Samantha Rand fought the urge to push a lock of her curly red hair out of her right eye. The stubborn strands were plastered there against her sweaty forehead and she would have liked nothing better than to tuck it behind her ear, but two things prevented her from doing so. First, it was impossible to reach through the glass visor of her helmet, and even if she wasn't in a depressurized cockpit, the bulky gloves would make that task maddeningly difficult. Second, Samantha was seconds away from firing her assault rocket into the hull of the distant Sathar destroyer Pestilence, and this required the utmost concentration to line up the shot.

Samantha deftly made the last course corrections to center the bulbous bridge section of the Sathar ship in her crosshairs just as the warbling launch tone sounded. After squeezing the trigger, she began evasive manuevers to avoid the inevitable return fire. The rocket struck near where she intended, and a gout of flame and debris erupted from the point of impact. It was a good hit, but far from fatal. Sathar Hellbore class destroyers were infamous for their ability to absorb considerable damage and remain operational.

To her surprise, the destroyer's laser and electron beam batteries remained silent as Samantha swung her ship away. Then she saw new radar contacts her computer tagged as ship-to-ship guided rockets. They came not from the destroyer ahead of her, but from the frigate Stinger twenty-eight thousand kilometers to her left. At the time she planned her run, she hoped the frigate would be concentrating on the Phoenix Seven which was attacking it. From their launch tubes, the missiles swung in line with her fleeing fighter and began to close quickly.

Samantha cursed as she saw an incoming group of rockets. The Sathar frigate's rocket launcher fired nine missiles per salvo. The missiles were guided, but far slower than her assault rocket. Nevertheless, they would intercept her fighter in less than twenty seconds. Dodging one or two rockets wouldn't have been tough for a ship as nimble as a fighter, but the rockets worked together to create a deadly pattern that was like a wall.

Adjusting all four long range cameras to track the rocket pattern, Samantha studied the rocket formation for gaps large enough to slip through. To her disappointment, she saw none. I'm going to have to trust to luck on this one, I'm afraid, she thought. With less than five seconds left to impact, Samantha wrenched back on the control stick and rammed the throttle lever forward. The G forces crushed her into the chair as the fighter's course and speed changed rapidly. Her vision began to grey out and she wondered if she'd lapse into unconciousness before she completed her dangerous manuever.

I must remain conscious, Samantha chided herself. Through sheer force of will and the help of her G suit which automatically tightened around her legs and lower torso, she managed to hold on to consciousness.

Her vision returned slowly, and Samantha's eyes were glued to the camera monitors, which showed that the rockets were still following, but their carefully programmed pattern now had gaps.

Her fingers played across the thruster controls on the sides of the throttle lever to slide her ship to the right while keeping her fighter's thin tail pointed toward the missiles. White streaks passed around her on all sides as the missiles sped by. They didn't get close enough to trigger their proximity fuses, but they began a wide arcing curve to try to reaquire their target. Then Samantha saw their engines go dead, their propellent finally exausted. She breathed a huge sigh of relief, then keyed her microphone.

"Three, this is Phoenix two. Report status."

Che'kek the Vrusk pilot replied with characteristic professionalism, "Three here. I'm in the middle of my attack run. Two thousand kilometers from optimal launch range."

Samantha glanced at her tactical plot to ensure that Che'kek's ship was on course and more importantly, that it was beyond the range of the frigate which had fired on her. Che'kek in Phoenix Three was approaching from the far side of the destroyer so that it was forced to divide it's attention between the two fighters. Instead, the Sathar gunners on the Pestilence seemed to have focused their efforts against him.

With the missiles from the frigate no longer a threat, Samantha turned her ships cameras to focus on the Pestilence. Her cameras showed that the damage from her assault rocket had been fairly minor, disabling none of the Pestilence's major systems. The flames which had earlier spouted from the hull were already extinguished by the vacuum of space. In their place was a section of twisted metal hull plates jutting out a weird angles.

Samantha frowned, "Three, be careful. There's still plenty of fight left in the Pestilence and you're it's likely target. Make your run and get clear fast."

"Affirmative Two, ten seconds to launch."

Samantha watched as the destroyer began evasive manuevers to throw off the attacking fighter's aim. The Sathar weapon turrets all faced Che'kek's ship. When Che'kek's ship reached the optimal launch point forty thousand kilometers from the Pestilence, Samantha turned one of her ship's cameras to focus on his fighter. To her surprise, Che'kek hadn't launched his rocket yet.

