Chapter CXLI: Aces High
September 4, 2545 (UNSC Calendar)/
UNSC Flawless, in orbit above Acheron-VII, Beta Rho Omega System
Lieutenant Vinh Phan
"Some say that a one-twenty mike-mike gun on the belly of my ship is overcompensating for something. I've never heard them complain about it after I made a strafing run."
The alarms had been ringing on and off all day long. By now everybody was used to it, but it didn't mean that it wasn't any less annoying. Every single crewmember of the venerable UNSC Flawless had been going at it for several hours. Most of them got breaks or didn't have very extenuating jobs, but the flyboys were just about to reach their limit. They had been flying patrols and sorties ever since the battlegroup had arrived in the system, and now that Covenant reinforcements were here, their jobs only got harder.
Lieutenant Vinh Phan was banging his head against the frame of his GA-TL1 Longsword Strike Fighter. He had been on three patrol missions in the last two days. Only during the last day had those missions become particularly intense. Phan had screwed up in his last patrol. To be fair to the man, it had been his whole flight that screwed up. The squadron had been ambushed by enemy Seraph fighters emerging from slipspace. One Longsword had been destroyed before anybody could react and Phan's own fighter was damaged.
The damage had been minor, but his navigator had been killed during the attack. A bright young kid hailing from Paris IV. Now his crew was one man short. Phan was angry for two main reasons. First of all, he still hadn't gotten any kills; second, one of his men had died while under his command.
"Hey, Vinh," his copilot, Lieutenant (junior grade) Mariah McDonnell greeted. "You're going to hurt yourself."
Lieutenant Phan only stopped after banging his head on the fighter three more times. The mechanics working on fixing the structural damage laughed at him and kept on working.
"When's our next flight?" Vinh asked his copilot.
Mariah shrugged and ran her hands through her hair. "Could be ten minutes or ten hours. They're evacuating down there, so probably ten minutes."
Vinh stepped back from the wall and nodded slowly, carefully. "Where's Ensign…"
"Quincy," she finished for him. "You know, you should really learn his name."
"He's a new kid," Vinh argued.
"Still, you might want to at least make him think you respect him somehow." Mariah was still in her flight suit, she hadn't bothered to take it off since she knew she would be needed again any minute now. "You good?"
Vinh smiled and nodded, trying to forget the kid's busted head, blood pouring onto the consoles. "You're going to have to step in as navigator," he told her.
Mariah laughed. "You sure you can handle flying all by yourself."
"Hey, if it weren't for you I would've been an ace long ago."
Mariah spread her arms. "Hey, whatever lets you sleep at night."
Vinh and Mariah had been together ever since they both joined flight school. They were completely different in almost every aspect. She was tall and had pale white skin, he was short and had a natural tanned skin that came with his slanted eyes and broad nose. She had bright red hair and a face covered with freckles while his hair was black and cropped short. She was a rich colony kid and he came from a small village in Thailand that had somehow managed to avoid the overpopulation problem. She had joined for adventure and he had joined in order to avoid living his whole life in a place he considered a pile of dirt.
When they met in flight school they had become fast friends. Their relationship had always been platonic, something that surprised everyone that knew them.
Perhaps most unusual was that they usually served as wingmen while on the prowl for potential hookup partners.
And they worked like magic in the cockpit, even if their lack of experience meant that they sometimes screwed up. Just like they had during their last patrol mission.
"Lieutenant!"
Vinh turned around to see the new ensign that served as his systems operator jogging towards him. "Ensign."
"Lieutenant, I heard word that we might be taking off soon to protect civilian transports."
"Ah, the joy of escort missions," Vinh said with no small dose of sarcasm. "You sure?"
"As sure as can be."
"Ok then, the Longsword is already re-stocked, might as well climb in."
The moment he sat down on the pilot's seat word came that his entire squadron would be taking off in order to escort the last escaping civilian transports. The rest of the Longsword squadrons would be on standby or on patrol. So far the enemy ships had made no move to attack, but it was only a matter of time.
"Pre-flight?" Vinh voiced.
"Everything looks good," Mariah replied.
