The briefing room was dimly illuminated by the main tactical display screen, causing the glow to shift from being red to green to blue. Chris was dimly aware of the fact, having spent so much time in this room. The base commander was standing in the front while the squadron filed in, taking their respective seats.
Once they were seated, the Commander began speaking. "Pilots, you're here right now because a situation has arisen. A short time ago, we lost contact with the GTC Muridin." The screen highlighted the icon representing the Muridin. "The Muridin is an Aeolus cruiser, with plenty of firepower. If a group of pirates were to capture her, it could easily compromise the safety and security of shipping in this system. Therefor, I'm instructing Alpha wing to investigate it's last known coordinates, Beta and Gamma will fly patrol around the Repair Yard."
"Commander," Amy raised her hand. "Why are we deploying two teams to guard the Repair Yard, and sending only one after the Muridin?"
"Safeguarding the Repair Yard is of the highest priority, just follow your orders." The Commander straightened his posture, typical when he was giving information rather than answering questions. The effect was noticeable on his voice. "If Alpha needs help, we've got the local Vasudan fighter wing to help them on backup. Check out the Muridin's homing beacon but be careful, we don't have any idea what happened here. Dismissed."
That was the signal for the pilots to race for their fighters. One by one, they launched from their respective racks. Chris, in his Ulysses, began downloading the jump coordinates from command. The download took only a few seconds and soon, the course appeared as a bright indicator on his heads up display. He led Anya, Louis, and Jack to the jump point and held position, charging up his subspace drives. He opened his wing comm channels, "Amy, Nick, keep watch over the fort until we get back."
He received two comm clicks indicating that Amy and Nick had understood his order. "Alpha wing, let's get ready to jump, call out readiness."
"Alpha 2 here, jump drivers charged."
"Alpha 3 here, ready to roll."
"This is Alpha 4, jump drives are powered sir!" Jack's excitement was evident in the tone of his voice.
"Jump now, go, go, go!" Chris stated over the comm.
The group entered subspace at the same time. Each fighter was in it's own personal subspace corridor to it's destination in-system. The destination would lead them to a dense asteroid field, were the Muridin's rescue beacon was broadcasting a cry for help.
XXX
Meanwhile, halfway across the system, a lone mercenary Leviathan raced away from it's pursuers, a small battlegroup of GTVA ships, the GVCv Sedfa, a Sobek class corvette, the GTC Pirate Killer, a Leviathan, and the GVA Asyut, a Vasudan AWACS ship. The mercenary cruiser was faster than the standard Leviathan and as such was slowly putting distance between itself and it's GTVA pursuers, moving closer to a jump point.
Just as the mercenary cruiser began to slow for a subspace jump, the Sedfa fired with it's forward beam cannons, and launched a volley of missiles. The beam cannons missed at the extreme range but two of the missiles struck, leaving homing beacons on the ship. Seconds later the mercenary cruiser entered subspace.
The GTVA fleet quickly reformed on the Sobek, and entered subspace behind the mercenary cruiser, tracking it's course and vector. It was headed for a dense asteroid field on the other side of the system. It was a simple matter to follow it into subspace. They'd only be a few seconds behind it.
XXX
Alpha wing emerged from subspace after spending a brief five minutes in subspace. Chris quickly reorientated his fighter and spotted an Aeolus cruiser ahead. He activated his transmitter. "GTC Muridin, this is Alpha wing of the 77th Swords, respond please." There was no response. "Alright Alpha, let's get a move on it. Redirect to you engines and get ready to dodge some rocks. We've got to get to the center of that field."
It took ten minutes of mind numbingly difficult flying to reach the relative safety of the inner part of the asteroid field, where few of the rocks seemed to reside. Chris slowed down as they got closer to the Muridin and re-transmitted his original message.
"Maybe they lost their transmission array?" Louis speculated.
"I already checked that Louis," Anya replied. "That system is fine right now. In fact, I'm reading no damage to any system."
"But then why is it dead in space?" Jack asked. "How could something like this happen. It's not a defenseless freighter, it's an Aeolus cruiser."
"Wait, I'm getting an energy spike from the reactor!" Anya shrieked and used her afterburners to get away, the others followed suit just as the reactor blew on the Muridin, sending all four Ulysses fighters flying off into space.
