other side of their group. The Commander had gotten one fighter with a lucky shot before we dove in, hitting its engines and sending it to the ground below in a shower of sparks. The other four fighters had fallen when we shot through the center of their group and they were hit in their own crossfire. All had blown up on the spot, with ones of the shock waves engulfing one of the two remaining fighters, leaving it streaked and scarred all over its hull. The fighter dropped low to the ground, and we decided to let it go, since it was heading away from the scene. That decision had been a fatal one for forty three brave men and women. After clearing the fighter resistance, the transports were clear to go to ground. As the Flaming Dragons flew in ahead to draw anti-aircraft fire so the transports could land safely. While we were away, the final fighter had flown up behind the final transport, Transport Charlie Six, and had peppered its aft with laser fire. Before the gunners could adjust, the fighter had blown out Charlie Six's engines, sending it crashing to the ground, and exploding in flames. The fighter had been destroyed by the other transports, but the damage was already done. It had not been easy taking on these fighters while protecting the transports and dodging anti- aircraft fire. Remarkably, the Flaming Dragons, already having lost four men earlier that day, held off the attackers, only losing one transport. The war was over, and the humans had won. We were all jubilant that we had won, but also that we had survived. Sixty two percent of the human forces that went to fight the Jacroons did not come home again. Earth was the leader in the campaign to stop a war like this from ever happening again. Our government is trying to form an intergalactic peace coalition, so there is little work for a starfighter pilot. I signed up for the first piloting job that came along, a pilot for a group of diplomats going to the Falgon system. The planet Falgon had been recently discovered by a former squad mate of mine of mine, Nick Crummuns, while flying a R-13 Scoutship. Falgon was a planet much like Earth with a breathable atmosphere and a humanoid species. It was located in a dangerous asteroid field, but if you went in by the seat of your pants and didn't tiptoe in, your trip would be a success and you wouldn't get blasted to bits. The mission was about to begin.
"Five minutes to real space entrance." Kyle "Shotgun" McLenese said over the intercom. Kyle was my co-pilot and gunner. I was sitting in the back of the ship with the two diplomats, Jen Kentwood and Kevin Bowers. "Want to come up to the bridge?" I asked, "The view should be awesome." "Sure," Jen said. I walked up to the bridge, Jen and Kevin in tow. As the timer clicked down to zero, I pulled back on the hyperspace lever. The ship we were in, the Liberty Star, a modified Contra Fleet Systems StarJumper, emerged from the bleak gray of hyperspace into the black starriness of real space. "There's Falgon, dead ahead. Want to turn on the IFF beacon, AJ?" Kyle asked. "No problem, Kyle. Planet Falgon, Planet Falgon, this is the Earth diplomatic envoy on the ship Liberty Star. Please acknowledge." As I finished the call, I saw tiny black specks rising from the planet. "Looks like they've sent up a welcoming committee." Kevin exclaimed. However, I wasn't so sure. "Liberty Star to incoming fighters, please state your intensions." The fighters kept coming toward us. I told Kyle to get to the gun well and the others to strap in as I powered up the shields. A barely audible thrum echoed throughout the ship as the shield generators started to power up. The fighters grew even closer, and I could see that they were deployed in a bowl formation, almost as if they wanted to prevent us from escaping. A timer on the control panel counted down from one minute to the time when the shields would become operational. However, before the shields could come up, a flurry of laser shot out from the incoming fighters. I yelled in surprise and terror as I threw the ship into a series of spins and rolls. As I dodged the ship up and down and side to side, a blast struck home. The shield generator exploded in a shower of sparks, ensuring that now our shields would never come up. I heard a sharp, rapid shooting sound as Kyle shot back at the fighters, but there were too many of them for him to hit. My computer couldn't get a lock on the ship's profiles, and even if it could, it would have a hard time firing a shot with the amount of evasive maneuvering that I was doing. Then another shot hit our communications array, turning it instantly into a pile of slag and molten metal. We now couldn't even call for help or surrender. I shot towards the planet, racing towards it as fast as the ship would go. Shots pounded our stern, making off tone musical notes throughout the ship. "We're already crashing!" I yelled, "What more do they want?" But I knew. They wanted the ship destroyed on impact, all traces of it and it's occupants erased. "I'm open to any ideas you have," I yelled over the noise. But no one had any ideas. We were in an out-of-the-way star system, being fired upon by a powerful alien space force, spiraling down towards almost certain death on a back world planet. I looked at the diplomats and Kyle, who had come down from the turrent to try and help me land the ship. Kyle's face showed intense concentration. Jen's knuckles were white and her lips pressed together, not wanting to disturb us. I smiled and gave her a reassuring wink before turning to Kevin. Kevin fumbled with his seat belt, trying to strap in before we crashed. I looked back out the window, watching the ground rush up at us like a giant hammer, and then.
