Disconcerting.
“Dev?”
“Yes?”
“Good luck.” Jess said, in a quiet tone. “Just go with it.”
Dev had no idea what that meant. “Okay.” She agreed. “Storm is over Gibralter, standy by for clearance.”
“Here we go.” Jess brought the targeting systems online and started hunting. “Tac 1, Tac 2. Soon as we clear for scan, split left. We meet at the drop zone. Look for the remaining carrier, and report.”
“Understood.” Jason said. “Meet you on the flip side.”
“Go.” Elaine added. “Luck.”
“Thanks.” Jess said, clicking off just as the storm cleared the rocky promontory and her scan came alive with signals. “They can see us.”
Dev sorted the incoming signals, almost feeling the scans bounce off the hull of the carrier as the storm rolled over the big rock and exposed it’s raw, rugged flank to them. She could see lights peppered across it’s surface, and then a beacon flared out, heading towards them.
Instinctively, she pitched the carrier forward and nosed down, and the beacon flashed past them. Dev saw lights start to flash on the rock face and then scan told her multiple targets were moving towards them and she hauled the throttles up and hit the engines to full.
Two dart shaped forms came whipping towards them. Dev pitched the carrier to bring the nose right between the attackers, trying not to flinch as a barrage of laser fire came right at them.
A bare second later, return fire flashed past in her peripheral vision and the two darts split to either side, and she arched between them, seeing another line of darts now heading their way.
“Draw them to the right.” Jess said. “Get behind the rock then go down to the deck. The waves’ll confuse em.”
Dev waited for the line to come into range, then she pitched down, then hard right as a hail of hard point missiles rattled against the hull.
“Bastards.” Jess twitched her fingers, keeping on scope as the carrier turned half on it’s side, and the projectiles thumped against the well shielded bottom. The gyros kept pace with the motion though and she let loose a burst of laser pulses that streaked against the gray sky and wrote a stitching of fire across one of the darts.
It blossomed into fire and the machine headed for the water, a small ball heading the other direction marking the pilot’s ejection.
Jess tracked the ball, and squeezed off a shot just as her world turned up side down as the carrier did, before it just as quickly rolled around right side up and then she was under at least five G’s as they went into a steep climb.
Targets, targets. Warning bells chimed in her ears and she focused on her task, firing long, ripping bursts at the dozens now of ships heading toward them.
Laser fire was everywhere, blossoming to the right and to the left, and blanking scan briefly as the carrier dodged the shots.
She was heartened, by the reaction. The defenders hadn’t been there waiting for her, she’d had a good ten minutes inbound before they reacted. That could only be a good sign. She now capped off the comms, putting the intercom between her and the other two carriers on battle silence., knowing they would be doing the same. “Go go go.”
Dev didn’t take a second to look back. She was fully engaged in figuring out how to get out of the way of the dozens of ships chasing them, and keeping the carrier in constant erratic motion to dodge the bolts headed their way.
It was scary. She tried to keep them all in view, her heart thumping hard, seeing a group of six heading her way that triggered, suddenly a burst of programming. Something told her about that group, and about that formation and as she pitched away from them she saw them split apart.
She knew, somehow, that they were going to encircle her. She focused on the six, and saw them curving around, and she saw the two heading for the waves to cut off an escape that way. She rolled the carrior and dodged a blinding flash of laser fire then she caught sight of three of the darts closing in on her.
A blast hit them on the left side. She felt the shudder and two red alerts started flashing on the board. Another flash went to portside, and then she twisted the throttles, kicking the side thrusters hard as she slid under one of the darts and the screens momentarily blacked out, as the rumble of counterfire hit at such close quarters it nearly fried the scans.
Another alarm went off as she turned in the other direction, then she pitched the nose down and skimmed past one of the lower guards so close the dart peeled off and dropped into a spiral to avoid hitting them.
Fire erupted all around them. Dev was totally unsure if it was against them or from them, the flares were so vivid it was causing sparkles in her own eyes. She pushed the throttles forward and dove for the waves, seeing them white and stark against the rock as the gray light grew around them.
She saw one of the darts cross her path, and she turned the carrier onto it’s side as the dart fired at point blank range, their bottom armor rumbling as it absorbed the energy, and the vessel shuddered again as their own guns cut loose.
There was an explosion so close to them they lurched sideways in midflight, and she righted their flying angle and looked frantically around. For a moment, they were in the clear and she saw a ledge projecting out from the big rock and she aimed for it, intending to duck under it and curve along the rock.
She could see a sudden flare of lights along the granite surface, and scan erupted as the darts who had been diving at them diverted and streaked for the wall to get between her and it.
She heard Jess laugh behind her, but she wasn’t really sure why. She dodged a spinning dart heading for the waves and reached the ledge moments before the rest of them, turning alongside it and increasing speed as she felt Jess let loose with the guns in a long, continuous, rumbling barrage.
The rumble was replaced with a larger one and all of a sudden the darts were heading away from her, and the rock and she had a clear shot around the edge of the promontory.
“Faster.” Jess commented. “Got a boom coming behind us.”
A what? Dev obediently pushed the throttles forward and kpt as close to the rock as she could, sensing a motion in the air behind them. She checked the rear sensors and her eyes nearly came out of her head when she saw a fireball exploding out from under the ledge.
She hauled up on the controls and shoved the throttles forward again to full speed, hearing the imminent collision alerts and feeling the buffeting as the advance wave of the explosion caught them and she felt the carrier start to tumble.
She went with the motion shoving hard on the side thrusters to keep them away from the rocks as she fought to regain control over the carrier. The two big engines flared, and she was almost deaf from the alarms and the sound of impacts against the hull.
No control. She abruptly cut the engines and felt the carrier drop out of the rampaging explosion and plummet for the surface of the water as the energy flared over their heads.
“Dev?”
“Yes?”
“Didn’t mean to show you the ocean this soon.” Jess’s voice sounded concerned.
“Oh.”
Dev was aware of the approaching surface, and she flared the side and bottom jets, evening out the flight of the carrier before she cut the mains in again so close to the waves they washed the bottom hull.
Then they were past Gibralter, and in free air again. Dev gained altitude and started running checks, watching the scan reports for attackers. “Where are they?”
“Keep moving!” Jess called out. “Head for Alterra.”
Dev started to respond to all the alarms, seeing clear scan for the moment. She shut off all the emergency alerts, starting some of the programs that would repair what could be repaired inflight. The systems started shunting power, whispers in her ear reporting damage and status.