Stacia Clarke was working on the main engine, underneath it rather. With one hand gripping a grease filled cloth, and the other gripping a wrench that she was using to tighten one of the bolts on the panel guarding the internal circuitry, beads of sweat were drenching her forehead as she continued her work. Though she was loving every single minute, getting the ship prepared again after the last little bit of combat, and working on the few major repairs that needed doing. But she was beginning to tire.
She was just finishing up, when she heard a nervous voice speak "Stacia?" She wiggled out of the under space below the engine and looked up to see Michael standing over the railing looking down into the engine pit.
He was carrying a white paper bag, folded, in his left hand, hanging it down just above his knee, holding it loosely.
"Hello," she greeted wearily, after putting in long hours making sure that the ship was in top shape since they withdrew back off the main lines a little bit.
He raised the lunch bag a little. "Thought that you might be hungry."
"Starved," She smiled tiredly. "Thanks."
"Sure, don't mention it". He said quietly, looking almost out of his element being down here.
She sat down on the first rung on the ladder and took the bag, delving into it seeing some fries along with a sandwhich from the galley stores. She looked at it blearily, and ate it quickly, filling her up just enough, she then looked up and noticed that Michael was standing back and aloof. "Did you bring anything?" She asked after taking a gulp.
"Uh…no, I did not. Just thought that you might be hungry after all the work you and your teams have done shoring up the damage that we have taken this last little while."
"Thanks" She smiled at him.
He started to back up with a slight inclining bow in her general direction. "Well, I am actually still on duty, I wanted to take care of a few things before I headed off….bye"
She nodded in his direction as he left, contemplating life as usual.
Captain Patterson was sitting by himself in the pilots briefing room. He was watching gun camera footage from the pitched Starfury battles that his pilots were engaging in since the start of the war, the intense, and the mundane, dogfights that his pilots had to put themselves through on a number of occasions since. Spilling their blood for their ship.
He then heard the door leading into it snap open, and did not even have to turn his head to know who was there. As he watched a Starfurry fired a spread into an fighter that crossed its path, destroying that fighter, as the Raptor had to rapidly turn looking for more targets.
Lt. Keegan came up to him brusquely and saluted, keeping a stiff posture as he stood over his Captain. Patterson returned it and gestured for the young lieutenant to sit down. He did so immediately.
The reel switched again, this time to Alpha six, who was flying just above the last fighter, circling the hairball that they were fighting over.
Lt. Keegan leaned forward in his seat, just bringing him slightly over Patterson's left shoulder, his eyes were scanning the screen intently. His eyes were taking in every movement, and every fine nuance that was going on before him, this was obviously his first time looking at this footage.
Captain Patterson stretched also looking at the screen, locking onto the same view infront of him that his CAG was viewing. Trying to see what the lieutenant was seeing, who that latter was obviously intrigued by something.
But he suddenly asked, "You were a fighter pilot at one time weren't you sir?"
Patterson had to switch gears in his mind, almost shaking his head visibly. "That is correct, back during the Draque conflict of a couple decades ago."
"I see, the last major war…." He had to look at the screen again, "well until this one broke out."
"Yeah." Patterson said thinking that the CAG was just making polite conversation, but he knew that the young officer was a bit nervous sitting here.
But suddenly he brought up what ever was on his mind. "The Centauri have just bugged the hell out of me since they engaged this war, they are not fighting properly at all."
Patterson blinked visibly for a second before turning to regard the man behind him.
Keegan barreled ahead. "What I mean to say sir, is they are completely backward." He scratched his head for a moment trying to organize what he was saying, "now obviously I am no tactician…. but from a tactical personal standpoint, nothing they have done as we have fought them has made the least bit of sense." He paused again.
"Go on" Patterson bade, which seemed to get his officer's brain moving a slight bit faster.
"What I mean to say is that they are fighting holding actions, just sending in enough forces to keep us at bay, and then drawing us away, while the rest of their ships continue to go after what is primary targets, but by the time we realize this, it is too late and we are already in the dogfight to turn and engage the leakers." He paused again specifically to think of exact terminology. "Its almost like they are relying on terror tactics, more concerned with doing damage to infrastructure, and killing of civilians and terrorizing them then defeating us. Just keeping us off their backs long enough to do the jobs that they set out to do. Not trying to achieve any real objective."
Patterson thought it over, mulling it around in his head. It certainly bared consideration, he decided, and he would let more detailed analyses of the tactics being employed by the Centauri through his tacticians onboard and see what they came up with.
"And another thing, some of the Centauri, especially in that second group were fighting…oddly…automatically." He waved his hands vaguely in front of him going on to explaun, "I shot a missile at one, it did not even try to evade, it was destroyed. And several of my pilots have reported similar occurrences."