My name is AJ Mavick. I am a 22-year-old member of the United Earth Space Force, the UESF. For many years, since humans discovered faster-than-light travel in 2064, we have been roaming the galaxy, looking for other civilizations. And we have found them. First, there were the Limphons, and we made peace with them. Then, we met the Jacroons. The Jacroons attacked our diplomats as soon as they arrived in their system. For fifteen long years, the war between the Jacroons and humans raged. I joined five years ago as a pilot for the UESF. I flew S-46 Slingshots until Lockheed-Boeing built the S-49 Starchasers. Finally, the humans won. The last battle of the Human-Jacroon War was the Battle of Jacroon over the Jacroon home world. The entire First and Second Earth Armadas were involved in the battle, surrounding the entire planet. Twenty-seven squadrons of starfighters had flown around the planet, blasting fighters and capital ships out of existence. The most intense fighting had come during the middle of the space battle when my squadron, the Flaming Dragons, had to attack the Jacroon control ship nearly by themselves. Only eight H-23 heavy bombers would accompany our twelve-fighter squadron in attacking the biggest, most powerful craft the Jacroon Navy had. Only one thing made the job easier. Almost all of the fighters protecting the main ship had left, going off to attack our capital ships in their protective ring around the planet. Sixteen Jacroon fighters were left to guard the control ship. Commander Gordon Goering told us our strategy as we streaked in at the behemoth. "Flights One and Three, on me. Lt. Commander Mavick, take Two Flight and guard the bombers. One and Two Flights, spread formation. Execute." I throttled back my fighter and slipped into formation with the bombers. "This is Lt. Commander AJ Mavick with Two Flight. We'll be your escorts this evening. What's your pleasure?" "Ace? Little brother, is that you?" A voice shouted over the comm. unit. "David? What are you doing here? I thought you were on assignment in the Outer Rim against pirates." "I was, but command wanted the best for this mission, so here we are. As for our pleasure, just keep those fighter off our backs." "Will do, David." I switched to Two Flight's radio frequency, "Alright, here's how we do this. I'll take Bombers One and Two, Six, take Three and Four, Seven, you have Five and Six, and Eight has Seven and Eight. Got it?" A string of affirmatives rang out over the comm. system as the fighters moved to cover their respective charges. Ahead, I watched as the rest of the squadron boiled into a raging dogfight with the rest of the Jacroon fighters. I saw many Jacroon fighters flare out of existence on my sensor board, but so far, no Flaming Dragons had gone down. As my flight of fighters escorting the bombers came into view, I saw two Flaming Dragon fighters in trouble. One, it turned out to be Flaming Dragon Two, Flt. Officer Paul Smith. He shot out of the fray with two fighters on his tail. He dodged left and right, trying to shake the fighters off his tail. "Pull up, Two!" I yelled into the comm. system. "No can do, Five. Vertical controls are shot. Can you pick these rats off my tail?" "On my way, Two. Bomber One, you have control of your flight. Two Flight, form a screen in front of those bombers and nail those fighters, but save your missiles. We're going to need those later. Let's go, Two Flight." A chorus of clicks rang out over the radio, indicating understanding of the order. I shot after the fighters on Paul's tail. For only being able to dodge from side to side, Paul was doing a marvelous job of staying alive. However, no one could dodge forever. Even as I flew in behind the Jacroon fighters, I saw two shots hit Paul's aft shields, breaking them. I blasted a snapshot off at the fighter who was hanging back more than the other. My dual burst of laser fire slammed into his unshielded aft, exploding his engines and penetrating his cockpit. The craft exploded brilliantly, breaking down the starboard shields of his wingman. I sideslipped over to the side of that ship preparing to fire the killing shot. Just as I tightened my finger on the trigger, the Jacroon fighter fired its final shot. The shot hit just behind the cockpit before blowing through it. Paul's fighter didn't explode right away, but began a slow, lazy roll down and to the right. The shot had killed Paul with one burst, leaving the fighter without intelligence at the controls. I bloodlessly killed Paul's murderer, but I didn't celebrate. I wanted to mourn for Paul, but there was work to be done. Mourning of comrades came later, after the mission was done. "Control, Two is gone, repeat, gone. He took a blast right through the cockpit." "I copy, Five." Commander Goering replied. "I know you did all you could." As I turned back into the fight, I saw another fighter shoot out of the fray with three fighters on his tail. It was Flt. Officer Frank Norman, Flaming