Practice

[MikDaTv]

The Jor Halcyon exited hyperspace in the the M234-P system and began deploying fighters. Ghostrider and Helo flight exited the ship along with Thundercat 01.

They made best speed for the asteroid field at the center of the system while the Halcyon stayed at it's normal cruising speed.

[MikDaTv]

Commander Peter looked at the holographic representation of the space around them being projected over the table at the rear of the bridge. It's blue light bathed everyone around it in a soothing blue aura. "So what's the point of coming here?"

Captain Stowe leaned over the holographic table on the opposite side of Commander Peter. "Practice. The Thundercats could use some hours flying their craft and all our pilots are green, they need as much time in the cockpit as we can give them."

Simon nodded and turned a nob on the edge of the table. The image of the asteroid field zoomed in to show what remained of the former base of the Union of the Force. "You think we'll find any useful salvage?" He asked, looking closely at the holographic image of the hollowed out asteroid.

"Probably not. From what i hear, Master Halcyon was pretty good at not wasting anything. He'd have taken whatever he could from the old site." Graham guessed. He looked over at the chrono on the wall, then looked down at the holographic table again. "Ok, we've given them enough time. Tell Red and Blue they're good to launch and good hunting."

Simon stood back up and gave the captain a thumbs up before grabbing an intercom mic from the overhead control panel. "Red and Blue Flights, this is Halcyon actual, you are go for launch." he said into the mic.

A short burst of static over the intercom speaker was followed by the pilots response. "Understood Halcyon Actual. Red and Blue flights, launching."

Outside the ship, 16 fighters launched from the Jor Halcyon's fighter bays. The CHF-18 Legionnaires quickly formed up into four groups of four and fanned out, heading for the asteroid field.

[MikDaTv]

Edge of the M234-P Asteroid Field

Ghostrider 01, known as Guardian to her fellow pilots and Lieutenant Commander Jeanette Devereaux to the rest of the universe eased the stick between her legs back slightly to shifter her fighter's nose "up" a little bit.

20 yards over to her left, her Wingman Deuce was doing a similar maneuver. They'd taken refuge in the asteroid field and were using the giant rocks as cover, hoping to get the jump on their friends.

She had rotated her fighter's nose up a little to get a better view of the star field outside the asteroids. In the distance she caught sight of a few stars that were moving in relation to the rest of the star field. She waved at her wingman, and pointed towards what she saw. She dared not use her com or power up her fighters long range sensors for fear of giving their position away.

Lieutenant Ross "Deuce" Zeist looked where Guardian pointed and saw the moving objects as well. It was a cluster of 4 of them, headed on a course towards the asteroid field that would have them enter the field a few hundred meters away. He turned his head back to face Guardian and gave a thumbs up signal.

Guardian started to power up her fighter slowly. Putting power to her navigational systems, she nosed her fighter over while at the same time marking her estimated position and course of the nearing fighters. She turned on the short wave com and double clicked her mic. Deuce and any other fighters in range of her would hear her break squelch as the signal that she was engaging the enemy.

She goosed her throttle lightly, sending her fighter forward at a minimum of speed. Deuce pulled into her starboard quarter, keeping strict formation with her.

The pair moved very gently through the field, staying slow and skimming the surface of the asteroids. They approached the marked location and gave a short burst of reverse thruster to bring them to a halt in relation to the asteroids in the field. There they sat, waiting and watching. They waited for what seemed like an hour, but was in reality only 15 minutes before Guardian looked over at Deuce and saw him pointing furiously out his canopy. Guardian followed his finger and saw a pair of CHF-18's moving cautiously through the asteroids above them, but not more than 150 meters away.

Guardian gave a thumbs. She put one hand on her throttle lever and put up three fingers with her other hand. Silently she counted down from 3 using her fingers and a beat after she reached zero, she jammed her throttle forward and her engines sprang to life. Her Legionnaire woke up and lurched forward, accelerating quickly. She maneuvered up towards the fighters they had spotted and powered up her laser cannons, which she linked.

Deuce was right behind her, staying in her starboard quarter. She leveled her HUD's crosshairs over the tailing fighter and waited to make sure she had a laser lock...

* * *

Lieutenant Commander Mike "Viper" Matcalf's fighter began blaring warnings. He'd been painted and another ship was trying to get a laser lock on him. He pushed his throttle forward and hauled left on his stick accelerating into a left bank around an asteroid.

