"Everyone chill," Lon said as he finally managed to zoom in and see what Lisa had reported. "If they knew we were out here they'd hit us with their arty first. This looks like... like an air strike."
"An air strike?" Horishito said. "But they haven't set up a forward refuel point. How are they gonna... oh shit," he said, as the ramifications of his words suddenly struck him.
"Holy shit," Lon said. "Now we know why they landed so far forward. They won't need a fucking forward refuel point from here. Eden is within their range!"
"The 250s," Lisa said. "That has to be what they're going after! The 250s and maybe the air launch facilities for the Mosquitoes and the Hummingbirds!"
"Shit," Lon said. "Why the fuck didn't someone think of this?"
The hovers began to emerge from their ship, easing out on flares of bright heat and then rising into the air and drifting outward. In only twenty seconds more than thirty of them had launched from each ship. They began to form up some two hundred meters above their ships.
"Jefferson," Lon said, "send off a priority report about this. Hovers assembling above the LZ in large numbers. Prepare for air strike. Will report more when they move out."
"Right, sarge," he said, turning on his communications gear and quickly setting up the message. Before he was even done transcribing it the entire compliment of hovers had launched and assembled.
"What's our count?" Lon asked.
"Sixty-three of them," Horishito said.
"That's my count too," Lisa confirmed. "All of them attack hovers."
As a unit, the formation of hovers turned and began to move to the east, accelerating as they went, but descending and staying less than one hundred meters above the ground. Before they were out of sight it was clear that they'd accelerated to their top Martian speed of one hundred and seventy kilometers per hour.
"Send the next message," Lon told Jefferson. "Six-three attack hovers moving east from the LZ at one-seven-zero, altitude one-zero-zero."
"Sending it," Jefferson reported. "I hope there's someone up there to hit them."
There was someone up there — three different flights of Mosquitoes circling and awaiting further instructions — but all of them were running low on fuel. Brian and Matt's flight of two were the closest and they'd just sent off an encrypted message to flight command letting them know they would need to head in for refuel in the next ten minutes. They had been awaiting their reply when the emergency action message came over the radio frequency.
"Fuck me," Matt said as he listened to the message. "Boss, did you hear that shit?"
"I caught some of it," Brian said. "Repeat it."
"Six-three attack hovers have just launched from the Eden LZ. They're heading east at one-zero-zero meters AGL, moving maximum speed. All units move to intercept if possible."
"Sixty-three of them?" Brian said. "Shit. I was hoping I'd heard wrong." He looked down at his fuel gauge and clicked his lips a few times.
"They gotta be going after the 250s," Matt said. "If they get through they'll kill them!"
"Get us an intercept course right now!" Brian told him. "We need to drop as many as we can!"
"Boss, we got the fuel to do that? If we go turnin' and burnin' while we're on low we might not make it back to the base."
"We need to try," Brian said. "If we have to ditch before we get back then we have to ditch. Now get me that fucking course and then open up a channel to our wing."
Matt didn't hesitate for an instant. "Right, boss," he said, flipping over to the navigation screen. "Plotting it now."
"If we find them fast, hit hard, and identify their path for the rest of the Mosquitoes we should be able to pull back and make it to base." He shook his head a little. "Should be."
"Right," Matt said, his fingers flying over his screen, trying to intersect their current position with an imaginary line where sixty-three hovers moving one hundred and seventy klicks an hour would be at the time they got in the vicinity. "Broad fuckin' daylight," he said. "It'll be harder to pin them down from a distance. And if we get too high they'll be able to engage us."
"We need to find them," Brian said. "That's the most important thing. Get me some kind of a course so I can get moving!"
Matt's course plotting was far from complete but he knew at least the basics. "Turn to one-seven-two. Prelim look has an intersection of them and us in about six minutes."
"Doing it," Brian said. "And get the wing on the line. Fuck radio silence. This is an emergency."
That was a simple flip of a switch. "You're hot," Matt told him and then bent over his plot again, barely noticing the sharp turn of the aircraft to the right.
Their wing had already followed them through the turn and accelerated to maximum right alongside them. Brian keyed his mic and told them what they were doing.
"Brian, the fuel's gonna be awfully fuckin' tight here," said Collins, one of the recently trained pilots.
"No shit," Brian told him. "You head back to base if you don't wanna risk it. You're well within doctrine and I won't think any less of you. But I'm going after those fuckers and if we have to ditch on the way back that's the breaks."
There was a slight hesitation and then Collins said, "I'm with you. Lead the way."
"My sis is working on it now," Brian told him.
They flew on in silence for another fifty-two seconds. Finally Matt came up with an official estimated plot. He found it wasn't all that different than his instinctive guess. "Turn left to one-seven-four," he said. "If they follow their course and speed from the LZ as reported and if the time is right that will put us out over the valley right in front of them."
"Got it," Brian said, making the adjustment. "And ship it to the wing and to air command."
"Already done, boss," Matt said. "They're reporting all of the other flights are moving in as well. Their positions and courses are coming up on our screen now."
"Fuckin' aye," Brian said. "Get those cannons charged up. I want us to hit fast when we find them. Hit any of them you can."
"Right," Matt said.
They reached the intercept point exactly on time. The two aircraft shot out over the valley and then turned sharply to the west. They saw nothing but emptiness below them.
"Where the fuck are they?" Brian asked, his enhanced eyes looking for something, anything that resembled heat in the infrared spectrum.
"They're not exactly here," Matt said. "They're either in front of us or behind us. So they're either going faster or slower than we thought."
"Which is it though?" Brian asked. "Are they in front of us or behind?"
"How about we split up?" Matt suggested. "We go east and Collins goes west? That way one of us should come up on them."
"With only half the firepower," Brian said. "And they might be winding their way through the mountains instead of following the valley. If they're doing that neither one of us will find them."
"So what do we do?" Matt asked.
"We don't have much time. We need to climb and look down from above."
"Climb? Are you crazy, boss? If we go up high and they spot us they'll pot us out of the sky!"
"I want to do it," Brian said. "I think it's important enough to risk our asses for. If you object, tell me now and we'll keep searching low."
"Fuck," Matt muttered. "You're determined to kill my ass, ain't you?"
Brian grinned. "You want to live forever or something?"
"Naw," Matt said. "It would be boring. Let's do it."
"I knew I liked you for a reason," Brian said. He flipped over to the wing channel again. "Collins," he said. "We're going high and we're gonna find these fuckers. Circle right here and we'll vector you in."
"Brian, you can't do that!" Collins shot back. "They'll shoot you down if you're caught up high!"