Dragon Twelve. Frank was doing a much better job of dodging the fire, but there was more of it for him to dodge. I flew in firing a spray of shots, just aiming to scatter the fighters. Only one fighter was spooked, and peeled off at a right angle downward, away from Frank. Most of my shots struck the fighter at the back of the formation, hitting first at the bow, then tracing back, through the cockpit, and finally exploding the engines. Another of the fighters pulled off Frank's tail to avoid the debris, leaving him with only one to worry about. Frank made a tight turn, swapping nose for tail in the space of one hundred fifty meters, putting him directly on the last fighter's tail. I swept after both of them, following Frank in case he needed help. Frank launched a missile at the final fighter, and as close as he was, the fighter had no time to dodge. The missile slammed into the rear of the fighter, utterly destroying the fighter's aft shields and still had enough energy to blow through the hull. The fireball rapidly expanded, and Frank pulled up to avoid it. Which is right when his craft hit a Jacroon fighter. At the speed the two ships were going, there was no time to dodge. Frank's bow shields sparked, then imploded as the slender nose of his fighter penetrated the Jacroon fighter before snapping off right in front of the cockpit. Unspent T-85 missiles fell out of the nose down towards the planet below. Frank's fighter exploded along with the Jacroon fighter, and the dual explosion nearly blinded me. I again keyed my comm. system to report bad news. "One, we just lost Twelve." "Are you sure, Five?" the Commander asked. "Positive, sir. He fighter slammed into an enemy." "Roger that, Five. Get back to your escorts." "Roger that, sir." I pulled my fighter in a steep turn to get it back to the bombers. They had advanced significantly while I was away, and it would take me several seconds to catch up with them. As I flew towards the bombers, I listened to the comm. chatter over my radio. "Blue Five, this is Four, recommend you juke.now. Eight, recommend you shoot.now." "This is Red Nine. Red Ten is gone, repeat, gone." "Green Eleven here. I need some help!" "Will someone get this guy off my six?" "Red Ten here, Nine. I'm here, where are you?" "Then who's that cloud of debris, Ten?" "Help. I can't hold her! She's gonna blow!" "Wait. Nine, where's Twelve?" "This is Gold Seven reporting. Shields: out, engines: out, lasers: out. I only have communications. I'm dead in space and I need some help over here." "Grey Two just banked into a capital ship, she's gone." "Black Six, ejecting! Send the medical shuttle!" "I'm still not seeing Twelve, Nine." "The Dominance is going down, She got hit by missiles. Get away from it. Watch the debris. Mark escape pod locations!" I finally swept into formation with the bombers. "Six, on me. Seven and Eight, watch the rear." "Seven and Eight here, sir, roger." "Roger that." Watching for other fighters coming in at the bombers, I saw another of my squad mates, Flt. Officer Brain Wilson, Flaming Dragon Four, in trouble. He shot down a fighter right under the shadow of the Jacroon control ship. Heavy lasers shot out at him nearly hitting. Though the heavy lasers were not usually used to shoot down snubfighters, the sheer volume of the fire meant they couldn't miss forever. "Four, this is Five. Brian, start to swerve.now!" Brain threw his ship into a spin pilots call the swerve. The gunners, thrown off balance by the move, missed wildly as the tried to hit Brian's rapidly moving ship. A beam of light shot out towards Brain's ship, but at first it looked as if it had missed. Then Brain's ship rolled, revealing the port side of the ship completely gone. Half of Brian's body was still sitting in half the seat, but the fighter kept rolling, dumping his body out into space. I switched on my radio again, "Bombers One through Six, you are free to start your run." "Rodger that, Ace, keep those fighters off our backs." "Will do, David. Six, Seven, and Eight, we are holding the backdoor open." "Yes, sir." Kyle and Dave said. We all decelerated to cover the backs of the bombers. David's bomber took the lead of his eight-bomber squadron towards the Jacroon control ship. "Flaming Dragon One, my ships only have six missiles left each. We only have enough power to break the shields and maybe do a little damage, but your squadron's missiles will be needed to bring that ship down." "Rodger that, Bomber One. We can only spare four missiles from each member of my squad. We have escort duty later and will need our last two." "Got it, Flaming Dragon One. Have your squad key their targeting data to my computer. After they fire their four missiles, I'll take their telemetry off my computer, and then my guys will fire their last two missiles. Let's hope this works. Let's roll, boys!" The bombers streaked in at the control ship in a spread formation to spread out the gunners fire. The other Flaming Dragons positioned themselves at multiple points around the control ship to maximize the amount of fire and the number of targets. "Fire first pair of missiles on my mark.three.two.one.mark!" Thirty-four T- 85 missiles shot out from various points around the Jacroon control ship heading towards the specific point marked by David's computer. The missiles all hit almost