"Same here, Lieutenant."
Vinh rolled his eyes and ran quickly through the instruments, taking his time while checking the ones that the copilot normally would've gone through. "Excellent, Scalpel-7 is green."
The rest of the fighters in the squadron confirmed that they were good to go and the launch tubes were quickly evacuated. The repair crews left and the tubes were sealed. Vinh flipped a few switches before the big launch tube door opened and his fighter was launched. His and three other Longswords sped away from the Flawless and spun over it, towards Acheron-VII. Even from this altitude and in daytime Vinh could see the damage done by the initial Covenant invasion. Large craters and huge fires that most likely wouldn't die out until after this battle was over were visible all over the planet. An impressive sight, albeit a grim one.
"Listen up boys and girls," Scalpel-5, the squadron leader, came in. "Two Longswords go down and two stay up. Shot Glass and I will stay up here, Rover and EC will go down."
"Roger that Batman," Vinh replied, calling his squadron leader by his callsign. "EC, wanna take lead?"
"Yup," EC replied, turning his fighter towards the planet itself.
Vinh adjusted the trajectory using thrusters and then boosted after EC, leaving a sensible distance between the two of them. He could see his wingman's fighter enveloped in flames even as his own craft entered atmosphere. The temperature remained the same inside the cockpit even if it was a living hell on the outside.
"We're in," EC announced.
"Likewise," Vinh echoed.
"Copy that," Batman replied. "We'll be watching out for you."
The two Longsword fighters were barely aerodynamic in design, but their speed allowed them to fly in-atmosphere as well as in space. The two fighters shot through the land and over the remains of New Montevideo before catching up with four escaping vessels. The ships themselves were cargo vessels, designed to carry food or materials, not people. They were flying in close formation, a few green flack shots bounced harmlessly of their hulls.
"Damn, grunts down there must have it tough," Ensign Quincy said, looking through the ventral cameras. "Looks like a mess."
"Probably is two," Vinh agreed. "Jarheads tend to make a mess of things faster than the Covenant."
"Hear, hear," Mariah chuckled.
Lieutenant Vinh Phan smiled and positioned his fighter next to the civilian ships while EC did the same with his. "We good EC?"
"Affirmative, Rover."
Vinh flinched at his callsign, it was a habit that he could never really get rid off. The story behind it was embarrassing, but not overtly so, and the name itself wasn't too bad. He wasn't sure why he didn't like it, but he put up with it like every single pilot did. Hell, it had taken Mariah almost a year before she stopped blushing when someone called her by her callsign.
The four cargo ships broke atmosphere with ease and the two Longswords followed. While they could've jumped right then and there, it was a very bad idea. Gravity wells tended to mess with slipspace calculations, messing them up. You could end up several light years away from your destination or, much less likely, inside a sun. It had been known to happen, so everybody was extra careful when dealing with Shaw-Fujikawa slipspace engines.
"Captain of the cargo ships, this is Scalpel-7, your escorting fighter, do you copy?"
"We copy Scalpel-7."
"Good, just checking on communications. Are there any problems that I should be aware of? Nuclear reactor leaks, damaged thruster?"
"Negative, sir. All of these ships are fresh of the line, this should be only their third or fourth jump."
"Ok, thanks Captain. We'll stay with you until you reach the jump spot. Good luck."
From that point on it was quiet, the only noise that Vinh could hear was the occasional console beep and his own breathing. His eyes darted in all directions, trying to spot that teardrop shaped fighter gunning for him. The black space revealed no such threats, instead showing a few of the bright stars that managed to be visible at this distance even despite Acheron. For two hours they flew with the containers at an incredibly slow speed.
"Vinh, I got slipspace distortions some twenty kilometers away from our current position."
Twenty kilometers was awfully close in space combat.
"EC, you got that?"
"Yup, want me to go check it out?"
"Please do, be careful."
"Aren't I always?"
"That big scorch mark on your starboard wing would disagree."
EC chuckled. "You just had to go there."
His display showed EC's Longsword breaking formation to investigate the slipspace distortions. He would be at the point of origin of the distortions in less than a minute, if any Seraphs did come out they'd be ambushed before they could set up their shields.
