The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (35 page)

All the
while the frigate returned fire, bolts, beams, and missiles chasing
the three starfighters, all failing to stave off the attack. It was
not long before the midsection began to come apart, explosions
haemorrhaging the hull and bulkheads, and began to tear the frigate
apart.

Soon after, the three
Knights
pulled out of their assault and re-focused on the
Imperial fighters, who had been able to do little else except
standby helpless as the ATAFs dispatched the ship they had escorted
in.

* * *

Dodds and Estelle plunged into the second
frigate
’
s fighter
escort as they streaked past
Griffin
, lending support to the
carrier’s defences that had been caught on the back
foot.

“
The first frigate has been taken down,” Estelle said, not a
few minutes into their engagement.

“
Already?” Dodds said in disbelief. He could have put full
trust in his radar, but instead he wheeled around to witness the
final moments of the frigate, as it was torn asunder by the
explosions that continued to issue forth. He lingered for a while,
aware of the fire striking him, but paying it no more attention
than he had before.

The questions returned: just what
was
this thing that he sat in? Had
the Confederation really built this alone? And if they had, for
what purpose? This was not just the next step up, it was a leap;
and giant one at that.

Estelle’s voice dragged him back. “We need to hurry up,
Dodds. These guys won
’
t be able to handle the fighters themselves and
Griffin
is in trouble if
that frigate gets any closer.”

He adjusted his heading to pass over
Griffin
and onward to meet the
approaching frigate. As he drew
closer, he
concluded that the quickest solution to the problem of the frigate
was to employ the use of his fighter’s plasma accelerator. Having
only used the weapon during the first few days of the
ATAF
’
s simulated
courses, a real world test was long overdue.

Traversing the craft
’
s system menus, he located the
screen he needed to activate the weapon, only to be confronted with
an access denial. He nevertheless tapped the screen a few times in
defiance. The console did nothing, save for emit a dull bleep,
further enforcing its rejection.

“
My accelerator has been locked,” Dodds
said. “If yours isn’t working either, then
we
’
ll have
to do this the old-fashioned way.” Estelle said nothing and Dodds
returned his full attention back towards their target, discovering
the reasons for her sudden silence.

A large
explosion appeared at the stern of the Imperial frigate, followed
by another. The vessel began to come apart, venting gases and
chemicals, and trailing chunks of hull and bulkhead in its wake. An
enormous hail of cannon fire came from somewhere behind, slamming
into the stricken vessel and putting an end to its involvement in
the battle.

“
Hawke,” Estelle said, as
Ifrit
came into
view.

* * *

With
Rissard next to him, Zackaria watched the destruction of the two
frigates in silence, their short-lived victory coming to a swift
end. He turned and signalled to the crew that they were to leave at
once. He felt no disappointment over their loss, nor in the
direction the battle had turned. He had gained considerable
knowledge and insight into his enemy; experience that would prove
invaluable in the future.

* * *

Parks glowered, observing a feed of the spinning remains of
the second frigate. True to his word, Hawke had engaged the enemy
vessel as it had jumped into position behind the three carriers,
effecting a flank. Hawke
’
s belief that the enemy might
attempt such a manoeuvre had come to a head, and he had made good
on his own proposal to await such a move and step in to undo it.
Parks couldn’t fault him for that.

He looked back to another feed of two ATAFs chasing after the
wing of fighters that had arrived with the frigate. The fighters
were pulling away from the battle, heading back towards
Dragon
. Likewise,
another group were retreating from the three
ATAFs that had taken down the first frigate.

“
Griffin
,
this is de Winter. Enemy forces appear to be withdrawing. Should we
pursue?”

“
Stand down,” Parks
said
. “Let them go. I
don
’
t want anyone
to throw their lives away needlessly.”

They did so, and as he watched,
Dragon
turned away from the allied
forces. A jump point formed beyond, and the battleship, along with
the enormous squadrons of Imperial starfighters, accelerated in,
disappearing from sight. Though chatter and noise still filled the
bridge, Parks felt an ominous silence descend upon him. It appeared
that the danger had passed, yet he continued to stare at the feed,
expecting at any moment the mighty vessel to reappear. It did
not.

“
Dragon
has
departed the system,” he heard from somewhere up the
bridge.

It’s over
, Parks thought to
himself.
Thank God
.

“
Yeah, but it looks like it left some of its babies behind,” a
voice came. It sounded like Enrique’s.

Parks noted that some of the Imperial fighters had not made
it into the vicinity of
Dragon
before it had departed the system. Unable to jump
out of Aster, the orphaned craft now looked to be stranded, and for
a time they milled around in the area once occupied by their
allies. All of a sudden, they changed their heading and began back
towards the allied forces.

“
Hey, they
’
re coming back,” Enrique
said.

The
cameras tracking the group began to pan faster.

“
They
’
re coming back bloody quickly!” the
pilot then added.

The
fighters were accelerating at an alarming rate, putting themselves
on a collision course with the three ATAFs that remained the
furtherest out from the allied forces.

“
They’re going to ram us!” That was Chaz. “Get out the
way!”