She began to get the feeling that something was wrong, when she heard his voice on her radio.

"Two, I'm having trouble with my radar and targeting system. The ghost image came back at an inopportune moment and I'm having to manually adjust the gain to get the targeting system to recognize the true return. It shouldn't take more than a few moments."

Samantha gauged the distance from Che'kek's fighter to the Pestilence and mentally calculated the time it would take for Che'kek to swing around and set up a new attack run. If he missed this run, it would take a minimum of three and a half minutes to circle around out of range before Che'kek could start his next run. Samantha wouldn't have her fighter in position to start another run for at least nine minutes, which meant that Che'kek would be going in alone instead of one fighter from each side in typical squadron wolfpack tactics. Still, with every single kilometer Che'kek closed on the destroyer, he made it that much easier for the Sathar gunners. Her descision was made.

"Three, get clear and set up a new...."

A bright flash on her monitors, one from the Pestilence and one from the camera monitor tracking Che'kek's ship told her that her orders came too late. The powerful stream of electrons from the destroyer played across the surface of Che'kek's tiny ship like the lightning it resembled in form. It was joined by a powerful ruby laser beam, which sliced through the hull like a razor blade, melting steel and boring through the center of the cockpit. The fighter began to spin slowly end over end, while still hurtling toward the Pestilence.

Samantha began to mentally calculate a way to rescue Che'kek from his wrecked ship, when the top of the fighter spun back into view of her camera. She looked carefully for some sign of life from the cockpit, but all she could see was that the normally clear canopy was solid red with blood splashed on the inner surface. He's dead! That realization hit her like a kiloton of tornadium D-19. She was stunned and shocked at how quickly it had happened.

One moment I was ordering him to break off the attack, and the next.....

It felt to her as though an incredible weight had settled on her shoulders. A weight which was far worse than physical. She wanted to scream and rage about how unfair it was. She wanted to cry for the friend she had lost. But another part of her mind told her that now was not the time. This was the time for vengeance.

Samantha keyed her radio on Tactical frequency one. "Seven, this is Two. Report status."

It took Lieutenant Watson a moment to respond, and for an instant, Samantha had wondered if he had been killed also.

"Sorry, Two, I was just finishing up my run against the Stinger and couldn't answer." Samantha heard obvious pride in his voice as he continued, "I got a hit on the engineering section, too. From the looks of things, I knocked out the main drives, at least for now. That's one ship that can't chase our carrier anymore."

"Well, Seven, are you up for a repeat performance on the Pestilence? It just took out Che'kek. He didn't even get a chance to eject."

Watson's voice betrayed his anger and grim determination. "Just send me the attack vector and the Pestilence will be scrap metal."

Samantha plotted an attack vector for both ships and hit the Transmit button to the right of the tactical display. She knew that Watson's cockpit would now display the same data that she had just created. They would both reach their waypoint in six minutes, leaving almost three minutes to line up their shots.

In the meantime, Samantha reported back to Flight Operations on the Vengeance.

"Flight Ops, this is two. Reporting the loss of Phoenix Three. One minor hit scored on the Pestilence, and the Stinger appears to have drive damage. Awaiting confirmation."

"Two, this is Flight Ops, can you raise Phoenix One? We haven't heard from Commander Braxal since she entered the atmosphere of Leo. There was a Sathar Marauder on her tail, and we lost radar contact with both spacecraft."

Samantha cursed. This fight couldn't get much worse.

"Seven, continue toward your waypoint to attack the Pestilence. Go to Tac One on your radio. Gev is missing, so I'm assuming command of the squadron."

"Roger Two, switching frequencies now."

Samantha also switched her radio to Tac One and immediately heard desperate voices on the frequency.

"-eak right Five, let me get a shot at him!"

"I can't shake him Six, my starboard nose thrusters are out and I've only got fifty percent power to my main dri-."

Samantha heard and explosion over the communications channel, then Gorlma's voice continued, "Make that NO power to my main drive."

Samantha punched up a tactical display of the dogfight on her main monitor. It showed all four fighters, one Sathar, three Federation, eighty-thousand kilometers from her position, too far for her to do anything to help Gorlma. Then her radio crackled to life again as the Sathar fighter icon disappeared from her display

"It's okay Five, I just lit him up with my lasers, your tail's clear, you owe me a brew when we get back."

Samantha took advantage of the break in the chatter and joined in, "Five, what's your status?"

Gorlma sounded unencouraged by what he read on his damage report list.

