The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (57 page)

“
Karen?” Parks looked to Weathers for further confirmation of
his actions.

“
Ifrit
‘s
shielding, weaponry and engines
have all been disabled, sir,” she said. “Life support still
functional, but…”

“
Bring us back on-line, Mr Liu and get us out of here!” Parks
interrupted, rising from the console.

“
Where?” the uncertain navigator said. “Jump engines are
likely to be extremely unstable since the last
attack…”

“
Just put some distance between us, man!”
Parks said. Whilst
Ifrit
couldn
’
t return fire or give chase, Parks
wanted to get
Griffin
as far away as was possible. Not that he knew where they were
going to go or what they would do once
Ifrit
recovered. He was buying time;
clutching at straws.

Griffin
‘s
engines engaged and the carrier started forward, maintaining
its same heading and slipping beneath its antagonist, though it was
clear that the engines were lacking the power they had possessed at
the time they had departed Spirit.

I can
’
t
believe that actually worked
, Parks found
himself thinking. The idea had come to him in a flash: upon seeing
Zackaria sat in the captain
’
s seat on the holographic screen,
he had become angry at how the man had taken not one, but now two
of the Navy
’
s
most prized vessels. He had gone back to the fateful start of the
day, to when, during the preparations, he had been certain they
would return home with what was once theirs. He then recalled how,
prior to the commencement of
Operation
Menelaus
,
Griffin
‘s
databanks had been loaded with the security credentials for
deactivating
Dragon
. The data bundle had, however, not been restricted to their
mission target and had also contained the protocols to link to
other Confederation capital ships; including
Ifrit
. With the realisation that
Hawke had inadvertently handed him the advantage, Parks knew he had
only to keep his former ally talking until he could locate
Ifrit
‘s
details.

Though he thought his plan to be quite inspired, he was
unable to revel in the victory; it looked far too short-lived in
his eyes. To Zackaria and Hawke this was only a temporary set back
and one way or another they would be on
Griffin
once more. And when that
time came they would not hold back until the carrier was reduced to
nothing but a burnt-out shell.

* * *

Zackaria rose from the captain
’
s chair, joining Hawke where he
stood at the front of the carrier and ordered him to prevent the
enemy
’
s escape.
Hawke followed the orders through, assuring the admiral that
Griffin
would not get
far. Though
Ifrit
could not follow or fire upon Parks
’
ship itself, the Confederation
fighters ready and waiting on the flight deck were unaffected by
the power outage.

Black-clad figures leapt up into fighters, that were quick to
be taxied towards the catapult; the speed and efficiency of the
pilots and deck crew as clinical as always. Within minutes, the
first wing were starting to hurtle down the launch tunnel, more and
more fighters lining up behind them.

Hawke watched as the first group of fighters shot out in
front of the carrier, knowing there was little chance that
Griffin
would be able to
outrun or fend off an assault from close to one hundred
simultaneous attackers.

Even so,
Hawke was taking no chances and sent out further requests for
backup.

* * *

The TAFs, Rays and Rooks began to spill fast from
Ifrit
and wasted no time
in giving chase to the fleeing
Griffin
. They closed the gap
quickly, the first wing soon bringing themselves into weapons
range. The carrier was not moving fast, but even if it had been in
perfect working order it had no chance of outrunning those pursuing
it.

With
missiles already locked on to the kilometre-long vessel ahead of
him, the lead fighter pilot poised over the trigger, waiting for
the confirmation that his target was in range. The seconds and
meters ticked down; the range confirmation flashed up on his HUD;
he squeezed the trigger; his TAF exploded.

The TAF
next to him fell at the same time, as did one of the following Rays
and yet another TAF, not far behind them.

The pack
of hijacked Confederation fighters scattered like a frightened
school of fish as five sleek black craft appeared before them,
seemingly out of nowhere, and rushed straight at them, the tips of
their cannons blazing like flaming torches on a dark
night.

Heads
snapped around, tracing the path of the mysterious craft and seeing
them fan out as they hit the rear of the pack.

As
Griffin
‘s
pursuers attempted to reform
their wing and once again focus their efforts on the fleeing
carrier, the new arrivals arced up and around, and raced straight
back at them, cannon fire spraying the squadron indiscriminately.
More of the TAFs, Rays and Rooks fell, despite the pilots’ attempts
to evade the shower.

With their allies dropping all about them, the squadron made
a collective decision to eliminate the threat before dealing
with
Griffin
,
and broke off their pursuit. It
was not long before they realised what they were facing off
against, many having seen them before, only hours
earlier.

* * *

The news
came quick to Parks.

“
Griffin
;
this is Lieutenant de Winter,
reporting mission accomplished,” Estelle
’
s voice came over the
bridge
’
s comms
system. “Returning with five ATAFs, five pilots, and one mission
target.”

“
White Knights
!
” Parks said, almost unable to
express the relief he felt at hearing that the five had not only
returned safe, sound and successful from their mission, but had
also stepped up to pull
Griffin
out of the fire.

