The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (17 page)

An attendant signalled to Dodds that his TAF was ready and
the young pilot traipsed his way over to the starfighter. One day
of proper action was all that he wished for as he stepped up into
the TAF
’
s
seat.

He
secured his helmet, buckled himself in and then gave a thumbs-up to
Enrique and Chaz, standing down on the flight deck, watching him.
The two men were waiting for the all clear to board the Ray they
had been assigned for the patrol. Enrique gave Dodds a thumbs-up in
return. Chaz gave him an almost invisible nod, Dodds only catching
it because of knowing what to expect of the man.

With his TAF taxied up to the catapult Dodds waited to be
granted clearance to launch. Staring down the illuminated tunnel,
to the dark space outside, Dodds tried to gear himself for the next
few
thrilling
hours ahead. He now understood why Temper was often referred
to as “Action Central”.

“
Lieutenant Dodds, this is Tower:
you
’
re
clear for takeoff,” a woman
’
s voice came over his
cockpit
’
s
intercom.

“
Yeah thanks, Tower,” Dodds replied.
“I
’
ll be
sure to let you know if anything interesting happens; like we come
across
Dragon
,
hidden under a load of black tarpaulin.”

Please, just remind me I
’
m alive
,
he begged, as his TAF hurtled down the catapult and out the
station.
At least for just one
day.

* * *

“
He
’
s coming back around!” Dodds cried,
as the fighter he had been tailing barrelled and then circled
around over his head. Dodds dipped his TAF out of the way before
rolling around to continue his pursuit.

“
I
’
m on him,” Kelly called, bringing
the craft into her sights. She adjusted her speed to hold it there
for as long as possible, so as to give her on-board computer time
to lock a missile. Her opponent’s movements were all over the
place, swerving this way and that, Kelly herself doing her best to
counter its erratic nature. She had only to keep the craft within
her HUD for a few moments longer and then the missile would be
ready to fire… The fighter accelerated away suddenly, shaking her
off and diving straight down towards Enrique and Chaz who were
already tailing another of the group’s opponents.

The
White Knights
had been halfway through their patrol when they
were alerted to a set of unidentified vessels travelling through
their assigned route. Speeding into the vicinity they had sighted
their quarry, the three craft bunched up close together and
appearing to be in a hurry. Their trajectory put them on course
with a jumpgate that would take them deeper into
Confederation-controlled space, and the speed and formation of the
craft suggested that they were trying to pass through
undetected.

Estelle
’
s
requests for identification, destination and business purpose had
been ignored, the three fighters maintaining their tight formation,
but increasing their speed. Estelle had challenged them twice more
before the craft had turned hostile. Based on their vessel of
choice – a Dart, a cheap single seat, general purpose craft with
innumerable available variants - she had concluded that they must
be wanted criminals. She had gone on to order them to surrender
several times before Dodds reminded her that it did not seem like
they were the talkative type.

Kelly’s
eyes narrowed. Though the Dart that was once again in her sights
benefited from upgraded offensive and defensive capabilities, she
maintained that the only real advantage the long bodied craft held
over her TAF was its speed. Her on-board computer jingled and she
loosed the missile even before the lock verification had time to
flash across her HUD. It sped away from her, trailing blue and
white particles as it twisted and curled to keep up with its
target’s frantic attempts to evade it.

That makes up for being tardy, I suppose
, Kelly thought to herself as the Dart exploded before her in
a shower of debris.

“
Target down,” she reported.

“
Good work, Kelly,” Estelle came back. “One down, two to
go.”

“
Got one right behind me,” Dodds said, feeling his TAF vibrate
as particle bolts slammed into the rear, the shielding absorbing
the hits.

Estelle
made a quick assessment of the situation and standings. The death
of their comrade had had a detrimental effect on the performance of
the two remaining Dart flyers, whose flight had become far more
sloppy, their confidence shaken.

“
Enrique, Chaz, stay on your target; Kelly you assist them.
Dodds, help me with the other one.”

“
Got it,” Dodds confirmed.

The four Confederation fighters divided as Estelle had
ordered and set after their targets. The Darts weaved and dived as
the
Knights
tailed them, frequently coming close to collisions with their
pursuers as they made snap changes to their headings. Plasma and
particle rounds flew in every direction as the two sides attempted
to bring one another down, none quite managing to hit
home.

“
Damn this crap HUD!” Dodds said as the
Dart evaded another burst of his guns. After three weeks of
benefiting from the ATAF
’
s predictive targeting capabilities
he now felt crippled without it, as though he was handcuffed to his
seat. It was clear that the advantages the starfighter offered had
spoilt him and he was finding it difficult to readjust. It dawned
on him that this was the first time he had been in a combat
situation - simulated or otherwise - since the evaluation program
back on Xalan. The Dart skimmed through his sights. He fired and
missed again.

“
Why the bloody hell haven’t they loaded the ATAF’s combat
software onto this damn crate?” he said.

“
Careful there, Dodds,” Enrique said.
“You
’
re
beginning to sound like Estelle.” He took his eyes off his systems
for a moment, trying to guess which of the three TAFs he could
snatch a glimpse of through the Ray’s canopy might be
Dodds.

