Chapter 8: Solar Flare

"Never fly straight and level for more than 30 seconds in the combat arena"- The Ten Rules of Air Combat, Adolf 'Sailor' Malan Earth-1941

ASTEROID & DEBRIS FIELD-Sev's Starcrow

The large Heavy Fighter banked and soared past the blasted hulk of an old freighter, its glowing blue vapour trails soaring fifty kilometers behind. At the Starcrow's wings were the four fighter squadrons flying a Delta within a Delta formation. Between the fighters were the two squadrons of torpedo bombers also in Delta formation. Sev took the whole flight in between the two halves of an ancient Hillyan destroyer before giving the order to split up and hide in different asteroids or starship wrecks. Through the teardrop canopy Sev watched the incoming ships. Only a few pinpricks of light clustered around them, where was the rest of the Shadowknight's fighter escort?

"This is hotdog I …" The pilot screamed as autocannon rounds tore his ship to pieces. Sev swung the fighter around, an ambush! The Shadowknights knew they were coming; several more screams filled the comm. as the Shadowknight Grail class fighters used their spped to tear up the Hillyan fighters. It was only after another three ships had gone down, including two squadron leaders that the Hillyans finally got their act together. A new battle sprung up around the asteroids and debris, both sides using the huge chunks of drifting rock and durasteel to their advantage. The Grails turned out to be just two squadrons strong and it wasn't long before the last one was destroyed, pinned against the engine block of a million year old superfreighter and demolished by Raven. In return the Hillyans had lost an entire squadron, plus half of another and two torpedo bombers, one of which had been a Squadron Leader. Two more fighters had to turn back due to damage. The weakend group returned to formation and swarmed out from the wreckage. Sev's Starcrow dodged through the incoming hail of Autocannon rounds and returned fire, its four autocannons lighting up Sev's cockpit. The hail of fire demolished a pair of Grails and damaged one badly enough for another fighter to finish it. Though the Shadowknights had capships on their side they had made one mistake: they had sent their fighters out to engage the Hillyans outside the range of their ship's flack guns.

Raven's squadron dived through the fighter and destroyed four Crusaders in a barrage of missiles. Raven single handedly destroyed another three Grails and a Crusader. Wilco and his squadron racked up a string of kills against two squadrons of Grails.

Even Thunderpants managed to get a kill, ambushing a Grail as it tried to escape with a shout of "Yeah chock up one fighter for the Pants!"

Sev pinned a Crusader against Wilco's squadron and it was blown to dust. Raven managed to get another two kills and another shared, Wilco scraped the last kill, a retreating Grail. They lost another five fighters and two torp bombers but the entire Shadowknight fighter group was destroyed. The capships were next; Sev led the charge as the capship flacks lit up. The fighters began evasive maneuvers, dancing in and out of the range of the flack guns to keep the gunners busy. Sev swung his Starcrow back and forth playing the gunners like a snake charmer with his cobra. It was clear that the crew were beginners because they didn't notice the torp bombers flying on stealth mode with Thunderpants in the lead.

THUNDERPANT'S BF-4200

Thunderpants finished his calculations and plugged the firing solution in, green lines lit up on his HUD showing a 98 chance of a kill shot. He armed the torpedoes and dropped out of stealth mode "Fire!' he roared to the other bombers. As one the flight of torp bombers dropped out of stealth mode and fired their torpedoes at the cap ships. The frigates were first to be consumed in fireballs and the cruiser soon followed, destroyed by a combination of torpedoes and damage from its two escorts exploding. Immediately deafening cheering filled every comm. channel on the airwaves.

"Alrighty ladies, lets head home" Thunderpants bellowed over the cheers.

"Roger wilco (Will comply)" Sev replied…

IRIS HANGAR

The flight of battered fighters touched down and was immediately enveloped in crowds of screaming people. Sev managed to land clear of the crowds but was swamped as he climbed down and pulled of his helmet. He pushed past the mob, he wasn't interested in being carried off on their shoulders as several other pilots were, the energy readings from the cruiser indicated that they'd destroyed it mere minutes before it fired…

"Sev!" Ally came sprinting across the hangar, Furion DNA allowing her to reach Sev in just a few seconds. She crashed into her older brother and pulled him into a bearhug. "Sev your alive, I was so scared!"

"You didn't think your big brother couldn't handle himself did you?" Sev grinned; Ally then disappeared to cheer with the crowd. Sev slipped out of the hangar and ran into one solitary figure.

"Hello Sev" Pey'j growled, there was an autopistol in his hand. He brought it up to Sev's chest. Pey'j half-squeezed the trigger and the laser sight lit up. He finalized his aim then with an unmistakable click switched the safety off.

Unfortunately for Pey'j he was getting old, not that being back in his prime would have saved him from a Furion. Sev spun and kicked the autopistol out of Pey'j's hand. As he spun he unsheathed his sword. Sev finished his spin with the sword at Pey'j's chubby neck "You want to kill me pig?" Sev snarled, "You will have to do better than that!"

"Go on, do it if you can!" Pey'j snapped "You broke my little girl's heart, what's to stop you killing an old, unarmed man!"