He hadn't seen anyone heading in so he assumed whoever it was, they were under him which means they had the angle. Viper was totally defensive, using the asteroids as cover. Seeing as how the game of cat and mouse was now over and the new game was dogfighting, Viper broke com silence. "This is Red Leader, i have been engaged. Repeat, this is Viper, i have been engaged."

taking the que from the break in radio silence, his wingman responded to his report. Viper, Maniac, i lost you in that turn but I think i can reconnect. Hang loose."

Maniac's CHF-18 turned left and started accelerating. He brought power to his lasers and inverted his fighter, looking for whoever was attacking his wingman...

* * *

Guardian's prey had broke left attempting to break the laser lock. Unfortunately for Guardian the maneuver had worked. For some pilots, that might have been frustrating, but Guardian knew this was only the first move. She stayed on Viper's tail, matching his impressive maneuver, threading her fighter between two asteroids and popped off a snapshot. The simulated laser energy of her four guns firing all at once wized over Viper's canopy and sailed off into space.

If Viper saw the attack, he was staying cool. He didn't let the near miss rattle him into a maneuver that would cost him. instead he performed a roll, turning his fighter to the right while at the same time using the turn to invert and then follow through and right himself again. It would be what a lot of pilots would call a spin move, which is admittedly a pretty good trick.

Guardian broke radio silence. "Deuce, this guy's good. I think it's Viper. I'm going to chase him and force him left, you get set up to fry him when he presents his broadside to you."

Deuce cut his speed to fall back a little. "Gotcha Guardian, i'm off your wing and getting ready for the right moment. Keep an eye out for his Wingman Guardian. Viper never rolls without his Wingman."

Guardian furrowed her brow. Deuce was right. The irrefutable part of Viper's personality was that he never did anything alone. His wingman was out there somewhere. She kept an eye on her rear sensors but between the CFH-18's stealth systems and the asteroids all around it was doubtful she'd see anything there. She shook her head and cleared her mind of it. If his wingman was engaging her she'd be dead by now. She followed Viper through his turn and waited for him to straiten out.

As his fighter leveled, she switched her lasers over to single fire. She pulled the trigger on her stick causing a stream of laser bolts to fire from her laser cannons in sequence, increasing the rate of fire to machine gun speed. The laser bolts flew by Vipers starboard wing and inched closer to him as Guardian guided them towards her prey. Viper banked left, trying to escape the blasts. It was just what she had wanted him to do. While banking left she could only hope to stay on his tail, but Deuce who was farther back could adjust and fire on him while his entire wing and fuselage profile was exposed. Guardian disengaged to give Deuce the best shot, turning right and heading for an asteroid.

Deuce saw the maneuver and switched his laser cannons from duel to single fire and bracketed Vipers fighter. he heard the familiar beeping noise of a laser lock and eased his finger down on the trigger. Before he could finish pulling it all the way though, an alarm blared out in his cockpit telling him that someone had a laser lock on him. Deuce's first instinct was to bank left like Viper had to avoid the incoming fire and still hope to stay on Vipers tail but a quick look at his sensors told him that an incoming asteroid would turn that into a very bad idea very quickly, so he banked right...

* * *

Todd "Maniac" Marshal's laser cannons fired in duel linked mode, sending pairs of simulated laser blasts out at a time. He had a hard laser lock on Deuces fighter and he wasn't about to let go. The laser blasts struck Deuces fighter, doing no damage, but the sensors attached the the hull registered it as a hit. Deuce's voice cut in over the public channel so that everyone could hear. "Son of a bitch!"

Maniac laughed and pulled up next to his fellow pilot that he had just "shot down." He gave a thumbs up through his canopy and waggled his wings back and forth. Deuce did the same and then peeled away from the engagement.

Maniac looked around trying to see any sign of Guardian but came up with nothing. "Viper, Maniac. Splash one bogey, it was Deuce."

Viper's voice came back over the com quietly. He was hiding in the asteroid field now, his fighter powered down. He knew that no matter how loud he was, no one outside his fighter would ever be able to hear him but subconsciously, something told him to stay quiet. "Roger that Maniac. Keep an eye out for Guardian. She's around here somewhere."

* * *

Guardian's fighter swung around in a wide arc. She'd started a spiral search pattern to try and reacquire either Viper or Maniac. So far she'd come up with nothing, and the asteroids weren't helping any. With her wingman down that left it two against one. She could always open up her coms and ask for assistance from the rest of her flight but that would mark her position for any enemy craft within range as well.