Chris woke to the shrill tone of damage warnings from his ship. He had no clue how long he'd been out. The world was a spinning mess as he struggled to focus. Finally, he was able to concentrate and assess the damage. It was all minor, and slowly repairing itself. He brought up his targeting system and checked his squadmates. They were all intact as well, all though one of the engines on Jack's ship was completely offline.
"Chris, you awake?" Anya asked. She sounded as if she was a bit shaken too.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Chris replied. "What the hell was that?"
"It was an explosion, duh!" Louis yelled. "Whoever set off the Muridin's gonna pay, they scratched my paint!"
"Shut up about your paint." Jack was obviously upset. "I've got a nasty bruise on my forehead and I've only got one engine. Engine subsystem is down to 23% efficiency and holding."
"Try giving a restart Jack," Anya stated.
"Already did," Jack replied. "But I'll try again." The remaining engine on his fighter sputtered out and came back to life. "No good mam, it's out for good."
"Unknown jump signatures boss!" Louis was calm again, knowing that his star pupil was injured.
"I see it," Chris replied. "Leviathan configuration, no IFF tags, I'm reading a bunch of antifighter beams on that thing. Three Perseus fighters for an escort."
"We can't handle that Chris." Anya was worried, judging by the tone of her voice.
"You're definitely right. "Everyone power down, keep passive sensors and comms on but shut down everything else." Chris started shutting down his systems, engines, weapons, shields, leaving only his passive sensor online. They couldn't even detect the Civilian cruiser moving toward the center of the field at the current distance.
"Hey, look at that!" Anya shrieked as the Sedfa, Pirate Killer and Asyut dropped out of subspace right on top of the Civilian cruiser. The Sedfa immediately opened fire, burning through the engine compartment of the cruiser. The Pirate Killer then took it's turn, cutting off the top radar tower. The civilian cruiser was dead in space.
"Attention Oberon," the Vasudan commander on the Sedfa stated over an open comm channel. "You are under arrest for unlawfully enslaving sentient beings against their will. Surrender, or we will take you by force."
"I will not give up my ship!" The commander of the Oberon replied in turn.
"You don't have a chance Oberon, this is your final warning."
"I would rather die."
"You won't have that chance. Omega and Sigma, launch. Disarm the Oberon."
Two wings of old Lokis fighters exited from the Sedfa's small fighterbay, racing for the Oberon. The Lokis swarmed the anti-fighter beam turrets, precisely shooting off the turrets with their disrupter cannons.
While Sigma and Omega were busy disarming the Oberon, Chris open a channel to the Sedfa. "This is Alpha wing of the 77th Swords, need a hand Sedfa?"
"That's quite alright Alpha," the commander of the Sedfa replied, "we have the situation under control. Please activate your transponders so we can see you. Stay on alert status in case we do."
"Alpha wing, let's power up again." Chris flipped the various switches and powered his Ulysses back up. It took only seconds for his guns to charge. The rest of his systems came online just as fast. He quickly activated his active scanners.
"Alpha wing," the commander of the Asyut began, "we are deploying a support craft to aid Alpha 4. However, we are detecting two wings of unidentified fighters inbound. Please join Omega and Sigma in defeating these fighters."
"Affirmative Asyut. Louis, stay here with Jack until the support vessel is in and out, then join us."
"Yes sir!" Louis replied.
"Anya, stay close."
"Don't worry, already on it." Anya replied.
Chris diverted some power into his engines and raced to where Omega and Sigma wings were already engaged with and equal number of Hercs. It was a fairly even fighter. The Hercs were tough but slow and the Lokis didn't really have the firepower to harm them, especially with one gun bank tied up with a disrupter.
Once Chris was close, he dived into the fight with his afterburner engaged. He zoomed in behind a Herc and pulled both triggers on his joystick, blasting the Herc to pieces in seconds. Two more explosions, signaled Anya's first two kills.
It was then that Chris's proximity alarms began wailing. Chris yanked his joystick hard and sent his Ulysses into a spin that brought him behind the Herc, just as Omega wing blasted it apart. Chris spotted Anya and raced back for her, blasting a Herc off her tail as she finished off the last Herc.
Chris gently looped his fighter back around and headed for the Oberon. Louis joined up with Chris and Anya there. Meanwhile, the Sedfa and Pirate Killer moved in to provide close cover for the Oberon.
"Hey Chris." Louis was begging for attention.
"What is it?" Chris replied.
"I'm close enough that I can see into the bridge of the Oberon! There's some idiot who seems to be screaming at me."