simultaneously, but failed to penetrate. "The shield is still at seventy-five percent strength. We have to hope that the next salvo breaks the shields, or we'll have to start going in with lasers." David reported. "Dave, my computer just told me this. There wasn't more damage to the shields because the Jacroon sensors detected your target and shifted shield power to that specific point. The trick is to target the same spot, and then just before we fire, change the target. The missiles will alter their target automatically, and the change might be quick enough so that they won't be able to get their shields shifted in time." "It's worth a try, Ace. Alright, everyone, you heard him. Just key your missiles to my targeting again; I'll do the hard work." Dave targeted the ship again. "All ships, target on my mark. Three.two.one.mark!" Another thirty-four missiles shot out towards the Jacroon capital ship. Mid-flight, the missiles suddenly swerved up towards the bridge. The Jacroons weren't able to switch move their shields fast enough, and all the missiles slammed into the nearly unshielded hull. Explosions blossomed over the hull as lightning skittered up the hull. The ship shuddered as a silent blast ripped through it. Entire pieces of the hull were thrown in space, spiraling in silent testament to those killed on board. Suddenly, an emergency transmission blasted over the channel. "Attention, all UESF forces. Get clear of the Jacroon capital ship, her reactor levels are fluctuating all over the place. She's gonna blow. Get the hell out of there!" "Holy shit!" I yelled, pulling my control stick back to my chest. My fighter flipped over in a one hundred eighty degree turn and blasted away from the Jacroon capital ship. Light filled the area behind me as an explosion blossomed from deep inside the ship. The explosion moved out in a circular pattern around the ship, turning metal into liquid in the blink of an eye and incinerating crew members before they even had the chance to yell. The ship exploded brilliantly, sending huge chunks of debris flying into space. "Yahoo!" "We did it! We really fucking did it!" "Shut up!" Admiral Harris yelled. "The battle isn't fucking over yet." The comm. channels got very quiet after that. After mopping up the battle in space, the starfighters flew down and strafed the troops and airbases on the surface. The Flaming Dragons had the duty of escorting troop transport ships down to the planet. This didn't sound like much, but it turned out to be the most dangerous duty in the mission. Anti-aircraft fire shot up at the ships and reserve fighters had flown in firing wildly. "Group, this is Leader. I have three squadrons of reserve fighters flying in from our right. Lt. Commander Mavick, you're with me. Lt. Mitchell, you now have command of Group Two. Group One, on me. Let's go roll some heads. Group Two, stay with the transports until further orders." Commander Gordon Goering said. He peeled off to the right, with Lt. Kyle McLenese, Lt. Max Carper and me following him. "Break into Diamond Formation, high-low." The four S-49 Starchasers shifted immediately into a formation with two fighters about one hundred meters apart one above the other, while the other two split the two fighters about one hundred twenty meters side to side. The quick switch startled the incoming fighters, making them swerve to try to retarget us. Two swerved right into one another, one exploding on impact, and the other spiraling down to the mountains below in flames. "Group Two, as soon as the first squadron passes us, attack them from behind. Make it quick, we don't want to be attacked from two different directions. Group One, scatter spray of T-85 missiles towards the incoming fighters." Eight T-85 missiles shot out towards the incoming squadrons, taking out five in the first squadron, two in the second, and one in the third. "Break into wing pairs and engage at will. Mavick, on me." "Yes sir." I pulled in behind Goering as we shot towards the remaining seven fighters in the first squadron. One major advantage the UESF fighters had over the Jacroon's was our deflector shields. A stray shot that hit one of our comrades wasn't likely to do much damage. However, if a stray shot hit a Jacroon fighter, it could severely damage or destroy the craft. Commander Goering aimed straight for the center of the seven fighter squadron. I understood his tactic immediately. I tucked in behind him and followed his lead directly into the center of the weakened squadron. Hit them right where it counts, right down the middle, I thought, Let them fire now. They did. Scarlet bolts of energy flashed all around me and the Commander. I took a minor hit on my aft shields, but otherwise, I had no other damage. The same could not be said for the reserve Jacroon fighters. Our tactic decimated them, without us even having to fire a shot. All totaled, five fighters of the seven were destroyed by the time the Commander and I emerged from the other side of their group. The Commander had gotten one fighter with a lucky shot before we dove in, hitting its engines and sending it to the ground below in a shower of sparks. The other four fighters had fallen when we shot through the center of their group and they were hit in their own crossfire. All had blown up on the spot, with ones of the shock waves engulfing one of