Her head was on constant swivel duty, looking through the canopy of her fighter for any sign of a fighter engine trail or the faint glow of cockpit lights. It wasn't long at all before she spotted one. Flying in a strait line, the pilots head doing the same thing her's was, looking around for anything that might bite. They're eyes locked for a split second before both fighters jammed on their accelerators and started banking towards one another.

Maniac turned hard to avoid her opening salvo of laser blasts and punched his after burners. His turn carried him right towards Guardian causing him to blast right below her and away. The disengagement turn would have worked too if he hadn't had to slow down to avoid the asteroids. Guardian turned to get right on his tail. Maniac had gained quite the distance so she switched to missiles and attempted to get a missile lock.

Maniac obviously got the warning of a near missile lock because his fighter started side slipping to the left. Guardian stayed on him determined to even the score. Maniac slipped left again and put his fighter up on his port wing, threading it between too asteroids. Guardian lost sight of him for a split second as he turned sharply after passing through the gauntlet of asteroids but picked him up again once she had done the same maneuver. Maniac's turn had put him on coarse for a larger asteroid. It looked like he was going to try and skim the surface of it and hope he had enough of a lead to use it as cover as he went around the other side.

Guardian wasn't going to play that game however and put her targeting brackets right over him. It took less than a second to get a target lock. Maniac's voice could be heard over the public com saying "awww, crap. not fast enough."

Guardian laughed to herself and watched as maniac's fighter turned left and headed out of the asteroid field. in fact, she was so focused on watching his engines head for home that she missed what was right in front of her.

Viper, having set up a trap with Maniac for her was now cresting the other side of the large asteroid in a head to head position. Just like she had gotten a near instant target lock on Maniac, Viper now had a near instant target lock on her. The warnings in her cockpit erupted and she cursed. Viper pulled up in front of her and tilted his nose down so he could have a better view into her canopy. He was all smiles. Guardian flipped him the bird and he waggled his wings at her, laughter clearly visible on her face. Guardian goosed her throttle and headed for the best coarse out of the asteroid field.

[MikDaTv]

"What’s the report from the fighters?" Commander Peter asked the communications technician that was sitting right in front of him.

The tech twisted his head around and looked up at the XO of the ship. "CAG's on her way back. Looks like she got outed early this time."

Simon smirked ever so slightly. There was a pool among the command staff on the ship about who would come out on top in this little dogfighting war game. Simon had 20 credits on LCDR Matcalf. CAG getting shot down early was a good sign because the only pilot on board who was remotely good enough to take her out was Viper. "Ok, thanks Stan. Tell Boss Man to put the incoming losers in a holding pattern around the ship and to admit them in based on fuel status."

The Com tech nodded and gave a tiny little salute before turning around in his chair to carry out the XO's orders.

Commander Peter walked back over to the rear of the bridge and stood next to the holographic table. He twisted a few knobs on the control panel next to it and zoomed in on the image of the Jor Halcyon and it's surrounding space. He'd watch the fighters come in via the hologram.

* * *

Captain Stowe adjusted the collar on his unifrm in the full length mirror before him. After the fighters had launched, he'd waited about half an hour before leaving the bridge and heading back to his cabin. He didn't like having both the XO and CO on the bridge at the same time for the most part because it gave the bridge crew a sense of top heavyness with both top dogs looking over their shoulders. One was enough to keep control of the ship and Stowe trusted Commander Peter.

That didn't stop him from looking for constant reports though. He'd spent most of the time in his cabin on the computer, reading through engineering reports from LCDR McKay and Personnel reports about the newer crew members. He also made sure to check in on how the war game was going so far every now and then. He cursed when he found out CAG had been one of the first ones knocked out. He'd put a bet of 50 credits on her to win last through the whole thing.

He opened a wooden box on his desk and withdrew a short, curved, wooden pipe and put it in his mouth. Smoking was strictly prohibited on board the Halcyon under his own orders so he didn't bother with lighting it. Sometimes it just helped him relax to have it out though.

The lights flickered in his room suddenly, almost going out entirely for a quick moment. Graham cursed silently at the hicup in the power and went over to the wall terminal to call engineering to see what the problem was. His hand was inches from the intercom button when all of a sudden an alarm in the ship started going off.

Graham quickly identified it as the intrusion alarm. He issued a quick voice command to the computer to silence the alarm in his cabin and picked up the intercom mic from the wall console. Before he could key it though, Commander Peter's voice sounded over the intercom, ship wide. "Now! Captain Stowe lay to the bridge. Captain Stowe lay to the bridge."