"Interesting" Patterson plucked at his chin in thought. And then plowed on with his contribution. "Hell, nothing the Centauri has done throughout the war has not made a whole good deal of sense too me. Their war effort has seemed misdirected, and that being at Narn targets all along the border region, and in some cases as far back as twenty light years, seemingly to dispatch raiding parties. But now there are fierce battles being raged all across the boarder, the Centauri has come in with a massive numerical superiority, one that the Alliance did not even dream that they had, at all. And yet they threw a lot of their forces away by attacking civilian targets with the scantest of forces. Just doing enough to, as you say, do damage, and do it well, but then jump out toward the edge of the system and flee."
"How are the Narn doing?" Keeegan asked, now slightly concerned.
"With the arrival with IAS forces, led by the EA fifth fleet. They seem to be holding their own, but both sides are beginning to take some heavy losses, it is rumored that the Centauri have started setting up listening posts on moons within Narn systems, but those have so far proven to be unsubstantiated. But with only a handful of G'Kar class Dreadnaughts that have been completed to this point, the Narn are relying on Earth, Minbari, and Drazi forces. And even then we are just barely managing to hold them at bay."
"I see." Keegan said again worried.
"Still, there is no way that there strategy has made sense to this point. Even now, they can bring in the forces that if they launched a sustained campaign they could breach the boarder, and give us a run around. But with what they are doing now has caused the destruction and death of thousands on both sides, mainly on theirs though. Though they have obviously not been driven off yet…again like flying on automatic."
He switched over the view of the Galactic Sector that they were currently occupying, right in the middle of Narn controlled space, at a colony just back of the border. Along the border were racing arrows of all varying colors twisting throughout the entire area, representing fleets and battlegroups moving to desperately engage one another throughout all of local space.
"I miss the old days," Patterson started. "Of just flying around in a Starfury and not having to worry, to just go where they pointed you. And now, with this, the fog of war has descended…we just need a chance to take back, to pause, to figure out what is going on with this enemy that we are fighting. To make decisions, to analyze our options and what is going on."
"I prefer to rely on my gut sir," Michael stated with bold bravado.
Patterson grinned while facing away, "Most pilots do."
"Yeah, I just prefer it. And it is one of those things, both of us know that there is definitely something else going on here then would meet the eye, we can feel it."
"I know, I should get right back on it. Lieutenant" He said nodding. Then leaving the room, leaving Keegan alone to ponder things.
He moved to review more gun camera footage of the battles that he just fought.
Colonel James Norman was sitting alone in his room, reviewing crew summaries. Twelve people had died so far from this war, and another seven were still down with injuries.
He shoved the papers to the back of his desk, done…and bored. Usually with the Marines you at least had some tactical problem to occupy you, even when you were not really in the thick of it.
But that was not his job here.
He wondered yet again why he had even bothered with this assignment, it seemed like a good idea at the time. But now, with a war on, he should have stayed. He would have gotten some regular grunt assignment or something else.
Possibly not though given his age. He was not a kid anymore.
He sighed deeply, he really had been doing this for too long. He, who had suffered from a drug addiction, who had been in love, who had experienced more war then he would have cared to admit…and yet he was still here. Doing what he had always done.
Of course this was different, a new adventure…but he was tiring of this 'adventure' tiring of it all. But soon for him it would be over, so he supposed.
But in the mean time he still had a job that needed doing, and he seemed to be the only one on board who could do it.
He frowned then, at what that task had in store for him. The crew was still undisciplined, shoddy, and thrust into the middle of extraordinary events. Without being ready for it, and that frustrated him. Even without having to fight a war. It was his job to train them, but since the war he did not get a chance to succeed, and did not have the theoretical experience or expertise to figure it out on his own. Preferring to lead totally and completely…some might even call it micromanaging.
He chuckled internally to himself, letting it show on his face with a small grin. Of course that might have been his Captain's point, bringing him here, to teach him a lesson that his way was not the only way, or the right way…or to seak out advice.
No.
That could not have been it, it did not make sense. The only reason he was here was that Scott trusted him to get the job done, completely and totally, to get the job done. Because Scott knew that he was intelligent enough to do it…or at least he was. When he was younger it was so much easier for him to think outside his small box, now there was nothing. But he had to reattach himself to it, and get this ship the complete way to being ready.
Captain Patterson was sitting up in bed, pillows stacked behind him, perched on his knee was a modern history of Napolean, and the events leading up to his rein. He was enjoying it boredly, it was given to him by a friend four years ago and this was his first chance or inclination to read it. Being a student of military history he found this a bit boring since it dealt more with Napolean then what he did, and what his tactics and planning were. Of course he read most of that info already.
Suddenly his com system beeped at him, he looked at it curiously, feeling like grumbling…but almost compelled to answer it. He looked at it a little while longer, and then heaved himself up as he pressed the button, just as it beeped again, catching the device almost in mid beep.
"Patterson here" He said in formal dryness.
