“Best guess would be a moon base, sir, but Isee no sign of one,” was his answer as the fighters began torandomly fire in our general direction.
“As soon as you get a solid lock on one ofthem, break stealth and take them out,” I ordered.
They brought the Dark Talon around and movedtowards one of the fighters while still hidden. Once they closedthe distance, I felt the Dark Talon roar out of its low-power modeand the swishing sound of two antimatter missiles launching.Immediately after firing those, they banked the ship hard and firedthe ship’s forward high-energy particle cannons on a second ship,quickly destroying both craft, probably before they had evennoticed our attack. The three remaining fighters came at us fromthree different directions at once, all guns blazing. The pilotthrottled up the Dark Talon’s engine to full thrust and turned awayfrom their attack. The Peregrines quickly closed the gap and cameup behind us, which was exactly what the Dark Knights wanted themto do. Immediately I was slammed forward in my harness as theship’s rear engines were cut off, and the forward braking thrusterswere fired at maximum power. All three fighters flew past us, andright into a spread of weapon fire that the Dark Knights had laidout. One fighter was quickly destroyed, a second damaged but thethird escaped unharmed.
The Dark Talon’s primary engines were broughtback up to speed and they quickly moved to take out the woundedPeregrine. They were able to down that one quickly, and moved toengage the last fighter. Before they could, the tactical officercalled out, “Fifteen more Peregrines just appeared at 270 degrees,in a tight bravo formation.”
A bravo formation? That meant they had justjumped in and would still be recovering! Apparently the Knightsrealized this too as they broke off their attack and headed towardsthe new group of fighters, launching a large spread of antimattermissiles and all forward weapons firing. Eight of the enemyfighters were destroyed before they could take any evasive action,but that left us with eight more to fight.
“This makes no sense! Where are they comingfrom?” I asked.
“Sir! Five Falcon-class ships just came outfrom behind the moon!” called out the tactical officer.
This was bad. We could take the Peregrines,but we would be completely out-gunned by the five Falcons.Undaunted, the Knights moved to engage the Falcons when thetactical officer called out, “Sir, a Condor class destroyer hasjust jumped in!”
“How is that even possible this close to theplanet?!” I exclaimed. “We need to get out of here. Disengage theenemy and come about to Z minus 90 degrees, maximum thrust, fullweapons spread to the rear.”
“Yes, sir!” called out the pilot as heexecuted my order.
“Navigator, prepare the jump drive. Charge itto 18.473 % and target the far side of the moon; prepare to executeon my mark. Pilot, I am counting on your ability to come out of thejump with all your senses. As soon as we clear the jump you willneed to take control of the ship and keep us from crashing. At thefirst instant that you can, re-engage full stealth mode.” Icarefully watched the ship’s tactical displays. This course we wereon must have looked like a suicide dive right into the planet. Onlythe Peregrines were keeping up with us. My timing had to be exacton this. “Execute in four … three … two … NOW!”
When I finally came out of the post-jumpconfusion, I noticed that we were safely on the far side of theplanet in a stable orbit. “Excellent work, pilot.”
“Sir, if I may ask, how did you know that wewould be thrown over here? There is no way you could have triedthis before,” said the tactical officer.
He was right. The move was impossible withoutthe Dark Knights’ ability to operate immediately after a jump. “Istumbled upon it in a video game that allowed me to use yourpost-jump recovery skill. Later I tested it in countless computersimulations and it worked every time, but this was the first time Iwas able to try it in a real situation.”
After that I began to look over the battlelogs for some indication of where all those ships had come from,but something was wrong with the logs. “Tactical, can you check thelogs? My screen does not show any enemy craft at all.”
“Sir, there must be something wrong with thecomputer. My logs show the same,” he replied as he franticallyworked at his station, trying to find the problem.
“Okay, wake up your crewmates …” Istarted.
“Sir! Fifty Peregrine-class ships are cominginto range!” called out tactical as I felt the fear weapon hitus.
“Do not break stealth, do not engage.” Thismade no sense at all. I just could not believe there were this manyfighters here. Just as I finished that thought the fightersdisappeared from my screen. “Of course!” I called out, “DarkKnights, we know the Magi can sow fear, so why not hallucinations,too? Those fighters are not real; once you realize that they willdisappear. That is why we have no record of fighting them, becausethe computers are not subject to the hallucination. Pilot, bring usto the landing site of Lieutenant Tom’s squad. If there is anythingleft of their ship I want to read its logs.” At first the DarkKnights seemed uncomfortable with that order, but one by one theyseemed to get it. “Once you have beaten the hallucination, wake upyour crewmates and train them to fight the fear weapon and thehallucinations.”
Chapter Twelve
While we traveled to the landing site, Istudied the most recent maps we had of the colony. Clearly the Magiknew we were there, and that meant we would have a fight waitingfor us. One could only guess what other tricks they had up theirsleeves.
“Sir, his ship is coming into view now,” saidthe pilot.
“Odd, there is no sign of a fight of anykind,” I remarked. The shelters were up just like Zalith hadexpected but the entire site was in perfect condition. “Unless … ofcourse! That explains how they were defeated. They did not knowabout the fear weapon when they landed, nor the hallucinations.Land us as close as you can. As soon as we are down we will move totake Tom’s camp. For now, assume the Magi hold it even though wecan detect nothing. Pilot, I want you to set the Dark Talon toreturn to orbit under full stealth once we are off. Program theautopilot to return to the fleet in twelve days. Bring atransmitter with us when we leave the ship. I want every bit ofinformation we collect to get back to the fleet should we fail toreturn. That hallucination weapon is far more deadly than the fearweapon. I shudder to think of the bloodbath if they merely confuseour fleet into attacking itself!”
I let that somber thought sit in the air aswe began our final descent. The Dark Knights were rechecking alltheir weapons and gear. They carried a wide variety of light andheavy arms. I followed their example and rechecked my pulse rifle.It was a fairly slow-firing weapon, but with extreme range andaccuracy. It was not the best choice for this kind of raid, but itwas my best weapon. At the Academy, I actually earned the name" One-Shot" with it because I was the only ensign who could hit mosttargets with a single shot.
The Dark Knights all put on theirenvironmental suits in preparation for the landing. The planet hadlittle to no atmosphere and we would be dead without protection.With the addition of a helmet my body armor would work well as anenvironmental suit on the surface of this barren world. Onceeveryone was geared up, they depressurized the craft. This wouldeliminate the need to cycle the airlock, which would be dangerousif we met resistance at the landing site.
Within seconds of the Dark Talon touchingdown the airlock was opened and we rushed out to secure the area.Once we were all out the pilot used his wrist computer to order theDark Talon back into orbit and we ran to Tom’s ship. The Knightsformed a wedge and put me in the center as they ran. I realizedthey were intentionally running slower so I could keep up. Theirlonger, more powerful legs and stabilizing tails allowed them toget much closer to the ground and move much faster than any human.The squad’s sergeant was in the front of the wedge running at hisfull height, attempting to shield me.