the two remaining fighters, leaving it streaked and scarred all over its hull. The fighter dropped low to the ground, and we decided to let it go, since it was heading away from the scene. That decision had been a fatal one for forty three brave men and women. After clearing the fighter resistance, the transports were clear to go to ground. As the Flaming Dragons flew in ahead to draw anti-aircraft fire so the transports could land safely. While we were away, the final fighter had flown up behind the final transport, Transport Charlie Six, and had peppered its aft with laser fire. Before the gunners could adjust, the fighter had blown out Charlie Six's engines, sending it crashing to the ground, and exploding in flames. The fighter had been destroyed by the other transports, but the damage was already done. It had not been easy taking on these fighters while protecting the transports and dodging anti- aircraft fire. Remarkably, the Flaming Dragons, already having lost four men earlier that day, held off the attackers, only losing one transport. The war was over, and the humans had won. We were all jubilant that we had won, but also that we had survived. Sixty two percent of the human forces that went to fight the Jacroons did not come home again. Earth was the leader in the campaign to stop a war like this from ever happening again. Our government is trying to form an intergalactic peace coalition, so there is little work for a starfighter pilot. I signed up for the first piloting job that came along, a pilot for a group of diplomats going to the Falgon system. The planet Falgon had been recently discovered by a former squad mate of mine of mine, Nick Crummuns, while flying a R-13 Scoutship. Falgon was a planet much like Earth with a breathable atmosphere and a humanoid species. It was located in a dangerous asteroid field, but if you went in by the seat of your pants and didn't tiptoe in, your trip would be a success and you wouldn't get blasted to bits. The mission was about to begin.
"Five minutes to real space entrance." Kyle "Shotgun" McLenese said over the intercom. Kyle was my co-pilot and gunner. I was sitting in the back of the ship with the two diplomats, Jen Kentwood and Kevin Bowers. "Want to come up to the bridge?" I asked, "The view should be awesome." "Sure," Jen said. I walked up to the bridge, Jen and Kevin in tow. As the timer clicked down to zero, I pulled back on the hyperspace lever. The ship we were in, the Liberty Star, a modified Contra Fleet Systems StarJumper, emerged from the bleak gray of hyperspace into the black starriness of real space. "There's Falgon, dead ahead. Want to turn on the IFF beacon, AJ?" Kyle asked. "No problem, Kyle. Planet Falgon, Planet Falgon, this is the Earth diplomatic envoy on the ship Liberty Star. Please acknowledge." As I finished the call, I saw tiny black specks rising from the planet. "Looks like they've sent up a welcoming committee." Kevin exclaimed. However, I wasn't so sure. "Liberty Star to incoming fighters, please state your intensions." The fighters kept coming toward us. I told Kyle to get to the gun well and the others to strap in as I powered up the shields. A barely audible thrum echoed throughout the ship as the shield generators started to power up. The fighters grew even closer, and I could see that they were deployed in a bowl formation, almost as if they wanted to prevent us from escaping. A timer on the control panel counted down from one minute to the time when the shields would become operational. However, before the shields could come up, a flurry of laser shot out from the incoming fighters. I yelled in surprise and terror as I threw the ship into a series of spins and rolls. As I dodged the ship up and down and side to side, a blast struck home. The shield generator exploded in a shower of sparks, ensuring that now our shields would never come up. I heard a sharp, rapid shooting sound as Kyle shot back at the fighters, but there were too many of them for him to hit. My computer couldn't get a lock on the ship's profiles, and even if it could, it would have a hard time firing a shot with the amount of evasive maneuvering that I was doing. Then another shot hit our communications array, turning it instantly into a pile of slag and molten metal. We now couldn't even call for help or surrender. I shot towards the planet, racing towards it as fast as the ship would go. Shots pounded our stern, making off tone musical notes throughout the ship. "We're already crashing!" I yelled, "What more do they want?" But I knew. They wanted the ship destroyed on impact, all traces of it and it's occupants erased. "I'm open to any ideas you have," I yelled over the noise. But no one had any ideas. We were in an out-of-the-way star system, being fired upon by a powerful alien space force, spiraling down towards almost certain death on a back world planet. I looked at the diplomats and Kyle, who had come down from the turrent to try and help me land the ship. Kyle's face showed intense concentration. Jen's knuckles were white and her lips pressed together, not wanting to disturb us. I smiled and gave her a reassuring wink before turning to Kevin. Kevin fumbled with his seat belt, trying to strap in before we crashed. I looked back out the window, watching the ground rush up at us like a giant hammer, and then.