"Communications here, there is a line from the local command authority, they want to speak with you immediately."
Patterson sighed internally, despite things he still did not want to go into battle so soon, he knew that there were still things that needed fixing. "I am on my way shortly, route the communication to the briefing room, and gather Lt. Keegan and Colonel Norman."
"Yes sir." The com device turned itself off.
Patterson debated for a second whether he should just go up to the bridge as is, but he realized that it would be too big of a shock for those who were on duty at the time.
He went over to the closest, and pressed the button as it rolled open. He picked out his shirts and uniform jacket, then laid them out on the bed as he got his uniform pants. He then put on the shirt, and then the pants, picking up the jacket and rotating up to the mirror. He would let no man rush him into anything, no matter who was waiting for him. He buttoned up the jacket slowly and deliberately, still hating these same uniforms. But moving on.
He moved out into the hall, and made the long trek up to the main bridge.
Upon arrival he turned right and entered into the main briefing room, turning on the main screen, as it cleared as it established contact.
General Stewart, the 2IC in the region as far as all Alliance forces was concerned next to the Narn admiral, came on the screen.
"Scott, it is so good to actually see you again."
"Yes sir it is." He said smiling at his old friend. He was ahead of him at the academy and at flight school, leading his cadre of cadets. They were rather favorite students of one another, even though they could not show it. And now he was running his own small section of Earth Force while Scott was getting his first combat command, such was life.
"I wish we could catch up in the time we have remaining," he said shaking his mostly bald head with a crown of hair, "but I have something important to tell you." At this moment the door opened revealing his two senior officers as they came in.
"General, this is Michael Keegan and Colonel James Norman, my CAG and 2IC respectively."
The general nodded at them as they came in, "nice to meet you two."
"Yes sir." James said, Keegan nodded.
"As I was saying, Narn and Alliance intelligence…the Rangers….has been looking for a common link, something out there that will explain what the Centauri are doing, and how they are able to strike so effectively. Well the EAS Phoenix may have found the answer, using deep space probes they picked up evidence of a Centauri forward command post, it will be your job to take them out when the time comes."
"Yes sir." Captain Patterson said evenly, as his mind raced down two separate paths, how to get the job done and that it really did suck.
The screen turned blank as Captain Patterson turned back to his officer regarding them curiously. "Well?"
"I would prefer to get more intelligence sir." His CAG said nervously.
"I agree, we need more information, we need to go to those coordinates and check it out ourselves."
"I could take a Raptor and take close range low level scans." Keegan volunteered.
Patterson shook his head. "No, they should have their own level of intelligence, the Phoenix right now is being used as a data gatherer, they probably have a lot of data that will give us an idea with what we are dealing with. Plus we are dealing with a command post taken out of the way." He checked the coordinates sent on the sub net, "which is in the middle of an asteroid field."
Keegan arched his eyebrows. "Difficult"
Patterson sighed "Yeah, and I really do not want to risk the Gandalf in the middle of that whirlwhind without getting all the repairs complete…which we need a space station for that."
"I know" Norman frowned.
"Fighter strike then?"
"Could get complicated."
Keegan raised his first confident, but yet wry, grin. "Complicated is our middle name."
"I suggest you take the T-Bolts, they have the heavier payloads and are better fighters for that sort of thing." Norman suggested, but a subtle order was made behind it.
"Their Squadron commander is down with a broken kneecap" Keegan remembered, then was internally embarrassed that he could not remember her name.
"Well then, what?" Patterson cocked an eyebrow at his young pilot.
"I could lead the assault on the base then…assuming we learn what kind of base it is."
Patterson's natural leadership and decisiveness clicked in, as he set his face in stone and nodded. "Right, we must get that information. I will get on it, meanwhile you will draw up a battle plan for the fighter wing in order to take that base out, this is of the outmost importance, hopefully we can deal the Centauri a critical blow."
They all went their separate ways.
He stared after them and nodded silently to himself, coming up with his own plans.
Michael Keegan immediately went down to the med bay where he went down to go see the squad leader for the Marine strike force. He paused at her doorway, being stuck by the oddity of what he was about to do. But he soon got over this because it had to be done.
She looked up at him and tried to stiffen, as a wave of pain crossed over her features though.
"At ease lieutenant, how are you feeling?" he said waving her down.
"Fine sir, I should be back up on my feet in about a day or two, and flight capable within another couple of days." She said.
"Right, I have something to tell you…." She looked at him quizzically, "Earth Force command has assigned us on a mission to go take out a C&C base in the middle of an asteroid field about eleven light-years from here that the Centauri has set up as a forward base of operations. Captain Patterson, myself, and Colonel Norman all agree that a fighter strike might be the best way to take this thing out."
"I see" She said inquisitively.
"They want me to lead the assault with the marine force Thunderbolts."
"I see." She said again, but this time her eyes were widening slightly.