Two of
the ATAFs moved, the remaining enemy forces shooting past them,
several making last-ditch attempts to collide. For a moment, it
looked as though their efforts had been in vain. Then came an
explosion.

Parks
spun from the video relay to the frontal viewport, where even
without the feeds, the fading burst was quite visible. A ripple of
shock ran the length of the bridge, gasps and curses filling the
air. Shouts and cries exploded from the various feeds and the other
bridges, all intermixed and indistinguishable, and none providing
the one answer Parks needed.

“
What happened?” Parks demanded, above the cries. “Someone
tell me what the hell just happened?”

“
Collision, sir,” Liu answered him.

“
Between?”

“
One of ours and one of theirs. It looks like both vessels
have been destroyed.”

Parks
paled. It had been just as he had thought: the pilot had faltered,
lingering too long as they tried to decide the best direction to
take, to best avoid the dozen or so Imperial fighters that were
speeding towards them. In the end, one of the craft had ploughed
straight into them. For everything that had happened that day, this
was by far the worst. With the destruction of the ATAF, their one
hope against the Enemy had been dashed. Everything now seemed
hopeless.

He stood
staring out the viewport. Seconds later, he shook the shock from
his system, remembering that several suicidal Imperial starfighters
were still racing toward the allied group.

“
Shoot them down!” he shouted.

It did
not prove difficult to do so, the craft making no effort to deviate
from their course. Cannons from the line of allied vessels blazed,
finally putting an end to the battle.

Parks
looked back to the two ATAFs that the cameras were still tracking,
not far from where the fateful collision had taken place. He caught
a glimmer of something as it emitted a faint glow. It appeared to
be spinning over and over. It took him a while to realise what it
was he was looking at.

* * *

Kelly
blinked her eyes open and tried to clear her blurred vision. There
was a jumble of noise in her head. It sounded like voices calling
out to her and demanding attention. After some time, she realised
it was her craft that was spinning and not her head, and with
considerable effort she managed to slow and halt the spin of the
fighter, bringing it to a complete stop.

Closing
her eyes, she concentrated on her breathing, calming herself so
that she did not do the unthinkable and vomit inside her helmet.
What was going on? Where was she? In a cockpit, to be sure. The act
of slowing the fighter had been somewhat instinctual.

She
opened her eyes once more and looked all about the cockpit, then to
the nebulas that hung nearby. A forest of spinning metals floated
in every direction the eye could see. What looked like the broken,
burnt, and scorched hull of some unknown large vessel
tumbled.

“
Kelly, are you okay?” a dim voice asked.

It
seemed to come from all around her. She winced against a dull ache
on the left side of her head.

“
Kelly?”

“
Where are you? What’s going on?” she said to the
voice.

“
You hit an Imperial fighter,” the voice said. “It flew
straight into you.”

“
It did?” Kelly said. She found that hard
to believe. If the voice was telling the truth,
shouldn
’
t
she be dead? Maybe she was?

“
Kelly, are you okay?” the voice said again. “Is anything
broken? Are you bleeding anywhere?”

“
Enrique, give her a moment,” another voice
cut in. “It
’
s obvious she doesn
’
t remember what just happened.
Kelly, it’s Chaz. You’ve just had a crash. Don’t panic, just stay
calm; ignore everyone and take your time. We’re right
here.”

For a time the voices stopped and Kelly
’
s memory gradually began to rebuild
itself as she looked about the cockpit and at the scene outside.
She started to recall the events that had led up to her current
situation.

“
Yes… yes… I
’
m okay,” she said, several minutes
later. “I just can’t remember very much about what
happened.”

“
Sounds like you might be suffering from a concussion,” Chaz
said.

Kelly
reached up to touch the side of her head, before her hand
encountered the helmet she wore. Even so, she rubbed around the
area where her head was aching. She must have struck her head hard
against the canopy. That would explain the blackout. She still felt
quite dizzy, but at least the sick feeling was passing.

“
How’s the ATAF?” Enrique said. “Are you good to fly
it?”

“
Yeah, I think so.”

“
How badly is it damaged?”

She
pulled herself together and looked at her read-outs. She squinted
at the displays, sceptical of the numbers she was reading and the
images she was looking at, thinking the blow to her head might be
causing her to see things.

“
It’s not.”

“
At all?
”
Enrique said, sounding surprised.

“
No.” she said. She might have been surprised if she had not
been feeling so groggy.

* * *

The
report was relayed to Parks, who started to wonder how many other
surprises the day had in store for them.

“
She’s
alive
?” Liu said. “After
that
?”

Parks
nodded to the helmsman.

“
By all rights that fighter should have
been destroyed and she should be dead!
That
’
s
incredible!”

It
’
s more
than that
, Parks thought.
It may well represent our only
hope
.

With the
departure of the enemy forces and the silence of weaponry, the
scene beyond the bridge had become still once more. But amongst the
multicoloured splendour of their surroundings lay the remnants of a
battle that had not been easily won. With the operation over, Parks
found himself able to slow down and take in everything about him.
He turned around.