Jon Messenger - Fall of Icarus

“What are you trying to say?” an anonymous gruff voice replied. The tone of his voice, though, told Keryn that he had not meant the words to be confrontational.

“When the time is right, and it isn’t yet, I need all of you to be ready to move. As soon as an opening presents itself, we’re going to latch on to the closest Terran Destroyer and let our Infantry counterparts do their job. I know you don’t know me very well. You haven’t served with me that long and many of you are already questioning as to why you’re bothering to listen to me at all. The truth is, as the most junior pilot, I don’t have the authority to order you to follow me. What I do have, though, is the confidence to tell you now that most of us will make it out of this alive if you’re willing to listen to me.”

“But not all of us,” someone replied over the radio. “Not all of us will survive, is what you’re saying.”

“I’m not one to lie to you,” Keryn answered. “This is war, and people always die in wartime. All I can promise you is that you stand a much better chance at living if you follow me than what you would if you go at this alone.”

The silence that ensued left Keryn worried that no one took her seriously. She knew that, had the tables been turned and someone else had given the same speech, she would be hesitant to trust her life to someone she barely knew. What Keryn did know, however, was that she was right. Of all the pilots she had worked with over the past few weeks, none took their job or previous training serious enough to perform at the level they needed. Trust her or not, Keryn had a plan that she believed in and would take anyone with her that volunteered. If anyone volunteered.

Either they join you or they don’t, the Voice said. You know you’re doing the right thing. Surprising to Keryn, it was reassuring to hear the Voice’s words of encouragement.

“I’m with you,” the gruff voice finally replied, breaking the tense silence. “So, what’s the plan?”

Keryn smiled as other pilots chimed in, throwing their support behind her.

“For right now, we hold tight and wait for an opening. How many of you have ever flown in a cone formation?”

Over the next few minutes, Keryn went on to explain her plan in painful detail. The cone formation had been something she had worked on with Iana Morven, her Pilgrim roommate and best friend at the Academy, at great length during some of the aerial training exercises. Though only practiced using individuals wearing jet packs, Keryn had confidence that the same techniques could be applied in their current situation. As Keryn spoke, she truly regretted spending so much time with Yen and so little time with her fellow pilots over the past few weeks. Strategies like the one they were now conducting would have been much better suited for an environment where they could have practiced. She had entered the Revolution with the mentality of being an outsider, having known only Yen and Adam previously. If she survived this battle, she would do all she could to better incorporate the rest of the pilots into her newly formed clique.

Once Keryn was confident that the rest of the Cair pilots understood her plan, Keryn began searching for the other thing she required: a distraction. Without a distraction to thin the ranks of the swarming fighters, even her strategy didn’t stand a chance of success. In the end, she got her distraction. But when it finally did come, it was nothing like Keryn had expected.

Captain Hodge cringed as the Revolution shook from another blast. Sparks flew from some of the consoles on the bridge, showering the area in flickering lights that cast deep shadows across the room. The front view screen wavered unsteadily as the power to the bridge fluctuated.

“Can you please get me some defenses before we are blown out of the air?” she yelled over the automated voice announcing fires throughout the ship.

“We’re working on it, ma’am,” Eminent Merric called back as his hands flew quickly over the console before him. His eyes darted from side to side, reading inbound trajectories of rockets and slugs. He inputted more data that was forwarded directly to the weapons bays, who worked feverishly to defend the Revolution from the attacks of both the Terran fighters and long range assaults from the Destroyers.

“Magistrate Vargus,” Captain Hodge ordered. “Change our heading. Bring us twelve degrees to port.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the Wyndgaart Navigator replied as he wiped the beading sweat from his brow. The tattoos along his jaw line danced as he clenched and unclenched his teeth.

On the view screen, the Revolution fell into line a respectable distance behind the Vindicator , which led the small contingent of Cruisers around the right side of the battle. As had been rehearsed, the Alliance Fleet intended to flank the Terran Destroyers on both sides, pummeling them both from the heavy weapons on the Cruisers and the smaller rockets loaded on the Duun fighters. Their tactical strategy was still going as planned, though Captain Hodge had greatly underestimated the Terran’s tenacity. From her vantage point, she could already see deep scoring along the Vindicator ’s hull and had no reason to believe that her own Cruiser looked any better.

Pulling her command console before her, she activated the area radar. The red and blue markers indicating enemy and friendly forces nearly filled the screen. Though most of the activity remained focused near the empty middle of the galaxy, small red targets occasionally broke free of the swarm to attack the larger Cruisers skirting the sides of the battle. The exchanging fire had already cost her one of the Cruisers, the ship having been completely destroyed by an unfortunately lucky plasma missile strike that ignited one of its fuel stores. The resulting explosion had buckled the majority of the hull. Externally, the ship hung in the air, listing only slightly to one side. Behind the armored plating, however, Captain Hodge knew that the raging inferno of exploding plasma had gutted the ship, leaving few survivors. Two more Cruisers were badly damaged and were mostly inoperable, though their engines still operated well enough for them to limp weakly from the battle.

The Alliance had claimed its own victories so far as well. Two Destroyers had been left in ruin, one of which was little more now than chunks of debris floating in space. Another of the six Destroyers was severely damaged, a large chasm having been opened along the top of its hull after a ruined Duun fighter slammed into the Terran vessel. Breathable gases still leaked from the open gash on the ship and its returning fire had greatly diminished over the past few minutes. There was a chance, though Captain Hodge refused to put faith in long shots, that the Destroyer crew was slowly suffocating and would soon be completely out of the fight. Still, the Captain knew that they were a long way from ending this conflict.

A group of Terran fighters dove from behind a nearby planet and began attacking the Vindicator . The Captain had anticipated such an attack, knowing that no trained Fleet would leave their flanks as undefended as the Terran flanks had appeared. A number of the fighters exploded in the air as they approached, having been struck by defensive rail guns. Against such a small target, the large bore rockets were overkill and grossly inaccurate. Much like the Revolution , however, the Vindicator was being circled by its remaining Cair ships, awaiting the opportunity to accelerate toward one of the remaining Destroyers. The fighters targeted these ships first, and an unfortunate series of explosions marked the destruction of the majority of remaining Cair ships around the Vindicator . With most mobile defenses eliminated, the fighters began firing their rockets directly at the Cruiser. Another pair of explosions erupted on the side of the Vindicator , rocking the ship as it flew around the battle. Captain Hodge could see the oxygen leaking from the newest wounds to the ship.