"I am sorry." He said quietly.
She gave him an incredulous look. "Don't be, you will do fine I am sure, and you are the superior in a starfurry in almost every way." She looked thoughtful. "Just the other marines might not like this all that much, they are a proud group, but they will do their jobs."
"Right….well get better."
"I will sir."
He stalked out of the room.
Captain Patterson after a busy day running it through the combat computers, and getting the information he needed from intelligence, was sitting and analyzing the tactical reports in his quarters. He had his reading glasses on studying the reports that he so far had received, waiting for his own analysts to get done with the information and then give him a complete and total report.
After a moment it came out of the wall mounted fax as he turned to get it, putting his glasses down on the table, and briefly studying the charts, and then the conclusions on the next page. Just as this happened his first officer and his CAG walked right on into his quarters and stiffened to attention. "At ease you two." He said with a smile, it was good to see that discipline was being maintained.
"Is that it?" Keegan said curiously looking at the file of papers that his Captain had in his vice like grasp.
"Yes, it is." He said gesturing with them slightly. "It seems we have found out what our target is based on the tactical summary."
He got up and shuffled over to the main room, sitting at the seat that was adjacent his glass coffee table. He set the stack down spreading them out across the entire length and width, and then invited his officers to sit down.
Norman was mostly uncomprehending, which disturbed the Captain a bit, but he had to shake it off.
Keegan's eyes were furrowed in thought, as they were darting back and forth between the sheets, he was in his element though he did not know it, analyzing tactical reports on something that men under his command would have to deal with soon. This made Captain Patterson grateful for him, that he would take so much time to do this, and knew what to do.
Finally, after about five minutes, he looked up. "This will not be the easiest op I have ever had to plan for, even though that this technology is out of date, which could give us a leg up. If this is right we are dealing with a mobile, transportable field HQ, based on sensor reading, and com traffic coming out of there."
"Which makes the most sense with what the Centauri want to do, I suppose." Colonel Norman said after completing his look through.
Captain Patterson let his two officers have at it. But they did not want to seem to take it on anymore. "I really do not want to take the Gandalf in any closer then need be and engage them, these two things" he pointed "are two heavy plasma cannons, anti ship, and we still have not repaired most of the damage to the nano armor, we only are back up to sixty percent strength."
"Then we proceed like before, use Thunderbolts to get in close, and then attack them from close range with a spread of missiles and ionic energy, really open them up."
"Yeah but those things will really hurt if they get a bead on you and actually manage to hit you." Norman said looking down at the summary.
Keegan's eyes flitted down to the blueprints of the offending station in question. "That should not be a problem, we should be able to sneak in close enough and fly in below their elevation. Then we just engage with missiles when we are close enough, and then we proceed to destroy the station. We just use jammers, and approach through the asteroid field, until we are virtually right on top of them, and their gun position means we can really circumvent them if we need to, and our maneuverability will keep us out of trouble."
Patterson nodded, drawing up the visuals to the tactical simulation in his head, what it would look like under optimal conditions as they jumped in to engage the enemy. "You should try and jump in as close to the rocks to mask yourselves as you can. And we will be close by in support if you should really need it."
"I think that is all we need, beyond just the specifics of the matter."
Norman nodded his approval.
"OK then gentlemen, I give you two hours to come up with the specifics of the battleplan, I hope it goes well."
Both of them left and filed out together. Keegan paused. "Actually before we begin there is something else that I need to get real fast, I will meet you in the main briefing room" he said
"OK" James said, even though Keegan was already rushing off in the opposite direction at a bisque pace. James shook his head.
He walked down toward the engineering deck, and turned left to go into Lieutenant Commander Clarke's office, she was there, a hand keeping up her face, drooping over some paperwork, looking completely miserable in the task. He paused for a second watching her, then he cleared his throat.
She looked up a bit, her eyes focused, and she looked surprised to see him there… he wondered why for a second, but the look on her face was causing his mind to start stiring painfully.
"Lieutenant." She said flatly.
"Commander, it is good to see you….uh…did we get any of the new D Sat 5s in storage when we left."
She thought for a moment and then responded from memory, "yeah, those things are pretty basic load out for Destroyer's these days." Her features softened. "It is good to see you too."
That caused the memory to jolt painfully back into the forefront of his mind, he nearly winced but instantly composed himself, though his eyes did close a bit in self shame. He opened them and she was there.
"Well, we are going to have to be running a mission soon, and I think that they are just going to be what we need in order to come through the fire."
"I see, follow me to the cargo hold please"
He did so.
He entered in the main war room for the fighter pilots, the C&C for their squadrons adjacent to the launch bays, and Norman turned with a perturbed look on his face.
"I had to check to see if we had some specialist equipment aboard sir. It will let us complete the mission."
"I see," it looked like he was going to launch into a rebuke, but instead he sighed. "Let us get to work then."
