Chapter 17-Fighter Tactics

The first salvos impacted on the incoming frigate line, devastating the shields of several, and completely blowing away an unlucky frigate. The first salvo caused significant damage, but it was not enough, with the reloading of torpedoes not being completed fast enough, the aschen pulse cannons aiming directly at them.

A combined blast from the front frigates, blazing like blue fire impacted upon the shields of the defenders, cutting apart the fighters foolish enough to run into the blasts, and stripping two of the four MTB's of most of their shields. The Ha'tak moved to stop the incoming energy blasts with its superior shields, while not being the upgraded Asgard shields of the rest of the fleet, the Ha'tak's Goa'uld shielding still had much more raw power behind it then the MTB's, and kept them safe while delivering massive amounts of plasma bursts to the invading fleet. The constant barrage was slowly fazing the goa'uld shielding, it getting duller and duller at every salvo, some blasts cutting right through and impacting across the hull, the ship just couldn't take this much punishment for so long, however soon it would not have to.

All 4 MTB's skimmed out at extreme speeds with gauss rounds firing at maximum rate of fire, the lighter cannons able to fire at nearly a round per second, and they were taking advantage of that fact. Frigates fell under the fire, others losing shields and armour, in any case it was devastating, especially when another 16 torpedoes spat out into the weakened line.

Hits were scored across the fleet, atleast 6 confirmed kills, including the other 3 taken out beforehand lead the Aschen begin a much more aggressive pattern. However they didn't seem to notice the fast approaching F-302 squadron of the Endeavour.

F-302 Echo-2

While not considered an actual full squadron, the fighter groups of the Prometheus class cruisers were a devastating addition to the ships already capable abilities. If not for them, Vulcan would not just be a desert, but a empty wasteland. The man that the honours of that victory goes to END-2 Pilot Edison 'Freelancer' Trent, 2nd in command of the Endeavours fighter group, and the insane bastard that devastated the Aschen Mothership at the first battle, now he was ordered to do the same, with his entire squadron The gathering of 8 fighters immediately split into 4 pairs, each heading towards a mothership.

With the 3rd SFW holding the line at group two, the only f-302s left were his squadron, considered to be elites of the tau'ri fighter corps, drawn from all squadrons to but together the Endeavours much needed fighter wing.

"All fighters, this is Diceman, Prepare to micro-jump, i don't need to remind you how dangerous this is, don't stuff it up."

"Roger that Echo One"

"Copy boss"

"Ready as ever"

"This is Echo-5, we're getting some flak here, aschen motherships opening fire!"

"Echo-6 reporting, getting the same thing, you guys better watch out on your runs."

"this is E-7, Vixen had to pull out, problems with the hyperdrive, I'm proceeding alone."

"Roger that everyone, Wolf watch your back, survive this and you might take Freelancers title of crazy bastard."

Grins were shared across the pilots and their co-pilots, as all 4 groups charged in, frantically avoiding the massive energy blasts directed at them. The gigantic bursts were easy to see and easy to avoid, but unlike point defense weapons, if you were hit, armour would make no difference, fighters would be obliterated under such power.

"This is Echo-5, jumping now"

"This is 6, following Fox in now."

The two fighters created micro-jump points just outside the shields border, it took an insane amount of calculations to do, it was when two exit points opened just inside the shield that the pilots took a sigh of relief.

"Good job Fox, Bandit, now take out the shield generator and do as much damage as possible before jumping to point two."

"Roger Diceman, we're moving in now."

"Okay Freelancer its our turn now, lets hope lucks on our side."

"Luck has nothing to do with it, If Moose screws this up, he'll be more worried about what I'd do to him let alone smashing into a shield." Trent said as he punched in the coordinates on the final approach. His co-pilot, Call sign Moose, just snorted with laughter before sending the final piece of data for the jump.

"Okay you ready?"

"As I'll ever be!"

Both F-302s, followed suite of their comrades, opening purple vortex just off the shields of the mothership, before diving in, exiting almost instantaneously 5 metres into the shields.

Moose gave a sigh or relief, exiting hyperspace inside a ship was not fun."Okay Trent lets do this."he said as all sparrow anti-capital ship 'torpedoes' were set to active, the HUD indicating the target, a long stretch across the hull, with Diceman already speeding towards it.

"Damn he always was impatient." Trent muttered, as he set the afterburners to full to join his wingman.