Chapter Three

Solaris, C.I.C

Lieutenant Talus' voice rang out across the ship, accompanied by the ship wide alert buzzer: "Action stations, action stations! Set Condition One throughout the ship!"

The atmosphere in C.I.C was tense. Specialists and Officers alike were rushing around, trying to set Condition One across the ship as quickly as possible. After half a minute of frenzied activity, Lieutenant Talus gave the Commander the update.

"Condition One is set. All decks report ready for action, sir."

"Commence the drill, Lieutenant," said Commander Brown, striding around the Command table in the centre of the room.


In the darkness of space, the Solaris moved slowly towards its destination. When she approached the four space turrets used for drill practice, she turned and came to a halt. The port side of the ship was now facing the turrets. Across the hull of the ship, cannons swung into position, waiting for the order to open fire…


In C.I.C, the tactical officers sent out remote signals to activate the space turrets. The task was simple enough. The Solaris had to destroy any dummy warheads fired at them with suppression fire from their cannons. They had to keep this up for ten minutes. When the ten minutes were up, the Vipers would be launched and they would perform their part of the drill.

Lieutenant Talus received an update from the tactical officers and then informed the Commander. "Remote turrets online, sir," he said.


The four, cylindrical space turrets began to open fire. Dummy warheads streamed out of each one, all aimed at the Solaris…


"Incoming warheads closing at one six three mark eight nine!" called Talus from the Navigation post.

"Enemy suppression, fire, all Batteries execute," ordered the Commander.

Colonel Meredith repeated the order on the all-ship microphone: "All batteries, open fire."


The cannons across the hull of the Solaris burst into action. The long range heavy cannons tool aim, fired, and then repeated the process. The rapid fire canons kept a constant stream of deadly fire, raining out towards the inbound warheads.

There were multiple explosions amongst the suppression fire as the warheads were taken out. More missiles came in. Some managed to travel quite far into the cannon fire before exploding, while others missed the ship completely.

Missiles continued to be fired at from the Solaris from the space turrets, and there was still ten minutes before they would stop…

In C.I.C, Brown watched on the overhead D.R.A.D.I.S console as the Solaris cannon fire continued to pick off the incoming warheads. He was thankful to have such an efficient crew, but no sooner had he relaxed, Lieutenant Talus issued a warning: "Incoming ordnance!"

One of the warheads had broken through the suppression fire and connected with the Solaris hull. As it was just a dummy warhead, there was no explosion. Instead, it shattered on impact. This was no comfort to Brown. Had this been an actual combat situation, and had that missile been a nuke, then the failure of the suppression fire would have had dire consequences.

The cannon fire was so loud that it could be heard from C.I.C in the belly of the ship. The heavy cannons pounded with deep, dull thuds, and the rapid fire cannons rattled continuously like a drum roll.

Colonel Meredith had abandoned his usual patrol of C.I.C and remained rooted to the spot, glaring up at the overhead console.

Ten minutes were counting down…

At the end of the ten minutes, several more warheads had broken through and made contact with the Solaris.

"Deactivate turrets," ordered Brown.

The space turrets launched their last payload of missiles before the tactical officers sent a remote signal to take them offline.

"Turrets deactivated, sir!" Talus called.

"Cease fire, all batteries," said Brown.

Once more, Colonel Meredith repeated the order on the all-ship: "All batteries cease firing!"

The continuous rumbling sound in C.I.C stopped, telling Brown that the gunners had obeyed. He paused for a moment, glad that his part was over, and then said: "Launch Vipers!"

Crew specialist, Petty Officer Lynn Symmons repeat the order on the all-ship microphone: "Vipers cleared for launch."


Giles was one of the forty Viper pilots waiting in their cockpits to be cleared for launch. When the order came, the vipers were pushed into separate launch tubes by deckhands. The deckhands then quickly moved away as the launch tube doors closed.

All that Giles could hear now was the Launch Officer next to his launch tube, running through the launch sequence.

"Spitfire this is shooter, I have control. Stand by." This identical sequence was taking place in thirty nine other launch tubes.