"Yes sir."
They began to work, getting the rest of the charts and navigational information out in front of them as they looked at where they would have to put themselves in order to complete their missions. Keegan debated on whether or not they needed to launch a diversionary assault on a fuel depot on the other side of the border, but in the end he decided against it figuring that it would not do much good for them. Besides the key to an assault like that was the ability to be seen, which his Raptors were not good at that, and if they made themselves, the Centauri would expect them. Or blow them out of the sky which would annoy Earth Force no end.
They made primary and back up plans, coming up with a hundred different scenarios to the time of engagement, and then running them through the computers that were attached to the wall.
They waited for the results which took a mere five minutes, Keegan frowned at them. But then again they were using new tactics that were never before employed by the Earth Force to this point in actual combat situations.
They were still going to have to cross nearly three hundred kilometers of open space when they came out of the field and went into the pocket, at the minimum of 250, but the computer, always programmed for the worse case scenarios, figured that they would have their sensors pointed in that area so they would be bushwhacked as soon as they came out.
"We need a diversion" James Norman said looking down at the data.
"I doubt this thing is correct, why would they even be expecting an attack?"
"Yeah, well we should still get one just in case we are to, I guess the term is to explode." Norman said.
"Well I am sure we will think of something, we still have nearly an hour to get this all done. Hell what we could really use is a nuke, get their attention with a massive burst of energy."
"Well we would need to get the Gandalf in close for that."
"Not necessarily, it would not have to be a very big one….no forget it, they will recognize the signature and not think anything of it, what we need is a definite jump point event, cause them to expect that something is coming."
"Now that we can take care of, we will just go to the other end of the field and open a definite event, should attract their attention like moths to flame."
"I like that." He paused rubbing his chin. "We are almost done, I would like to run through the sims one more time just to be sure."
After he did so, he and Stacia went in front of the assembled air group, standing in front of the big status screen which showed their objective and other information.
They were nearly done with the specifics of the briefing, and were just basically waiting to summarize all that they had said.
"So our objective is to get close to the enemy, engage the enemy vessels that we might find, and finally take out the station and prevent it from continuing their operations in this area."
A pilot in Beta squadron raised his hand a bit gingerly. "Sir, if I may, how are we going to get there?"
Keegan nodded at Stacia, where she went over to the front switcher and activated the display, switching images until she got to the right one.
"This," she began, "is the mk. 1 Hyperteather, designed to attach to a grapple cable and form a jump point when needed. We will be able to choose when and where we want to jump, and then go from there to the target."
"Furthermore the EAS Gandalf will be there as backup, if we should need it. She is also launching a distraction on the other end of the belt from us, hoping to draw their sensors and give us the time to approach then enemy forces."
The pilot nodded.
Keegan got down off of the steps, the two or three of them down the plat form and stood level with the rest of his crews moving ever upward in rows of ten. "The attack will be in two waves, we will be the spear that will burst in through their defenses. And then will come assault shuttles armed with nuclear warheads in order to ensure the complete destruction of the facility. It will be our job to neutralize or limit all of the stations defenses, and weaken their hull enough where the strike will be effective. I hate to say it pilots, but we cannot do this alone. Good luck to us all, we launch in fifteen."
"Attention!" Alpha 2 said snapping up in attention, along with the rest of the fighters, as one, and then they turned on their heals and left. Lt. Keegan watched them filing out, keeping his eyes on them subdued, until he came to Captain Patterson, he nodded satisfied with how the plan had come to develop.
He also left the room, with Stacia following him at a close distance. "Uh, Lt." He did not quite stop, figuring he knew what was coming. "Michael!" She said.
He stopped and turned. "Yes?" he inquired ever so slightly, trying to keep his voice even.
"I want to fly in the number two spot with you, be your rear flier."
"Absolutely not." Keegan said, unsurprised by her request.
"I am qualified on most Starfury systems, and I am the only one who really knows anything about the new equipment you requested, I am the only one for the job really…and besides it will be fun…come on please."
He felt like sighing, "Alright, suit up and meet us down there in the appropriate time, we will not wait."
"Understood." She said hurrying off.
Lt. Michael Keegan went into the hanger and checked in left, he went right for the Thunderbolt, taking the helmet from CPO Anders. "Thanks Chief" he said, as he noticed a few more people still working on them making sure that they were still combat capable. A ladder went into position, and he nearly raced up it, as Stacia came into the room in a form fitting flight suit, Keegan had to fight down the urge not to gulp.
They both raced up the ladder together, securing their helmets to the top of their heads, and then looking around the area, and taking in the controls.
It felt extremely good to be back in the cockpit of this fighter. Of which he had not flown in a long and many ages. It felt so good, and so classic, and so…familiar, like a coming home party. It felt good to be in the classic fighter, for it was now that with the Raptors being built. This was before they were even able to update all the new controls in the new Furies and get them capable for launching.