"Distortions are getting stronger," EC's voice came in. "Weapons free."
Vinh kept his eyes to his display and allowed himself a sigh of relief when only four Seraphs emerged, all four of them were hit with missiles before their shield were up. EC had been quick and calculating. After the relief came the jealousy. EC had just scored four kills in less than one second, Vinh was still on the bottom of the pilot kill list.
"Good job EC," Vinh complimented. "Maybe next one's on me."
"With your luck?" EC chuckled. "Don't think so."
"Holy shit! Slipspace distortions everywhere!" Mariah suddenly burst. "Literally everywhere!"
"Fuck," Vinh muttered. "Captain, this is Scalpel-7, do you copy?"
"We copy, what's wr-"
"You have to jump now!"
"But we're still within the gravity well of Acheron!"
"No time, you can fix do a second jump if you miss. Go!"
At least fifty Seraphs emerged from slipspace portals all around and flew straight for the large and lumbering container ships. Three of them jumped before they could be reached while the fourth one took a few shots before disappearing from sight.
"EC, you good?"
"Negative, I got four, no six Seraphs on my ass, can't shake them off."
"Reinforcements are on the way, " Quincy said. "We're weapons hot and ready for action."
"Hold on EC, we're coming."
Vinh knew that my craft had lit up on every single display screen in the system the moment I used the afterburners to speed towards EC's position. Suddenly Vinh's Longsword found itself with its very own tail of pursuing Seraphs. As it closed in on its wingman the cockpit window displayed red squares around visible targets. Four of them were immediately locked on by the system.
"Firing," Vinh stated calmly.
The missiles were visible only for a second before they disappeared into the darkness of space. I saw flashes of orange as they activated their rockets and flew at the Seraphs. A few seconds later four explosions adorned the cold space.
"Two of the targets are dead and two have their shields down," Quincy informed everyone that bothered to listen.
Vinh used his thrusters to redirect the Longsword to the other target. The 50mm machine guns were hot and ready to fire. At this distance it was guaranteed that they would hit, so he wasted no time and immediately clicked the triggers. The tracer rounds illuminated the cold black void of space as they tore through the Seraph. It wasn't long before the alien fighter exploded in a purple fireball.
"Pursuers are closing in on us!" Mariah said.
"EC, can you handle three?"
"I can try," he replied, his voice strained due to concentration.
Vinh activatd the bottom thrusters and the Longsword spun a full one-eighty degrees. It was now facing the pursuers, flying in reverse. The technique was fancy-looking and visually impressive, but it was an incredibly simple and easy one to use in the vacuum of space. The lack of friction made things so much easier out there.
Vinh used his standard 50mm cannons to fire at the closest Seraph. The machine guns turned on their mounts and fired. The Longsword rumbled but not so much as a single noise was heard when they collided with the Seraph. Vinh could barely make out the flaring shield at this distance, and this was considered a knife fight in space.
"They're not breaking off," Mariah cursed.
"Rover, we go inside, fly in circles, cover each other's backs."
"That's an atmospheric strategy EC," Vinh grunted, twisting the stick to avoid a burst of plasma fire. "Probably not gonna work up here."
"It just might, besides, we just need a few minutes for reinforcements."
"Fine," he ceded. "Let's go."
A few seconds later EC and Vinh were circling each other as close as they dared. Each could see the other's Longsword if they just looked up. Occasionally a Seraph would try to get behind either one of them, but the other one would speed up and chase him away. Both pilots scored two kills before the Covenant fighters simply tried to fire at them as we passed. Vinh's Longsword was hit more than anyone would like to, but the armor held.
"Rover, EC," Batman came in. "We're within visual range of you, that's one helluva mess."
"It's worse than it looks," EC replied. "They're missing wildly."
Batman chuckled darkly. "If you say so, the rest of the flight should be here within minutes. Opening fire."