Stowe hit the intercom button for the bridge and keyed the mic. "Commander, whats the problem?"

A few seconds later Simon's voice came back. "Skipper, we just got an intrusion alarm in the officer quarters deck. Security teams have been dispatched. Chief of the Watch just went down to the armory with a team of his own."

The Captain keyed his mic again. "Understood, i'm on my way. Stowe out."

He hung the mic back up on the wall console, took one last glance at the mirror across the room to make sure his uniform was on strait and then headed out the door into the corridor beyond.

* * *

"CAPTAIN ON THE BRIDGE!" came the report from the bridge watchstander at his post beside the main door.

Everyone looked up but no one bothered to stand at attention. The Captain walked right past the watchstander and said "As you were!" almost on reflex.

Simon was next to him almost immediatly. "The alarm went off after sensors detected an extra life sign that the computer couldn't account for. It's probably a glitch in the sensor system but it could be someone figured out how to get past our sensor alarm system."

The Captain nodded. "If it is an intruder, he must have gotten on board somehow. Check the manifest and sensor logs from the last two places we docked. Tell the fighters outside in the holding pattern to do a visual sweep of the hull. Tell them to check for anything out of the ordinary or any kind of craft attached to the hull. Tell them to start looking at the hull around the officers quarters."

Simon didn't even need to relay the orders. he just snapped his finger over at the communications tech who promptly turned around in his seat and contacted the Air Boss to relay the orders.

The Captain walked right up to the holographic table. It was displaying a 3D schematic of the ship, highlighting in red the area in which the alarm orriginated. "Status of security teams?"

Simon looked down at his datapad. "Two teams entering the penetrated area now Skipper. Chopo and the Chief of the watch are at the armory right now in case we need to issue more armaments to the crew."

"Very nice commander. Very nice." He complimented. The captain did a qick about face and looked towards the front of the bridge where the helm crew sat. "Helm, bring us about on an exit vector. Navigation, plot us a hyperspace jump out of the system. Communications, recall the fighters out there. As soon as their done with their visual sweep of the hull i want them on the deck."

A Chourus of achnoledgements sang out all around the bridge and the stars outside the main viewport began to shift as the helm crew turned the ship around.

Commander Peter came up next to Graham and whispered quietly so that only they two of them could hear. "Hyperspace Captain? That seems like a bit much for what will probably amount to just a glitch in the system."

Stowe turned around to look at the holo table. "Truth is we don't know what it is Simon. I'm just making sure we have all the exits we might need."

The XO nodded, agreeing with the decision and started to walk about the bridge, observing the status of all the work stations.

* * *

Outside the ship in space, it watched. The ship that had intruded into the area had turned about, trying to run away to the safety of a hyperspace jumpable zone.

It and the others would not allow that. It and the others were sworn to defend this palce. It and the others would never allow the men and women aboard that ship to leave M234-P alive. It and the others were willing to lay down their lives to protect this system from intrusion. They had layed down their lives to protect it. They had failed once, and they would never fail again.

[MikDaTv]

Stowe stood at the viewport of the Halcyon, looking out into space. it had been 30 minutes since the alarm went off and the ship had been searched thoroughly and cleared. The fighters outside had conducted two sweeps of the hull and saw nothing out of the ordinary. The disturbance had been ruled a glitch in the sensor systems. Simon wasn’t happy with that ruling though and was going through all the sensor logs by hand with the Chief of the Watch. Stowe had taken command of the bridge and had the ship remain on its outbound course. The fighters had been recalled and now only Green Flight was outside running CAP.

The com tech turned around in his chair and raised a hand. “Sir, Green Flight is reporting something strange. I’m not sure what to make of it.”

Stowe sighed and turned around. He walked away from the viewport and over to the com tech. “Put it on speaker.” He ordered calmly. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be any worse than the intruder scare.

The com tech flipped a switch on his control panel and the bridge speakers crackled to life. “Halcyon Halcyon, this is Green Leader. Reporting unknown visual contact headed straight for you. Please advise.”

Stowe snapped his fingers and held a hand out. The com tech took his headset off and put it in the skippers hand. Graham put the headset up to his ear without bothering to put it on his head and keyed the mic. “Green Leader this is Halcyon Actual. What is it, over.”