They launched, all ten of the remaining fighters went out through the magnetic locks and then out into deep space, he felt like showing off a little, rotating around and pointing himself at the Gandalf then gently swooping back around pointing his nose toward the objective.
Captain Patterson was watching the procession, a bit nervous that he was sending his complete flight out like this all alone, it did not sit right with traditional doctrine in modern flight operations.
"All fighters have been launched sir" An officer toward the end of the bridge reported as the Thunderbolts began to head into deep space.
"Launch the hyper probe." Captain Patterson ordered as the crewmembers went to complete with that order.
"The teather has been launched sir," Delta two reported from his perch just off Keegan's wing.
"Snag it snag it!" He shouted.
"Delta 7, this is Delta 7, spinning to have it…" Keegan watched as the ship left and spun on its heels, firing its grapple as it came within range.
"This is strike leader to Gandalf, we have it sir awaiting permission to engage the enemy."
"Roger that Lt, Jump point is forming." Captain Patterson said in his helmet. The bright yellow flash flashed across his helmet, he smiled as the jumpoint formed. "Good hunting Starfury strike group." He finished.
"Thank you Gandalf see you on the other side." Keegan said accelerating his engines and then going into the jump point.
They had been in hyperspace for nearly an hour now, getting close to their objective on the other side of the asteroid field.
The whole purpose of the device that Delta 7 was trailing behind it was to allow starfury pilots the opportunity to jump in and out of areas of importance, and actually contribute to the battlefield.
In all weapons and classifications before this, the Furies range was already limited, and thus was their rolls. Always to a ship support role, or air superiority or short strike, never were they really allowed to offer a truly deep strike mission. Except for sometimes within solar systems, but capitol ships were so much better suited, leaving Furies to deal with instillations as the mother ships engaged any defenses.
This was contributing to the debate of whether or not it was even worth it to build ever increasingly expensive fighter ships.
Like the new Raptors. This whole debate had to go with the usefulness of such small ships, with ship defenses and CIWS systems increasing in complexity with each passing day, life as a Starfury pilot was becoming more and more dangerous, especially for the Raptor, despite all of its enhancements. The Raptor was designed to nullify the advantage of most of the enemy technology from any conceivable vector, but it really was over designed and expensive to build. It was ridiculous almost.
In order to obtain funding, that they had to fight for bitterly for the last couple of years, they had to find ever new and novel ways to use the premier fighters, in order to justify their existence where that money could be used for almost anything else.
And thus, the Earth Force R and D developed this device, that allowed Furies to travel in hyperspace and strike anywhere. The Thunderbolt was already more then capable, but now they had the ability to get there and put fire on a target easily. Without having to use a jumpgate, which were extremely limiting in their own right. And relegated Furies back to mainly their support roll. And thus now an eight hour trip would take only about an hour. The only limitation was that it tended to drag the fighter dragging the device along, using the speed controls, and limiting them to a virtual crawl, they could only be as fast as their slowest ship. Which caused them to have a lopsided formation.
They were also not on any jump beacons. They were just going to a set of coordinates that they knew would let them out to near where they wanted, it was going to be close though. They were nearly there.
"Alright flight, stand by to activate jump drives and transition to normal space, in five seconds….and mark." The device was released as the hyperspace warped around them forming a jump point into the middle of normal space, as they all jumped in and engaged their engines, one after the other going out of the point , and flying into the asteroid field, which masked them from sensors.
"No hard echos sir!" One of his flight responded. "No hard scans detected, it seems like we are free and clear. Distance to target looks to be 10000 plus kilometers."
"Thanks Delta 5, good job everyone, we missed our ingress point, but at least we are pretty much on schedule, now let us not get hit by anything and we should be free and clear."
The group dove into the field, spinning and thrusting in between the loose formation of rocks, keeping their heads on a swivel, ready to respond to the least possible change of direction. Only the most elite and the most daring ever wanted to do this.
The group forced itself to the opposite wall of the field that they entered, heading in a relatively straight line into the battlefield.
Thirty-five minutes of this, and they were about ready to go out into battle.
"Well the mothership should have already started its little diversion for us, we should be good to go." He clicked on his mike. "OK everyone, we are nearly there, charge your weapons up, and prepare to ride into the fire ladies and gentlemen, bring all of the combat systems online, and standby to egress the asteroid field."
The seconds counted down, and then without a word he selected a space in between two asteroids and accelerated to maximum speed, shooting in between the rocks and out into open space, the rest of his squadron was following him. As ten marine fighters swooped down on its pray, a mere 220 Kilometers from its position.
Keegan tightened his fingers around both the throttle, and the main joystick, as the fighter shot out, and sped toward its target. Ready to respond to anything that was happening to it.