“
I must apologise for cutting that a little
fine, Commodore,” Estelle said. “I wanted to better assess the
situation and attempt to get the drop on
Ifrit
; but I got a bit over-zealous,
at your expense.”

“
There
’
s no need to apologise,” Parks
said. “Your timing could not have been more appropriate. I think
it
’
s fair to say
that our present situation speaks for itself.
Griffin
needs cover whilst we
retreat and work on a plan of action. Jump engines are currently in
an uncertain state, so an immediate evacuation is not
feasible.”
And even if they were,
we
’
re not leaving
just yet. Not without bringing Hawke and
Ifrit
back in.
“Go to it,
Knights
.”

* * *

Dodds
was suffering a range of emotions from the events of the day: he
was hungry from not having eaten since the breakfast he had picked
at that morning, weary from the lack of proper sleep, and sore from
the encounter at Arlos.

The sight of
Ifrit
opening fire on an allied carrier had resulted in
all those emotions clustering together and expelling themselves as
pure anger. No-one could have convinced him that Hawke was not in
some way connected with the attack. The urge to break away from the
others and focus his rage straight against
Ifrit
had been almost
uncontrollable. But he had bitten his tongue and remained veiled
and radio silent, as they had made their way back towards
Griffin
; until at
last
letting everything out the moment
Estelle had given them the order to attack. He had raced forward,
like a dog out of a trap, surging headlong into the wing of
Griffin
‘s
unsuspecting attackers and taking down the lead
with his opening salvo.

“
They learned to fly those pretty damn quick,” Enrique said,
pulling up to continue the pursuit of his chosen target.

“
They probably had a lot of time to
practice with the ones that Hawke loaned them,” Dodds glowered,
noting how the flyers of
Ifrit
‘s
fighter complement were operating the Confederation craft
with the expertise of any seasoned CSN pilot.

The
Knights
carried through Parks’ orders, driving back the waves of
fighters they had earlier that day battled alongside. A hail of
fire was exchanged on both sides fighting between the two carriers,
plasma bolts drowning out the subtle cyan hues of the
micro-missiles the
Knights
loosed against their opponents. And though their
opponents made an admirable show of fighting back, their efforts
with the TAFs, Rays and Rooks proved no more successful against the
ATAFs than they had with the Imperial Mantises, Jackals and
Sphinxes.

“
Are these guys even
thinking
about
retreating?” Enrique wanted to know as he downed yet another
fighter.

“
I don
’
t think they know what that means,”
Kelly said.

Dodds brought himself around to look upon
Ifrit
. Fighters were still launching
from the catapult and it appeared as though the
carrier
’
s
hijackers were prepared to throw everything they could at the ATAF
pilots, in order to take down their targets.
Despite the enemy pilots having incurred great losses, they
were undeterred in their task, and it felt like no matter how many
fighters Dodds brought down, several more would appear to take
their place.

“
Ifrit
‘s
gotta be exhausting its
complement soon,” an exasperated Enrique said several minutes
later.

“
Not even close,” Estelle said. “I don’t think we’ve even hit
the halfway mark yet.”

“
How many more of them are there?!”

“
Doesn
’
t matter,” Dodds said.
“We
’
ll keep
taking them on until there is nothing left but Hawke
himself!”

“
Knights
,
concentrate only on the fighters. Do not open fire on
Ifrit
,” Parks cut in.
“We
’
re not
leaving here without
Ifrit
. I want to do everything in my
power to bring her back home with us.”

Dodds
suppressed a growl and plunged forward into another wing, ignoring
the hail of fire that sped towards him.

Several more exhausting minutes of battle followed when, at
last, the streams of fighters leaving
Ifrit
began to abate. They were no
longer launching from the carrier with as much gusto as they had at
the beginning of the fight, and Dodds could only guess that it was
now taking longer to prep what remained of the complement. It came
as a relief; a
t last, it looked as though
the day was finally won.

He was about to ask how Parks wished for them to deal with
the still dead in the water
Ifrit
,
when
a flash close by caused him to swallow his question. He then swore
as he saw Hawke
’
s
backup arrive.

“
Didn
’
t think it would be long before we
saw that again,” he said, as out of the portal slipped the enormous
bulk of
CSN D
ragon
.

XXV

—
He Who Runs —

S
tanding at the front of
Dragon
‘s
bridge, Commodore Rissard looked first to the
ATAFs striking down
Ifrit
‘s
fighter support, then to the escaping Confederation carrier
far beyond, still putting distance between itself and the battle
area. He gave no further thoughts to the whirling starfighters and
ordered
Dragon
forward.
Ifrit
needed no protection; not from the ATAFs and certainly not
from
Griffin
. He
knew that
Griffin
‘s
captain would never seek to risk
irreparable damage to the vessel, a point that had been made clear
to him when Hawke had called in
Dragon
to assist them.