The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (34 page)

The
three fighters continued to close in on him and Dodds held his
course unwavering, making no indication that he intended to deviate
from his present course. He kept in mind his experiences of the
ATAF back on Xalan, confident that the fighter he occupied was in
every way superior to those he faced, no matter the
odds.

Weapons
ranges were met, and at once the three Mantises’ guns opened up, a
torrent of green and purple bolts streaking towards him. At the
sight, he felt his heart leap into his throat, panic deriding the
pride he had felt only moments earlier. He banked hard to evade the
shower, though not as fast as he would have liked. Much of the
enemy fire hit home, his fighter’s encasing shields bathing the
entire cockpit in rippling blue hues as they absorbed the
hits.

As the
Mantises streaked past, Dodds’ hand flew to the ejection handle,
preparing to blow the canopy and jettison himself out of the doomed
craft, the moment he heard the blare of the warning siren. It never
came, and all was silent, save for the jumble of noise from his
comms.

Relief
washed over him as he glanced to the instrument panel. The attack
he had feared had barely even registered. It was like the first day
with the simulators all over again, where he had found it difficult
to get used to the fact that the ATAF could handle itself far
better in combat than anything else he had ever flown.

He
exhaled, though his heart was still beating hard. He then wheeled
the ATAF around and gave chase to the three Imperial fighters that
had just passed him.

With the
realisation that their target had been spared destruction and was
now tailing them, the Mantis group dived. Dodds stayed behind them
during the manoeuvre and the ones that they followed up with,
utilizing all the skills he had been taught. He then shifted his
heading over, so that his crosshairs met with the HUD’s predictive
targeting receptacle, before returning fire.

It was
far from the first time he had seen it, but the resulting hail of
fire from the ATAF’s cannons still floored him; even more so when
his target connected with the thick stream of plasma bolts. The
Mantis exploded, scattering metals, alloys, and sparking components
in every direction. Dodds was quick to react to its allies, who
were pulling away, repeating the same tried and tested technique
against them.

Thirty
seconds later, Dodds found himself victorious, staring at the
tumbling remnants of an enemy that had at first outnumbered and
outgunned him. A small chuckle of disbelief escaped him, and he
turned about to face the ongoing struggle he had lost sight of
during his fight.

His eyes swept across the scene: cannon fire, lasers,
missiles, and fighters of various different configurations flew in
every direction.
Leviathan
‘s
and
Grendel’s
Mother
‘s
cannons
were hunting targets within the hordes of Imperial fighters that
were swarming all about them. At one time a sight such as this
might have terrified him; made him wish that he was some place
else. Not now.

He
looked for the W-shaped forms of the other four ATAFs in amongst
the swashes of other fighters, then gave up. He would find him them
later. For now, there were bigger issues to address. He could see
more Imperial fighters turning his way. He suspended his disbelief,
buried his sense of glory, and took a good grip on the
stick.

“
Okay, let’s see what this thing can really do.” He raised his
velocity to maximum and dove headlong into the chaos.

* * *

With power restored to
Griffin
, Parks was once again able
to immerse himself back into the battle. For all the damage the
carrier had incurred, he was surprised – and grateful – to discover
that the on-board camera systems and audio transmissions had been
least affected. As the feeds tracked the ATAFs speeding around the
conflict zone, he caught snatches of reaction from other allied
fighters, whilst the bridge crew attempted to establish a more
stable comms system.

“
Who the hell are
they
?!”

“
I don
’
t know, I
’
ve never seen them
before!”

“
Are they on our side?!”

“
I don’t know -
there
’
s no
markings on them!”

“
Should we attack?”

“
No! They’re not shooting at
us
;
they’re shooting at
them
!”

From
what Parks could tell, the Enemy forces had ceased many of their
attacks on the allies present, concentrating all their efforts on
attempting to bring down the five unknown starfighters that were
tearing their way through their forces. Although, for all their
might, they may as well have been trying to hold back the
tide.

“
Captain, we’ve managed to establish a
stable connection with
Leviathan
,
”
Parks heard.

“
Audio?” he asked.

“
Both audio and visual, sir.”

“
Finally,” he said and turned away from where he had been
watching one of the ATAF’s astral acrobatics. “Bring it
up.”

The holographic image of
Leviathan
‘s
captain was far from perfect. Even under normal operation the
image and audio could suffer from breakup and distortions, as the
signal failed in places. It was now a permanent mess of
discolouration and blocky pixels, the audio scratchy and
accompanied by white noise. But it represented the best efforts of
the crew in the time given to them, and, for now, fulfilled its
purpose.

“
How are you holding up, Aiden?” Parks said.

“
Better than you, by the looks of things, Elliott.”

Parks
picked at some of the blood caked to his face. Aside from a handful
of painkillers, he had refused any proper medical attention once he
had learned he was suffering from nothing more than a superficial
head wound.

Meyer said, “I requested that Commodore Hawke bring
Ifrit
up front to lend
their support for our withdrawal, but I’m sorry to say that he
point blank refused. I did my best, sir.”

Parks
waved away the man’s apology. He had long since given up attempting
to involve Hawke in the battle, communication problems
notwithstanding. Should they both survive the day, he would be
bringing his actions - or lack therefore of - to the attention of
Turner and Jenkins, as well as other top brass. He could not
believe that someone whom he had once seen as a good friend and
mentor would desert him in his hour of need. But for the moment,
there were more important things to deal with.