"That station is trying to get a hard lock on us! Warning we have a radiation spike coming from it, sensors and countermeasures looks like they know we are here. Trying to lock us up." Delta 7 flat out screamed in the headset.
"Easy people easy."
"Lieutenant," Stacia said from his backseat. "We are by no means close enough to deploy our little surprise for the Centauri. We need to get closer, a lot closer."
He inwardly cursed to himself, and then went into combat mode, "OK you heard the lady. Punch it!" He said, adding in his afterburners, and feeling the thrust slam him against his seat as they accelerated toward the target, and without inertial dampners it made things a whole lot more interesting.
But the T-Bolts were radiating their own countermeasures to full at that moment, and they were closing on the target at a lightning fast speed, which caused the targeting computers to ever constantly update itself and get new data. And the Centauri did not trust the system enough to blind fire.
Onward the assaulters sped, right up until…. "we are in position."
"NOW NOW NOW!" He said into his com, as she reached down into her panel and opened the cargo door of his fighter, deploying a large spherical satelite out of it, this was followed by all ten fighters of the squadron. "Pull away!" He ordered, they all turned gracefully, using the plasma retros to change the course in a swooping pattern, each fighter peeling off at just about the enemy station's weapons range. They got a hard lock and fired.
But the spheres took combat data being streamed in to them direct from their thunderbolt escorts, assigned the biggest threats, and then they fired. White energy filled and exploded from them, arching out through space, blinding the area and tearing a line of white energy through space they were firing so many balls of energy so quickly.
These were new self-propelled defense platforms for fighters. Earth Force over the years since the Minbari wars were developing ever more complicated armor and E-Web technology that could go on their fighters, just like with the rest of the fleet, increasing their survivability. But even then fighters defenses and ability to survive was a fraction of that of most starships, especially given the fact if you took them up against fixed installations. Even the premier Raptor and Thunderbolt could not hold up for long under sustained firepower from a station, which limited fighter effectiveness again. Plus they did not have anything that could really go into the 'interceptor' roll, not without greatly reducing their combat effectiveness against those very same targets. That is what the D-Sat 5s were for, to provide a mobile platform that would provide some cover, Earth Force hoped it was enough, to cover the fighters into their targets until they could launch a critical strike.
They were working perfectly, they drawed the fire in, and then knocked it down, defeating it and forcing them to use up valuable energy.
And with the added bonus of their was enough energy and radiation radiating from points in space, to the station, and from the gun platforms itself, that it gave the thirsty sensors of the antiradiation missiles the perfect target to shoot at. Looking like a super nova in comparison with the bleakness of the space around them, the only source of Centauri energy was coming from one place, and no jammers could stop them.
Keegan took stock of the tactical situation, and immediately started to assign orders, as he opened his throttle back up to full and sped at the station. "Delta's 8-10, assume trail position, cover us as we go in from any fighters that may try and jump us, Delta's 1-7, punch it and ride it on hard, aim your missiles right for their defenses, Delta 3, you got their main guns."
The first seven starfuries sped in as the main weapons on the station were beginning to fire again after their brief recharge. The defense satellites and systems on the T-Bolts added their weight once again to the battle blowing most of the balls out of the sky, two of them though hit one of the fighters in the engine, causing it to jolt slightly to port.
"I am hit." Delta six said. "Not bad, only in the number one engine. I think I can handle it for a little while longer."
Keegan made two clicks in acknowledgment, as the scanner seeker head on the missiles finally warbled to life before achieving hard lock on a few targets.
He pressed down on the trigger, sending the five missles burning through space, as he used the retros to turn the Fury up on its side, and down below the outer ring of the station. Several of the other fighters followed suit.
Several of the missiles hit their targets, and a few of them went after the same targets, causing impressive damage. The greatest damage was done when three missiles damaged a CIWS turret on the Centauri station, and caused it to open to space. All the others stayed put, though out of commission, the missile salvo failing to breach the hall due to the hardened systems behind the Centauri turrets.
Delta 3 took a radical sweeping arc, coming in below the station, and then popping above it, hitting the retros at the precise instant to send him shooting over the station, releasing a stream of plasma at precisely the right instant in order to take out the main guns. Two brief bursts slammed into the hull of the Centauri weapons systems, causing massive damage to the systems, and leaving the Centauri hull plating glowing, but the hull still did not breach, it just fused the guns together preventing them from launching.
The main bay that led to the Centauri fighters and shuttle opened up, quickly in an emergency pattern. Delta 8 and 9 pounced on it, while 10 stayed back ever so slightly. Covering the back door. Both the fighters rolled over slightly, getting over into position, and then they both let go a long gout of flame from their main guns, spitting out hundreds of yellow balls of ionic energy which went into the bay, destroying anything in their path. Then Delta 8 pickled up a missile, and then released it into the bay blindly, with seeming great luck it flew back into the bay where it hit close to the fuel drum that fed the massive fighter force, and exploded in a giant fireball that poured out through the open bay into space. This caused light damage to the surrounding systems, but it destroyed everything in the bay, all the fighters and shuttles.