"Nothing, but I am not going to, pig, pick up your gun and go home!" Sev snapped back. He stalked past Pey'j and made for the bar. Unfortunately Pey'j had obviously brought reinforcements who like him doubted Sev's renewed loyalty. As he stepped into the darkened common room he heard a shout.

"There he is! Kill the traitor!'

A split second later Sev came under a barrage of gunfire. He dived behind a pillar, his photographic memory allowing Sev to perfectly recall the exact layout of the room. He also recalled the location of all the furniture and where any defenders would be located. Sev slithered towards one of those locations, his path aided by the flashes of gunfire. From what he saw and head Sev guessed H&K 500s and SDS-14s, he also heard the crack of a GICW (General Infantry Combat Weapon). Sev reached an overturned table with a pair of IRIS gunmen hiding behind it. They were conserving their ammo until they saw him. Sev right hooked the first one and swung back with this elbow to drop the second gunman. He made his way across the common room without being seen once. Sev decided that he wasn't going to kill anyone, it was acting against his better nature but he decided that he had no right to kill these people for trying to pay him back for what he had done: betray them. 'I'll leave, leave and let this planet fight its own battles' Sev decided, with that he ripped a grill off an air vent and headed down it towards the tram station that lead to the hangar.

IRIS DEN

"Intruder Alert!"

The alarm jolted Jade out of a deep sleep. She jumped and the movement pushed the wheeled chair she had been sitting in away. Jade crashed to the floor with a thud, she quickly picked herself up and dashed to a console. Jade brought up a camera of the tram station and saw Sev knock the five guards out and jump on a tram. The tram soon sped away, its destination obvious…

TRAM

Sev had already begun making his plans, he would return to life as a Borderworld mercenary. A simple, dirty and most likely short life…

BELUGA HANGAR BAY

Jade raced towards Beluga's grav lift, it had been stored in this IRIS hangar since the Battle of Selene. She floated into the cockpit, raced to the controls and began powering the ship up…

IRIS HANGAR

Sev sped across the hangar bay, ignoring the shouts of the few on duty guards, pilots and mechanics. He sprinted up Icarus' ramp and crashed into the pilot's couch. He quickly brought the ship online and, ignoring the shouts of the people on the ground nailed the throttle and sent Icarus roaring out of the Cliffside hangar and into the blue midday sky of Hillys. It took Sev but a few minutes to make it to space. As he calculated a hyperspace vector he set the ship in a geosycn orbit over Seaview. Another few minutes and the scanners alerted him to the presence of an unknown ship.

BELUGA

Jade knew Icarus' scanner signature so when she spotted the blip she knew it was Sev. A sudden warning tone brought up a hologram showing an auto warning. Sev had powered up Icarus' weapons.

ICARUS

Sev locked in the target and readied a pair of Icarus' Garrison SAFAMs (Space Anti Fighter Missiles) these were long-range missiles unlike the MK.43 that he normally used. The missiles acquired a lock, Sev reached for the fire button…

BELUGA

Jade ignored the missile lock warning as she desperately tried to open a channel to Sev. Eventually she got a 'channel confirmed' message "Sev, its Jade! Don't shoot!"

ICARUS

"Sev its Jade! Don't shoot!"

Sev wrenched his hand back from the control column mounted trigger. "Jade!" he replied.

"Yeah its me, what are you doing!" Jade asked unable to keep the worry out of her voice.

"Pey'j just tried to sic a pack of IRIS boys on me. I'm leaving" Sev said shortly, he wanted to get this over with before Jade made it impossible for him to leave.

"No Sev! Don't leave because of him! I'll talk to them! I'll…"

Sev saw it too, another blip on the scanners. This one was identified as a DomZ Battleship. Without warning it fired, the bright green beam lanced out and vaporised Beluga in a single shot. Right from the start Sev knew there was no chance Jade could have survived that blast. In a daze he finished his calculations and sent Icarus thundering into hyperspace.

Icarus is tunneling through hyperspace at the moment. I sit I my cabin, in a state of shock. My grief is beyond tears, beyond anything. I have lost the woman I love, the only thing that gave my life any reason, any worth. So my life has no worth now, I merely exist. I picked up a transmission that the DomZ beamed out across the whole galaxy; they confirmed Jade's death. They also raided the entire Seaview IRIS base, turns out they knew it was there all along. Nearly everyone was killed, I found a copy of the casualty list they sent to the Commonwealth just to taunt the Council. I picked out several names:

, Nino

, Hahn

, Mei

Wilks, Jericho "Wilko"

??? "Thunderpants"

Caravera, Allysha

Everyone who befriended me is gone. Everyone who took my cold shoulder has been killed. I also picked up another few datastreams, one was from a DomZ undercover agent who released that fact that I was at the base just before the attack as well as my DomZ data file. The other datastream was a twenty trillion galcred price on my head. The Commonwealth has declared me an enemy of the state and every Commonwealth citizen has permission to 'kill me on sight'. So why do I live? I don't plan to, I draw the autopistol from its holster, flick the safety off, pull back the action. Then I pull the trigger…