"Maybe he just doesn't like the way you look?" Anya snickered.
"Hey, that's insulting!" Louis quipped. "Anyway, he must've failed physics. Any idiot, and yes that includes me, knows that sound doesn't travel in space."
"He's most likely mad that we've shot his ship up."
"Yeah but it looks like he's tryin' to do sign language or something!"
"Maybe you should just look up." Anya bounced her fighter off of Louis's fighter. It was a gentle bounce, but still enough to make a really loud band inside Louis's fighter.
"Damn it! Someday." Despite the hostile intent of the sentence Louis was laughing.
"Okay you two." Chris interrupted. "Transport's here to pick up this trash heap. Time to head for home." Chris transmitted the jump coordinates to Anya and Louis and then engaged his subspace drives.
XXX
The debriefing was far more boring that the mission. The Base commander stood in front of the whole squadron and began his small speech. "You all did a fine job. While all the extra fighters around the repair yard was a little too much security and unnecessary, we still did a good job today. Alpha wing did locate the Muridin, but it was destroyed in a massive explosion that was most likely intended to foul any rescue attempt. Alpha wing also proceeded to aid a GTVA strike fleet in capturing a bunch of criminals and their modified Leviathan cruiser. Seems like a good day to me Swords."
"There will be a command briefing tomorrow mourning at 0830 hours." The commander finished. "I expect all of you to be there."
XXX
The squadron barracks wasn't much to look at. It had four rooms. One of the rooms was the squadron common area. The other three, were the respective bunk rooms for each flight. Labels on the doors identified them as Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. Each bunk room had a small bathroom in them. The accommodations were less than stellar.
Chris sat at one of the four tables that were in the common area. The rest of the squadron was arrayed at the other tables. Gordon and Franz were playing cards at one of the tables. Anya, Louis, and Jack were sitting at the same table as Chris. Amy, Alex, and Nick occupied another table. RaNah, David, and Nicole were seated around the final table. RaNah was sitting in the only chair on the station he could. The chair had been made to allow RaNah to sit down and was adapted for Vasudan physiology.
"Chris," Amy began, "do you have any idea what this command briefing is about. Wouldn't that time be better off spent sleeping?"
"If command has something to say," RaNah replied, "it would be wise for us to listen. It could mean that we could have something important to do."
"Oh come on RaNah!" Louis stated forcefully. "You know as well as I do that nothing is happening."
"What about the rash of pirate activity in this sector recently?" RaNah pounded his fist on the table. "You would do well to teach you student this!"
"Command doesn't care! When was the last time a decisive order came from command. Not since Capella!" Louis rolled his eyes. "Maybe in the Galactic Vasudan Navy command is always patting you on the back, but you're talking about Terran Command."
"Your argument has merit, but doesn't change my opinion."
"It doesn't matter what any of you think!" Anya's voice carried throughout the room. "Either way we have to go to that command briefing. We might as well not argue about it."
"Amy, Nick." Chris stated quietly. "Take both of your wings down to the simulator room and have them run through a few simulations."
"Oh crap." Gordon dropped his cards. "Why bother?"
"I want all the wings to have equal readiness. Alpha has seen several skirmishes already in the past two days. You've seen nothing."
"Come on Betas, let's go." Amy stated as she and her brother got up.
"Gamma wing, suit up!" Nick stated this with a military like snap. He then led RaNah, David, and Nicole out of the common area.
"You know," Louis asked, "do any of you have any idea what really happened out there today?"
"Somebody rigged the Muridin." Anya replied with a shrug. "There reasoning is a mystery though, most pirate groups would die to have such a ship in their fleets."
"Maybe it was proximity triggered?" Jack suggested.
"That's obvious." Anya put her hand on her forehead. "My head's still ringing from that explosion. It just doesn't make sense, why not keep it."
"That's what I was thinking." Chris stated. "As you said, every pirate group in this sector would love to get their hands on a fully armed Aeolus cruiser. Whoever did this didn't need it."
"Which means..." Louis began.
"That we're dealing with someone," Anya continued, "who's got more weapons and equipment than they want us to believe. If they didn't want an Aeolus cruiser, then they must have enough ships to not see the use in capturing it."
"What a pity all that's left of the Muridin is space dust." Louis scratched his head. "But why?"
"I'm not sure if we'll know any time soon." Chris replied.