"I've got half my manuevering thrusters functioning, no power to my main drive, auxiliary power is shaky, my radar is out, my computer is only functioning when it wants to, and that's not very damn often it would seem."

Samantha frowned at the velocity readings on Gorlma's fighter. They were slower than the Carrier they would have to catch up to. This wasn't a problem for the other two ships in the engagement, but if he couldn't get his atomic drive back on line, Gorlma wouldn't be making the return trip.

"Five, how's your computer self repair capacity?"

"It would be fine Two, if the damn thing would stay on, but with auxiliary power conking out every few minutes, that's not likely."

"Five, do you know what a fix you're in?"

Gorlma laughed, "Yeah Two, but at least I won't have to eat that nasty chow all the way back to the Truane's Star system."

Samantha could here the resignation in his voice despite his forced jocularity. There was nothing she could do though. If the carrier came back for him, the entire Sathar fleet would jump it and no one would escape alive. Samantha studied the tactical display and said, "Five, you'll have to make for Volturnus to link up with Friendlies. I'll relay the coordinates of the colony to your ship. You should make the atmosphere about twenty minutes before the Sathar ships, so if you hurry, you'll be able to land unopposed. Good luck Five."

"Roger Two, don't worry about me. I always wanted to see Volturnus up close, but this was the only way I could legally go AWOL."

Samantha laughed in spite of the seriousness of the situation, and watched as the icon representing his fighter turned slowly toward Volturnus. Sure that Gorlma was safely on his way, she turned her attention back to the rest of the squadron.

"Two to Four, what's your status?"

"Four here, my assault rocket launcher is currently inoperative. The computer is working on it though and it may be back online in less than thirty minutes. Other than that, all systems are go."

Samantha knew the odds of a fighter's meager self repair capacity fixing anything was small, but without the assault rockets, Lieutenant Lanar's ship was of no use against Sathar vessels larger than a fighter. "Two to Six, report status."

Lieutenant Noorn's confident voice replied, "Six here, not a scratch on my ship. One assault rocket left. The shuttle has made it into the atmosphere and is out of harms way."

That leaves three fighters ready to attack the pursuing Sathar destroyers, Samantha mused.

"Six, join Seven on his attack run on the Pestilence. Four, escort him on the run. Stay at least twenty thousand kilometers behind him and keep an eye out for enemy fighters. Seven, decelerate and wait for Six to form on your wing before we hit the attack run waypoints."

"Confirmed Two, decelerating at five Gees. Estimated time to waypoint, twenty minutes."

"Seven accelerating at three gees, will join Six at the attack waypoint in twenty."

Samantha nodded to herself, and slowed her ship to reach her own attack waypoint at the same time. The Pestilence was already damaged, and Samantha was confidant that her flight of three would finish the destroyer off this run. That left only the destroyers Venomous and Doomfist pursuing the Challenger and Vengeance. The Challenger was covering the rear as the two Federation capitol ships fled. The Vengeance was armed, but was outgunned by even a single destroyer. The guns on the Challenger alone were enough to discourage pursuit, but three to one odds were not a good bet. Samantha was determined that her squadron would even out those odds. In the meantime....

"Flight Ops, this is Two, any word from Phoenix Lead yet?"

Samantha waited impatiently for Flight Ops to reply. After what seemed an eternity to her, Samantha heard, "Standby Two, there's a new contact coming around the far side of Leo now."

Ours or theirs?, Samantha wondered.

The radio came to life again, this time she heard several people in the backgound cheering before the exuberant voice of the flight controller answered, "Phoenix Flight, this is Flight Ops, we still can't raise her on the radio, but Commander Braxal is okay. Her fighter is accellerating to join us."

Samantha let out her breath, which until then, she hadn't even realized she'd been holding.

Smiling, she keyed her mike, "Thanks Flight Ops, that's good to hear. ETA on her ship?"

"She'll reach your position in thirty-three minutes."

Samantha turned her attention back to the rest of the flight. Still smiling, she radioed her squadron, "All right people, this is Two. Phoenix Lead is watching our run, so let's do it by the book. If we don't take down the Pestilence, we'll never hear the end of it in her debriefing."

Noorn was the first to reply, "You aren't kidding Two. We'll hit our waypoint in sixteen minutes. We'll make this run count. This one's for Che'kek."

With that grim reminder of the dangers ahead of them, the squadron waited in silence as they closed on their waypoints. At last, they reached the waypoints and turned toward the Pestilence in unison like hungry sharks.