Eight Seraphs suddenly found themselves violently shaken when a missile hit them. Six of them couldn't take the structural damage and either exploded or started leaking atmosphere. The other two were quickly dispatched by the newcomer fighters. Before the Seraphs could react Batman and Shot Glass were inside the circle. With four fighters covering each other's ass, no alien pilot dared try to get on one's six. Instead they fired wildly, hoping for a hit.
"Shit, plasma torpedoes!" Mariah warned.
I guess they got tired of waiting ,Vinh sighed to himself.
Vinh twisted and turned his craft as the torpedo tried to get behind him. If he could get clear of everyone else he could just outrun the torpedo until it ran out of gas, but the plasma torpedo already had too much speed on him and was coming from a tough angle to outrun. Luckily, it wasn't a tough angle to avoid. Vinh did a barrel roll and a short burst of speed before the torpedo flew right by him. It started turning again before spinning out of control.
"For all their technology you think they could've made functional missiles," Ensign Quincy noted.
"Agreed," Vinh replied.
"They're breaking off," Batman said. "Reinforcements scared them."
"Damn, we were outnumbered twenty-five to one!" EC exclaimed.
"Sometimes its actually good for you to be this badly outnumbered, you can hide inside their numbers," Shot Glass told him. "Still, nice job."
The squadron remained in their protective circle until the rest of the Longswords arrived. The entire flight had been dispatched to help, boosting their numbers to sixteen fighters now. Vinh felt a lot safer when flying in a larger group, it meant that there were more targets and more experienced pilots to cover his ass if he got in trouble.
"Second Squadron," Flight Leader chimed in. "Flawless is under attack by a large enemy fighter force, every available exo-atmospheric craft is already working to defend it, we're not exempt from that mission."
"Copy that Scalpel-1," Batman said.
Vin suddenly wondered why Scalpel-1 got to avoid his callsign. Perhaps because he was a commander…
Minutes later Vinh could see the storm of tracers and flak surrounding the Flawless. Even worse, he could see plasma flying everywhere.
"Damn, display shows over a hundred and fifty enemy fighters."
"We've got a ship on our side," Vinh assured his copilot-working-as-navigator.
"If you say so."
"Two on our ten at negative forty degrees," Mariah announced.
"Got 'em," Vinh replied, boosting towards them.
The two Seraphs were flying parallel to the Flawless, most likely trying to find a nice spot from which to strafe the ship. Vinh fired with the standard 50mm guns as well as the 120mm ventral cannon. The rear Seraph exploded in a fireball before it knew what was happening. The lead Seraph turned to face Vinh and fired. Vinh twisted his Longsword to avoid colliding with the Seraph and started turning around to face the Seraph again.
The gunners on the Flawless beat him to it, firing a short burst of heavy explosive ammunition at the alien fighter, killing it. Vinh sighed and set himself a goal. He was already a certified ace with six kills, but he wanted to get out of the bottom of the list. That required another ten confirmed kills and the pilot in second to last not to make any kills. It was going to be a tough one.
Vinh felt strangely safe when flying through the suppression barrage. Flak and tracers flew in every direction around him, but the AI managing the PDGs was flawless in its firing. Ever single round missed him and hit an enemy fighter. Even the flak rounds served to discourage attacking Seraphs. They also made his job all the easier. By the time the enemy fell back he had netted another three kills. Not bad at all.
"Enemy's falling back," Batman stated the obvious. Relief was evident in his voice. "We're setting up patrol formation to-"
A CCS-class battlecruiser appeared out of nowhere. It was at extremely close range. Seraph fighters poured out of it, firing at any and all targets. Vinh was lucky to be so far away from the new arrivals, because at least six Longswords went down in the distance. He headed towards the relative safety of the Flawless and tried to avoid drawing attention to himself.
"Rover, EC, Shot Glass, all four of us are landing, we're being refitted with nukes."
Nobody acknowledged the order, instead Second Squadron headed towards their launch tubes. They slowed down as much as they dared before flying inside the carrier again. The Flawless was twisting to face the enemy battlecruiser with its MAC cannon while the enemy ship tried to get a bearing with its plasma turrets. They were firing at each other with conventional weaponry, armor and shields absorbing the blasts as well as they could.