Captain Patterson almost felt like pacing gently back and forth, but stayed glued to his chair, not even daring too really move. He glanced up at the speaker and coms every now and then nervously, he was not really used to this, sending in fighters when he was not in the thick of it himself.
"Great shot Delta 8!" He heard his CAG say over the intercom.
"Damn, Delta 6 here, taking more fire from interceptors, I am bailing out hard, sorry."
"There is nothing more you can do, get clear back there." Keegan ordered sounding a bit peeved.
After a pause of several seconds with the pause of battle in the background suddenly a startled cry came over the internets. "Jump point active! One Centauri warship just emerged."
"Identify quickly" Keegan said sounding stressed.
"It looks like a light cruiser class, they are beginning to get us locked up, jammers look to be ineffective."
"OK gentlemen, punch it." Patterson could just make out them spinning out of the way and taking evasive action, he nearly got over his feet to rush over to the helm to order a jump point to recover their fighters, and provide cover against the cruiser…perhaps even taking it out. Until he heard…
"Tallyho!"
Out of the asteroid field came all of Charlie Squadron, the remainder of it, six Furies raced in at maximum thrust, swooping in, swinging in low and high, just as the cruiser was about to get a hard lock, and was deploying all of its cannons.
The Raptors went in low and fast, coming in close next to the hull of the light cruiser, which had no fighters to deploy. They came in at full burn, turning in one at a time, getting a slight target lock as they each launched their missile payloads, which included over 32 missiles. Each of them hitting a specific target on the long neck of the hull, many of them taking out weapons and interceptor emplacements.
The guns then turned outward, and fired long streams of energy into space, alighting the area around it, trying to swat away the pests, to little avail. All of them cleared quickly enough, some of them turning into, radically moving around, and pointing their guns at the enemy vessel. Each burst hitting a key location on the long upper wing of the vessel, and then on the engine emplacements, one of the fighters firing directly into it causing some light damage. They then set up for another pass.
"Alright boys, they got our backsides now, all fighters turn in and engage the enemy station." Keegan said, and then he asked for more power from his back seat driver as he made a radical left spinning turn pointing his nose at the station, as the group of fighters charged in hard. All of them locking up places on the hull, before the remaining defenses could reset themselves.
Keegan was satisfied, and then slammed down on the trigger, sending a wave of energy into the hull, the other fighters followed up after about five seconds, sending a tremendous amount of energy into the station. Hull plating began to glow white hot, a few breeches were open, and huge swaths of ablative armor sheered off into deep space, sparking as they went.
They then split in multiple directions at once, spinning out of the way, two of the fighters nearly collided into one another because the move was so perfect, one snap rolled right, and the other spiraled left, rolling out toward deep space. The former fighter launched another hail of energy right directly into the station, causing some more damage onto the station's hull.
Keegan was now in the zone, travelling down the well at high speed. "Where are they?"
"Their targeting beams are moving left and right of us, defense sats are still working" Stacia said, adjusting her scanners. "heads up."
Keegan deftly adjusted his thruster suite, sending him in a slight juke to the right, and then to the left, pointing at the station, were he continued, and then fired off his cannons again, strafing the station and wiping out a whole section of its defenses.
"This is the assualt shuttles, I think we should break in and out, and make some tracks, we are in range, and ready to engage our strike options, do we proceed?"
Keegan did not quite like it, he switched to his squads primary tactical frequency.
"Alright, provide cover to any defenses that we have not gotten, some of us will, and some of us will continue to weaken the hull, set automatic to fire intercept. Do not break for the hills until my mark." He switched over. "Tactical flight, you are cleared to fire at all, I repeat you are cleared to go."
The T-Bolts got into position, pointing at the enemy facility, and then they released their entire remaining payloads, as the two swooped winged shuttles appeared out of the asteroid field, and got a hard lock, each releasing their two 20 KT nukes, three of them headed for the station, while the other one headed for the light cruiser.
The Thunderbolts launched plasma as the mess of defenses tried to hit the missiles, as some of the fighters tried to hit the remaining positions, destroying or damaging them.
They hit, opening the breaches larger, and opening up whole sections to space, as the station was ripped apart in a spectacular fireball, the fighters spinning out of the way hard, some of the last ones just barely made it out of the blast radius.
The Cruiser was like wise ripped apart, but a lot less of a fireball, as a white light blinded all the pilots in the nearby space, as the cruiser dissapeared in the explosion. The Raptors were caught in it, but the armor did a great job of absorbing the radiation and preventing the pilots from being turned into crispy critters.
After the dust settled the Gandalf jumped in, and recovered all of her fighters. Using the emergency batteries to jump out again.