They each had three minutes to line up their shot and make final corrections to allow for evasive manuevers. As the closest destroyer to the Challenger, the Pestilence was the biggest threat. She and Noorn had only one rocket left, Watson had two. Lanar had two rockets as well, but with his launcher inoperative, they were useless. If they couldn't destroy the Pestilence this run, then it would be in range to fire at the Challenger before they could attack it again. Samantha had no intention of letting that happen.

"Phoenix six and seven, this is Two, launch on reaching optimum range. Make your shots count."

"This is Six, affirmative Two."

"Seven here, affirmative Two."

After one last scan for any unexpected threats that could approach her within the next three minutes, Samantha blocked out everything but the distant destroyer ahead of her. She armed her assault rocket, took last minute readings of changes in target velocity and heading. The distance closed steadily, and Samantha poised her thumb over the launch button. The launch tone warbled in her headset, and her thumb pressed the button firmly. The rocket shot forward from under her ship's hull and buried itself in the Pestilence midway down its hull. For an instant, Samantha wondered if it had failed to detonate, but then the entire side of that deck blew out, exposing the steel framework and flushing Sathar crew into the vacuum of space. The hit looked serious, but she could see Sathar damage control teams in spacesuits already in that section begin to shore up the framework.

Then, two rockets slammed into the ship at that same point but from the far side almost simultaneously. The blast was tremendous, and tore through that section of the ship. The front of the ship was completly separated from the stern, but the thrust from the ship's powerful atomic drives soon corrected that. The rear of the ship slammed into what remained of the front and the whole hull began to break up. Watson's triumphant shout echoed in her helmet, "Scratch one destroyer!"

"Flight Ops to Phoenix squadron, great work! Set up for a run against the Doomfist next."

Those words reminded Samantha of just how bad the situation still was. If either the Doomfist or the Venomous got past the Challenger, they could destroy the squadron's ride home. To make things worse, Samantha knew that they had only one assault rocket in the entire squadron.

"Flight ops, this is Phoenix Two, Be advised that we only have one assault rocket remaining. We can scratch their hull, but unless we get really lucky, I don't think we'll be much help."

"Understood Phoenix Two, do your best."

Samantha shook her head and studied her tactical display. There was little she could do.

"Four, this is Two, please tell me that your damage control system has repaired your assault rocket launcher."

"Negative Two, no progress yet."

"Alright squadron, here's what we're going to do. I'll go in against the Doomfist first to draw their fire. That should leave Seven a free shot without risking return fire. Four and Six, return to the Vengeance at once to rearm."

Samantha heard each ship confirm her orders, and she contemplated what she was about to do. She would have to get close in order to be sure that the Doomfist attacked her instead of Watson. That meant her odds of survival were not good. Still, it was survival of the squadron and capital ships that mattered. Giving Watson the extra time to aim might make the difference. Samantha wheeled her fighter in toward the Doomfist. She focused her fighter's cameras on the three weapon turrets on the destroyer. They swiveled to face her onrushing fighter and waited until her range decreased to assault rocket launch range. Her radar display showed fewer than fifty-thousand kilometers between her and the destroyer so Samantha began to perform evasive manuevers. She sideslipped her fighter at random, but short, intervals. The guns tracked her fighter, but they made no effort to fire. More surprising was that the destroyer was not performing evasive manuevers itself. It would make an easy target for Watson's ship.

That struck Samantha as wrong somehow. The Sathar are not stupid, what is this guy up too? Samantha reprogramed one of her cameras to scan the destroyers hull. There, she saw where she had made the error. Along the hull, about midway down the spine of the ship, she saw open launch tube doors and a complicated radar antenna array.

"Seven, this is Two. The Doomfist is not a Hellbore class destroyer, it looks to be equipped with Interceptor Missiles."

A single battery of Interceptor Missiles was ineffective against something as fast as an assault rocket, but multiple batteries worked together. In the numbers that this destroyer had, they would surely be enough to stop a single incoming rocket.

Nevertheless, they had no choice but to try. Samantha looked again at the distance to the destroyer. She had closed to a mere thirty-thousand kilometers from the Doomfist. Then, the Doomfist opened fire on her. The laser turret struck her fighter's left wing, and burned right through the reflective armor. The wing superheated and melted off, leaving a trail of molten metal as Samantha pulled up and accelerated away from the beam. The destroyer's electron battery fired seconds later, and thankfully missed what was left of Samantha's fighter. Alarm klaxons blared until Samantha snapped irratably, "Audible alarm off."