"Viper Two Seven Zero, clear forward," continued the Launch Officer. "Nav con green, interval check…mag cat ready…"

A piston moved forwards and connected with the Vipers undercarriage, preparing to spring it into space. Then, the steel door in front of the viper fell back, revealing the triangular launch tube with an opening to space at the end. Vapour was sucked out as the Launch Officer completed his checklist: "Check door open…thrust positive, and…good luck."

The Launch Officer pressed a button that activated the magnetic catapult.

Giles was suddenly pressed back in his seat as his viper was sent flying through the launch tube and into space.

Vipers appeared either side of him, and together they flew towards the starboard side of the ship. There. They came to a halt, waiting for the 'wingman drill' to commence.

Through the single mass of vipers, Giles saw a single green Raptor emerge from the starboard landing bay. It flew away from the Solaris and towards the turrets. It then stopped halfway between them and moved over to the side – out of the line of fire.

"C.A.G, this is Mantis," said Lieutenant Thomas' voice from the Raptor. "You are clear to commence the drill."

"Copy that, Mantis," Captain Young called back. "Okay, Hoofer and Gunner, get in position. Wait for Mantis' signal and start your run."

Ensign 'Hoofer' Farrow and Ensign 'Gunner' Rogers positioned their vipers so that they were away from the cluster of thirty eight other vipers and closer to the turrets.

"Turrets activated," said Mantis. "Hoofer and Gunner, commence your run."

Giles looked out the side of his cockpit to see the two vipers fire their main burners and shoot past the Solaris towards the turrets to take out the missiles being launched. All Giles could do now was to sit in his cockpit and wait for his and Luteford's names to be called out. Not very enjoyable, but at least now he had a bit more time to himself. He was lost in his thoughts about his fiancés funeral when a woman with long brown hair and a disarming smile crept to the front of his mind – the deckhand, Helena Meredith.

Giles frowned. You don't even know her you frakkin' idiot.

To Giles' annoyance, Mantis in the Raptor had saved him and Luteford until last. "Turrets reactivated," said Mantis, "Spitfire, Griller, start your run."

Giles and Luteford sped away from the motionless group of vipers who had completed their runs, and accelerated towards the space turrets.

As they approached, they veered away from each other, and began to shoot at the missiles that had just been launched. This required complete concentration as it was extremely difficult to shoot down a warhead with machine cannons.

Giles squeezed the trigger on his joystick, letting loose a burst of cannon fire. One missile exploded. Two more to go…

He saw brought the nearest missile into his sights; let loose another burst, and the missile disintegrated.

The last missile was way too close. In fact, it was heading straight for him. Giles made full use of his manoeuvring thrusters to roll and swerve out of the missiles flight path. The warhead might only be a dummy, but it could still do the viper some damage if it hit.

Giles span his viper around, so he was facing the Solaris, and chased after the missile, spraying cannon fire as he went. He was nearly at top speed when his cannon fire finally connected with the warhead. He then had to slow himself to a halt to stop his viper from crashing into the Solaris flight pod. He then rejoined the cluster of vipers hovering behind the Solaris.

Luteford rejoined the group moment later, having arrived in a less dramatic fashion.

"Okay people, form up," said the C.A.G from his viper. "Let's get ready for the big charge."

The vipers obeyed. They manoeuvred around each other into the formation that the C.A.G had discussed - twenty vipers on top of another twenty vipers. Now all they had to do was wait to be cleared by Mantis.

"C.A.G, this is Mantis, Turrets reactivated. You are clear to commence the big charge."

"Alright, let's do it!" shouted the C.A.G.

The entire squadron moved off as one. They flew past the Solaris and spread out, still in formation.

The space turrets suddenly went mad, each one launching ten missiles at once. When the missiles got in range, the vipers fired their cannons.

Warheads began exploding, but they were travelling too fast. It was clear to Giles that not everyone would be able to shoot down a missile because of their rapid approach. He had already destroyed one missile, but he saw another one heading in his direction. He looked around quickly. All the other vipers were shooting elsewhere.

This one's mine.

He fired another burst from his cannons and succeeded in destroying the rocket.

Cannon fire from the other vipers stopped. All the warheads had been taken out.

"Well done team," said the C.A.G. "Let's get back to the Solaris."

And with that, the forty vipers and the raptor flew back to the Solaris to land.