“
Shut it, mate, this is really starting to annoy me!” Dodds
retorted.

The frustration in the voice made Enrique start to chuckle.
He looked over at Chaz, sat next to him, whose face split into what
Enrique recognised as a rare smile. It vanished almost as soon as
it had appeared, the big man diverting the Ray
’
s heading as the missile-lock
warning sounded. His attempt at evasion came too late and the Ray
rocked as the missile slammed into the topside of the fighter, both
men feeling the heavy vibration coarse through their
bodies.

“
Sorry,” Enrique said for allowing himself
to become distracted, before refocusing on the battle. Chaz called
up a damage report. It indicated that both the top and frontal
shield quadrants had collapsed, but were recovering slowly. As the
missile had detonated the force of the explosion had driven its way
through the shield and to the Ray
’
s armour beneath. The damage
incurred by the armour had not been insignificant, but not as
critical as it had felt.

“
Are you two all right?” Estelle asked.

“
We
’
ve sustained moderate damage.
Shielding is running at sixty percent efficiency,” Chaz reported
back. “Nothing we can
’
t handle.”

Estelle
glanced at her radar, seeing a red triangle sitting right in the
middle; almost right on top of her. A moment later the four pale
grey rear fins and bright cyan glow of the Dart’s single engine
swept across her cockpit view. She immediately gave
chase.

As she
closed in on the fighter she saw something detach itself from one
of the fins, the object arcing up around it. She swore as too late
she realised what was happening, her on-board computer sounding the
warning for only a couple of seconds.

Such was
the range from its target that the missile completed its manoeuvre
within a matter of seconds and slammed headlong into her TAF,
creating a blinding white flash as the explosion blended in with
the bright blue splinters from her collapsed shielding. The
starfighter rattled with the impact, jostling Estelle in her seat
and making the young woman lunge for the ejection handle. The
expected prompt to bail out never came, however, the rattling
ceasing a short time later.

“
Estelle!” Dodds
’
voice sounded in her
comms.

“
I
’
m okay, I’m okay,” Estelle replied,
thankful that her voice had not betrayed the terror she had felt
upon seeing what she believed was her own death hurtling straight
towards her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw an
explosion.

“
Target down,” Kelly once again reported.
The Dart that had attacked Enrique and Chaz had pulled out of its
dive and flown right in front of her, bringing itself dead on to
her heading. It had aligned within her cross hairs and Kelly had
only to pull the trigger. Her TAF
’
s cannons had fired four times, the
first pair of bolts slamming into the rear of the ship, followed by
the second. The third pair completed the task whilst the fourth had
disappeared into the explosion, striking remnants of the destroyed
fighter.

“
Hey, leave some for the rest of us,” Dodds said.

“
This isn
’
t a game, Dodds!” Estelle barked
back. “Concentrate on taking down that last fighter.”

With his
companions dead, and now even more out-numbered and out-gunned than
ever, the final Dart pilot swung around, put full power to their
engines and began to flee from the naval pilots as fast as they
could, resuming their attempt to reach the far-off
jumpgate.

The four fighters gave chase, each attempting to bring down
the final fleeing craft. The Dart was fast, faster than the
Knights
, and it would
soon be out of range of their guns; but not their
missiles.

Estelle
’
s
targeting computer jingled. She declared her lock. The others
acknowledged her. The missile armed and fired.

At the same instant her comms crackled into life. “I
won
’
t go back
there! Please don
’
t make me go back! I beg you!”

It was not a voice that she at first recognised and as the
small red triangle on her radar screen started to blink, Estelle
realised that it was coming from the fighter she had just fired at.
“They can’t be stopped! They’ll kill me! They’ll kill you!
They
’
ll kill all
of us!! Please, just let me go! I just want to get away from them!
PLEASE!” the voice continued as the missile devoured the distance
between itself and the target it sought.

Something inside Estelle made her regret firing. There was
terror in the man
’
s voice; a terror that, for some unexplained reason, caused
her a great deal of discomfort. It was the kind of terror that
sounded as though it had been ingrained into the man’s very soul.
She looked down at the TAF
’
s controls, seeking a way, any way,
to put a stop to the missile that was seconds away from destroying
its target. She found none and looked back to the final floundering
manoeuvres of the Dart as the missile closed.

* * *

The
craft exploded, killing its helpless occupant and leaving Estelle
with questions that might now never be answered. She slowed her TAF
and stared ahead at the tumbling clutter of alloys. The others
joined her, Dodds and Kelly coming along either side, though not
close enough to identify the faces within the helmets.

“
Nice shooting, Estelle,” Dodds said, although his enthusiasm
came across as somewhat subdued and muted, the rush of the battle
dampened.

“
What the hell was that all about?” Kelly asked.

“
I… I have no idea,” Estelle replied. It
sounded too real to have been a bluff. The
man
’
s
final words had been almost hysterical and they were still going
around in her head,

“
I won
’
t go back there…”

Go back
where?

“
They
’
ll kill me! They
’
ll kill you!
They
’
ll kill us
all!”

Who was
going to kill him? Who were the people in the Darts? Why were those
they were fleeing so intent on attacking the Confederation and her
allies?