He leaned back as the launch officer pointed forward and he was out, kicking on full afterburner, leaping straight ahead to catch up to Doomsday. Switching over to Janice, he called in for a report.
“This is Starlight. Pulling back fast, we’ve got at least twenty-five of them coming in hard, Dralthi, Sartha, a couple of Grikath, and three Kamekh corvettes!”
“Any carriers?”
“That’s the mystery. Several of these fighters have ground camo paint schemes and no bloody carrier in sight.”
“Hot damn!”
“I know. Damn it, Bear, we got within a hundred thousand clicks of the second moon before they finally scrambled. Kilrah was straight ahead a million and a half clicks away. God what an awesome sight.”
“Defenses?”
“Full planet defense screening was up on Kilrah. A dozen orbital bases, their commlink channels going wild. But no carriers. I got a good scan of everything before they came off the moon.”
“Beam the info back to Tarawa now. Send it straight into Combat Information, set up a side band to Svetlana, and get it to those marines as well.”
“Got it going now.”
“Good work. Head back in, rearm for combat support of landing operations.”
Less than a minute later Janice shot past at full throttle, with only one wingman. Two down, Jason realized. Straight ahead he was already getting preliminary lock on the incoming wave and it seemed as if the entire screen had turned red.
“Intrepid?”
“Grierson here.”
“Why don’t you break back, wait for more fighter support?”
Grierson laughed.
“Going in harm’s way, son. We’ve got to keep them away from Tarawa.”
“We’ll support. We’ve got one torpedo load, will take on their lead corvette,” Jason replied.
“Hot work there; why not hold back for more fighter support?” Grierson replied.
“No time, Intrepid.”
Seconds later he shot past the two escort ships, moving in line abreast formation.
“Doomsday, I’m on your port side. Pick your target and I’ll support.”
“See you in hell,” Doomsday shouted, and even as he spoke the first Kilrathi Sartha, moving as a forward screen, opened up. The shots were close, even when fired from maximum range and Jason realized at once that these were not second line pilots.
Doomsday rolled his ship, kicking on afterburners; Jason followed suit. He heard Round Top, Mongol, and Lone Wolf calling out their targets as they waded into the head of the attack, trying to suppress Kilrathi defenses while the lone Sabre went in.
The space around Jason was crisscrossed with laser and neutron blasts, mass driver shots, and dozens of missiles. Pulling in directly behind Doomsday, so that he could almost see the color of his tail gunner’s eyes, he watched his screen as three missiles tracked in and started to close.
“Missiles coming in!” Jason shouted.
“Setting up torpedo lock on their corvette, can’t break!”
Jason watched the shots close in. When the warheads were within seconds of impact he popped off a spread of chaff and flares, two of the missiles detonating. But one came straight through. He pulled on afterburner and shot straight up as the missile, sensing the greater heat display of Jason’s engines, followed, ignoring Doomsday. Jason pulled into a skidding turn and then shut down his engines to present the cold silhouette of the forward half of his ship. The missile streaked past and he breathed a sigh of relief. And then it started to turn back as well.
He watched in horror as the missile weaved for a second and then picked up on the heat discharge still dissipating off from his engine nozzle. The furballs must have noticed that trick of turning and shutting down and reprogrammed their missiles to pick up on it. He started to fire up but knew that he was a dead man as the missile streaked straight in at him.
The missile detonated so close that he felt the jarring blow and it was several seconds before he realized that Lone Wolf, in a brilliant deflection shot, had destroyed the missile that was closing in for the kill.
“Good shooting, Kevin.”
“What I’m paid for, sir.”
Jason smiled and waved as Lone Wolf shot past, breaking astern to hold off the next wave of fighters. His knees felt like jelly and he took a deep breath, struggling to get calm and kill the gut-wrenching fear.
“We’ve got tone! It’s away!” Doomsday shouted.
Jason rolled his ship and looked over his shoulder as a spread of torpedoes streaked away from the Sabre and leaped in towards the lead Kilrathi corvette. The corvette sent out a spread of shot and then turned straight in to present as narrow a target as possible. The torpedoes detonated across the bow, splitting the ship open and it disappeared in a silently spreading ball of incandescent fire.
“Scratch one, Doomsday. Good shooting; now get the hell out.”
Doomsday continued straight in and Jason followed, shouting a curse. He felt an almost surreal sense take hold, as if instinct were guiding him. No longer even thinking on a conscious level, he weaved his way through the swirling engagement. A Grikath weaved in front, attempting to gain a lock on Doomsday and Jason fingered off a dumb shot missile round straight into the Grikath’s tail, blowing the ship apart, and he slammed through the spray of wreckage, his shields shorting out from the high-speed impact. He felt a whoosh of air as his canopy cracked from the blow. A spread of torpedoes, outbound from one of the Kilrathi corvettes, streaked past, inbound on Intrepid.
“You’ve got torpedoes inbound!” Jason shouted.
The point defense system of the Intrepid kicked into action, sending out a spray of mass driver bolts, blowing two of the torpedoes apart, one of them striking a glancing blow as Grierson turned straight into the attack.
Jason looked over his shoulder to watch and then turning back, yanking his stick into his gut as one of the Kilrathi corvettes loomed up directly in front, diving down in an evasive roll. The ship suddenly disappeared, hit by a spread of torpedoes launched from Kagimasha, debris ricochetting out in every direction.
Breathing hard, Jason arced downward, kicking on full afterburner to avoid the wreckage, catching a brief glimpse of a Kilrathi, still alive, tumbling through space, arms flailing, mouth open in a silent scream.
He looked around and realized that nothing was around him. He had lost Doomsday in the confusion and was now heading straight in towards the second moon.
Nothing else was coming up.
Was this everything they had?
He switched through the commlinks. The third Kilrathi corvette was under heavy bombardment, most of the enemy fighters engaging the Intrepid and Kagimasha, with only six breaking on through to Tarawa where four of his fighters were holding their own while the rest of the squadron continued to launch.
He aimed straight in at the moon and accelerated for a quick look.
He pushed on in past the ten-thousand-click mark and down to five thousand, turning on his gun cameras, switching the image to his battle information screen.
Damn, it was a massive shipyard, and he started to count off the construction slips and docks spread out across several hundred square kilometers. And then he saw them, six carrier dockyards, each one occupied by a ship in various stages of construction, well protected inside durasteel bunkers with overhead phase shielding. A spread of missiles appeared on his screen, fired by ground defense, a light patter of long range laser guns joining in. He started to pull back up. As he turned across the surface of the moon the home planet of the Kilrathi Empire came into view. It looked similar to Earth, a beautiful blue green sphere, hanging in the blackness. He was tempted to push on in but knew it was useless, and besides, there was a far more important target right here.