The computer complied and her cockpit was filled with silence for a second, before the alarm went off again.

"I said alarm-", Samantha stopped as she realized that this tone was different. She looked at her threat display. It showed nine rockets heading toward her fighter from the Doomfist. A Rocket battery salvo. Great. As if I haven't gone through enough of this already. Samantha trained a camera on the salvo. Unlike before, this salvo was coming at her almost head on. She tried to turn left to escape the salvo, but her fighter refused to budge in that direction. A glance at her damage display showed that her port wing manuevering jets were gone along with the better part of that wing. She could never turn away from the missiles in time. Outmanuevering them was hardly an option in her damaged craft. Samantha turned her fighter toward the missiles instead, with a crazy idea forming in her head.

The missiles were approaching in a spread out star pattern. Samantha aimed her fighter toward the center of the rocket pattern. I hope this works.....

Samantha poised her finger on the firing stud for her fighter's nose mounted heavy lasers and centered the rocket in her computer generated crosshairs as the range quickly closed. When the rocket was in range at two kilometers, her finger tightened on the firing stud and ruby beams seered out toward the missile, passing on both sides of the tiny rocket. The missile is too narrow! In a heartbeat, she corrected the aim a bit to the right and fired again. This time, a beam from the port laser caught the missile dead on and detonated it less than fifty meters in front of her fighter. Samantha flew through the resulting fireball as the other rockets sped past on all sides.

"Seven, this is two. You are clear to make your run. It will be some time before the Doomfist is able to fire a salvo like that again."

Watson's voice came in load and clear. "Affirmative Two. Launching in ten seconds."

Samantha concentrated on nursing her fighter back toward the Vengeance. The damage was severe enough to put her out of this fight, but she was confident that she could make it back.

Samantha allowed herself to relax and she turned a camera toward Watson's ship, leaving the others scanning the Doomfist. She saw the assault rocket fire from Phoenix Seven and streak toward the Doomfist. The Doomfist responded by launching five salvos of ICMs at the incoming rocket. For a second Samantha thought the rocket would slip through, then a bright flash signaled the destruction of the assault rocket.

Just as Samantha started to turn away in disappointment, a missile streaked into the hull of the destroyer. It flew into an empty ICM silo and exploded. A huge hull plate was blasted away, taking half the frame in that section with it. Samantha searched her radar display to see where that projectile had come from and saw an icon on her tactical display marked, Phoenix Lead.

Of course! Just becuase her comm system is down doesn't mean she's out of the fight. Gev saw the opportunity to strike and took advantage of it. The destroyer looked badly stricken by that hit and it stopped accelerating toward the retreating Federation ships. Its twin, the Venomous also stopped accelerating. Samantha heard a very relieved voice in Flight Ops radio their squadron, "Phoenix Flight, the Sathar have broken off pursuit. You are cleared to land."

Samantha checked to see that all fighters were heading toward the Vengeance, including Gev's fighter. Satisfied they were on course, Samantha sighed, "Roger Flight Ops, Phoenix two reports five birds inbound. My fighter is damaged, and I request Inertia Barrier equipped bays for Lead and myself."

"Two, this is Flight Ops, request granted. Inertia screens in place on landing bays two and four. Crash crews are standing by."

Samantha relaxed and stretched as much as she could in the cramped cockpit. The flight to the Vengeance would take almost forty minutes. In the meantime, her thoughts kept returning to Che'kek and Gorlma. One was dead, and the other would be marooned on Volturnus, provided he could bring his fighter down in one piece. Even if Gorlma did bring it down safely, he was stuck on a hostile world cut off from the rest of the Frontier by a Sathar battle armada that dwarfed anything the UPF had remaining.

The squadron gave better than they got, losing two fighters while destroying eight Sathar fighters and the destroyer Pestilence, as well as damaging the Stinger and Doomfist. While Phoenix squadron could claim a tactical victory based on losses, strategically, it was impossible to call this anything but a retreat. A retreat that left over four hundred Federation citizens at imminant risk of uncontested planetary invasion by the Sathar. Volturnus' indigenous lifeforms, which had all suffered because of the Sathar before, were once more at risk.

Samantha knew that in the next system, a retreat would leave millions of civilians on Pale and New Pale at the mercy of the Sathar, and the Sathar were not known for mercy.

First however, the Sathar would have to deal with Phoenix squadron. And we won't go down without a fight!

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