The Longswords had one Shiva nuclear missile attached to their belly in less than fifteen seconds before they were launched again.
"Second Squadron, we'll pave the way for you," Scalpel-1 called. "Let's go!"
Sixteen Longsword fighters flying in formation plowed through wave upon wave of Seraphs, never flinching even as their number was reduced. Vinh saw one fighter go down and another break off with damaged engines before we were inside of their defense laser range. The computer automatically locked in on the battlecruiser's central region before firing.
Four nuclear missiles flying at the ship wouldn't go unnoticed. Their defense lasers tried to pin down the Shiva's even as the aliens in charge added power to the shields where the nukes would hit. One of the missiles was destroyed before the other three made contact. There was a bright white flash and then nothing. The battlecruiser was still there, but yellow lighting ran along the armor. The shields were damaged but they weren't completely out.
All of a sudden the alien ship's bow crumpled. Vinh knew a MAC hit when he saw one, even at this range.
"What the hell was that?" Quincy asked.
"MAC blast."
"Not from the Flawless," Mariah added. "It was the…the Honorable."
"Hey, about that," Quincy started. "Is it Honorable or Dishonorable?"
"It's (Dis)Honorable," Vinh told him.
"So Dishonorable?"
"Not exactly," he shrugged. "I'll explain later."
"Nice work," Batman voiced out. "That's half a ship kill for all of us right there."
"Nothing to get the ladies we-"
"Shut up," Mariah interrupted Vinh. "Please."
They might've been as good as friends could be, but Mariah was still a girl and liked to be treated as a lady.
"All right," Vinh stopped. "Sorry if I offended you milady."
"Shut up."
"Everybody back to the ship, we're falling back," Scalpel-1 ordered.
"What about our forces down there?" someone asked.
"They're on their way, another flight is going to cover them. We'll be jumping out of this system as soon as every grunt is on board." Scalpel-1 sounded as if he didn't want to wait that long.
"He, might just leave them there for all the good they do," somebody else complained. "Killing aliens is all good and well, but battles are won up here."
The flight cheered, Vinh included.
"Quiet," Scalpel-1 ordered. "Everybody in, a nice cold trip awaits us."
Vinh parked and left his Longsword, hugging Mariah and high-fiving Quincy. They congratulated each other on their newly gained ace status before heading towards their quarters. There they took off their flight suits and changed into the more comfortable fatigues that they would be taking off before climbing into their cryo tubes.
Vinh found it hard to believe that it had only been fifteen minutes ago that he had been engaged in brutal dogfighting with explosions all around him. Now he was smiling and patting himself on the back for his accomplishments. Well, he had a right to be satisfied with himself. After all, only eight men had died and two planes had been lost. It was infinitely better than most times he returned from a combat mission.
Another planet, another story, he thought. I'm an ace now.
Vinh walked towards cryo with a big smile on his face.
Thanks to Alshep and SilasWhitfield for proof-reading this chapter.
There are a few things that I want to point out here, namely the fact that this chapter in particular is written in third person as opposed to the usual first person. The guest character is Lieutenant Vinh Phan, a Longsword pilot that has to fight a war against an enemy that outclasses him in most aspects except for raw talent. Their ships are faster, better, tougher, and more dangerous while his are kind of crappy and odd-looking. I always found it interesting how not a lot of stories focus on the war in space, where the battles are actually lost. The UNSC can give the Covenant a run for its money on the ground any day of the week, but in space the aliens have the indisputable advantage. Perhaps that's why the sailors and airmen are so cynical, even more so than most of the guys fighting ground side in the regular infantry.
Please, do note the incredible amount of cynicism and lack of shock towards human death when compared to the reactions of guys on the ground.
Another thing that I want to ask of you is to tell me how you liked the chapter's style, it is written in third person, but it focuses on one character only, the narrator is not really omniscient. I'm definitely not switching the story format, but it might help know what you think in case I decide to write more epicness without a clear plot.
...I think that's it. Oh, right, I'm kind of a dick for leaving you guys hanging about whatever happened to Frank.
Stay strong.
-casquis