Meyers
’
attention turned for a moment and he looked back at Parks. “I
see you managed to deploy the ATAFs.”

“
Eventually. And by all accounts they are exceeding
expectations.”

“
As are the
Red Devils
.”

Parks shook his head. “The
Red
Devils
aren
’
t piloting the ATAFs, Captain,
the
White Knights
are. Unfortunately, the
Red
Devils
lost their lives when the frigate
attacks us.”

“
Hell, that’s… regrettable,” Meyers said.

Although Parks felt the same way, there was no time for
anyone to grieve.
“Captain, I want
Leviathan
to fall back
to my position, so that we can complete our withdrawal. I have
ordered the
White Knights
to engage the frigate and
Dragon
‘s
fighter wing, to provide you with cover.”

“
The frigate
and
the fighters?” Meyers said,
looking stunned.

Parks raised a hand. “Don’t worry, Captain, they can cope.
This is an ideal opportunity to collect combat data on the fighter.
I shouldn
’
t worry
too much about the threat of attacks from the Enemy for now - they
have enough to contend with as it is.”

“
Very well, Commodore,” Meyers said. “I will prep torpedoes in
case things turn ugly.”

* * *

Hawke had watched the battle from the bridge of
Ifrit
without a flicker
of emotion, despite the numerous calls from his crew that they
should move in to assist. They challenged him no longer, the threat
of a stay in the brig and a disciplinary hearing, should they
continue to question his command, being enough to silence them.
Even after the damage that
Griffin
had sustained, he had refused to acknowledge the
calls for assistance by Meyers, who could do nothing but ask,
unable to order the higher ranking officer to take
action.

But now, Hawke was almost ready to make his move. He turned
to the carrier
’
s
helmsman. “Prepare to take us forward on my command, Mr
Cox.”

“
Yes, sir,” Cox said, without raising his eyes from his
console.

* * *

Dodds continued to strike down the Imperial starfighters that
darted about him. His adversaries, for all their impressive flying
skills, were able to do little to protect themselves from the
advantages the ATAF granted him. They could only weave and dive for
so long to throw off the targeting systems, before they succumbed
to the hail of fire that chased them, or were downed by another of
the
White Knights
.

He had long ago lost count of the number he had taken down;
though judging by the sheer amount of debris that now floated
around, littering the area between the two sides, it must have been
a lot. He was certain that at one time the bulk of the wreckage had
been made up of the remains of allied Confederation and Independent
craft. But in only a short space of time, the
Knights
had managed to drive the
enemy away from the four carriers and were now on the offensive,
plunging deeper into the cluster of
Dragon
‘s
support.

He had
since caught up with his fellow wingmates and asked each in turn if
they were in need of any assistance. None of them were, all
confident that they stood a good chance of handling the battle all
by themselves. Dodds agreed. The effect of the attacks brought
against his fighter’s defences were so minimal that he had taken to
more or less ignoring them.

As he
sought out his next target within the scrum, a group of Imperial
fighters ahead of him slowed, flipped around and sped away. A wing
further up field followed suit. Glancing around his canopy, he saw
others performing similar manoeuvres, a blur of Mantises, Jackals,
and Sphinxes racing past him, their guns silent.

“
Enemy fighters are pulling back,” he heard Chaz’s voice come
over his comms.

Dodds held his own fire, watching as his enemies fell back to
more defensive positions, drawing a line between the allied
forces,
Dragon
,
and the frigate. A pair of ATAFs came up alongside him and brought
themselves to a halt.

In the
brief calm that followed, he considered the scene before him: they
were five lone fighters, pitted against a frigate, dozens of
Imperial starfighters, and a monstrous forty-five-hundred-metre
battleship. But they were also five fighters that had caused their
opponents considerable upset. His hand tightened on the stick,
readying himself for the anticipated push.

Estelle was quick to issue new instructions to the team,
aiming to capitalize on the break in the enemy’s attacks whilst
they reorganised themselves, and ordering Kelly, Enrique, and Chaz
forward to take down the frigate that was still exchanging long
distance fire with
Leviathan
. She then ordered Dodds to
follow her lead, and the two swung about, the pilot becoming aware
of the reasons for splitting the team – Emerging from a jump point,
just behind where the three allied carriers had gathered
themselves, was the expected second and final frigate.

An eager
Estelle raced ahead of him and he shot after her, surging through
their own ranks to tackle the approaching warship.

* * *

As
Estelle and Dodds headed toward the second frigate, Kelly, Enrique,
and Chaz made for the first. Missiles, plasma bolts, and laser
sprayed towards the three as the frigate’s cannons focused on them.
They avoided much of the barrage, the missiles that sought them
falling to the starfighter’s countermeasures. What remained of the
frigate’s attack was easily fended off by their
shielding.

With
Kelly’s lead, the three tackled their target in a similar manner to
the way they had done time and time again on Xalan: starting with
their lasers, they circled the vessel until the biting red beams
had made significant impacts on its defences. Next, they flew up
and around, racing lengthways across it, bombarding the topside
with their own missiles. Finally, they looped back around, skimming
over the surfaces and concentrating their cannons on the weakest
structural points.