“Standby Halcyon actual.” Said Green Leader. Graham motioned for the com tech to switch the speaker over to the squadron’s frequency so he could listen in on them. The com speakers came on again with Green leaders voice, joined by the other 8 members of the security flight…

Green 1 (Crashdown) - “Flyboy, what is it?”
Flyboy – “I dunno, it’s not a ship. It’s too small. Hang on I’m getting closer.”
Crashdown – “Careful Flyboy, don’t do anything stupid.”
Flyboy – “It’s… It’s… a…”
Crashdown – “It’s a what flyboy? What the hell is it?”
Flyboy – “It’s a person… it’s a person without a space suit on and he’s waving at me.”

There was a long moment of silence on the radio before another voice cut in…

Green 2 (Flash) – “Have you been drinking Flyboy?”
Flyboy – “no sir, seriously. It’s a guy. I must be going crazy.”
Green 6 (Apollo) – “Crashdown, if he is going crazy then I am too because I just pulled in behind flyboy and I’m seeing the same thing. It’s a man, looks like he’s wearing some kind of uniform, no space suit and he’s waving at us.”
Green 5 (Fireball) – “Woah! Heads up Greens. I got my eyes on another one. I’m two clicks away from Flyboy on Halcyon’s horizontal zero nine zero. Same thing, this one looks like a woman.”
Flash – “Is she cute Fireball?”
Crashdown – “Shut up Flash. I’m switching back over to the Halcyo…..
Flyboy – “Hey, it’s moving. It’s picking up speed. I’m having trouble keeping up with it.”
Apollo– “Stay on him flyboy, I got your wing.”
Crashdown – “maintain safe distance, I don’t want anyone provoking this thing into any kind of violence.”
Flyboy – “May be too late boss, something’s happening here. The guy, he picked up speed, jetted out away from me and is circling back. And he looks like he’s glowing red now.
Apollo – “Confirmed, I’m seeing the same.”
Flyboy – “It’s headed right for me. Closing distance incredibly fast. I’ve never seen something move like that. I’m breaking off!”
Apollo – “Apollo’s with you flyboy, get us the hell out of here.”
Flyboy – “it’s matching my course, I can’t get away. Head to head collision! It’s going to hit……”

Static filled the com from flyboy and squelched all other transmissions on the squad frequency for several seconds. When it cleared panic had clearly set in.

Crashdown – “Flyboy! Flyboy!, come in god damn it. Report!”
Flyboy – “Holy shit! I can’t… I can’t… I can’t… what’s happening!”
Apollo – “Crashdown, this is Apollo. The thing hit Flyboy and his fighters in an uncontrolled spiral. It was strange, it looked like the thing hit him right in the nose, phased through the fighter and got shat out the ass end. The thing is headed away from Halcyon now.
Fireball – “Hate to bring some more bad news but I found yet another one. Looks like he came over to chill out with his girlfriend.”
Crashdown – “Flash, Hobbit, go to Fireball’s position and back him up. Apollo stay with Flyboy. Keep it tight Greens.”

Green leader switched his com back over to Halcyon’s frequency and made a request. “Halcyon, Halcyon! This is green flight actual! We have been engaged! Repeat we have been engaged.”

Stowe keyed his mic and practically shouted into the headset. “Your clear for combat Green Leader. Splash those UFO’s.”

Crashdown didn’t bother replying. He just switched back to the squad frequency…

Crashdown – “We’re clear to go hot. Apollo, splash your bogey.”
Apollo – “Message received boss, loud and clear. Engaging… … Ineffective! Repeat, ineffective! I hit him with a quaded up laser blast and nothing. Beams went right though his ass.”
Flyboy “Ahhhhhhhahhhhhh ahhhhhh help me! Help me! They’re all over me! They’re inside my flight suit! I can’t get them out!”
Crashdown – “What is it flyboy? Whats in your flightsuit?”
Flyboy - “Get it out! Get it out!”
Apollo – “boss, Flyboy is still in a spiral, he’s headed back towards the asteroid field but he’ll run out of gas long before he gets there.”
Crashdown – “hang on flyboy, help is on the way. I’m going to call the Cats in.”
Apollo – “Negative Crash, negative. No time. Not with hostiles out here that we can’t shoot at. I think I can get him.”
Crashdown – “You are not a rescue ship Apollo, get your butt back on that bandit.”
Apollo – “Hang on Flyboy, just hang on.”
Crashdown – “Apollo! Apollo! Shit! Fireball, what’s your status?”
Fireball – “It’s like a family gathering over here Lead. We got a total of 5 now. Flash spotted 3 who are headed on over here to join with their friends.”
Crashdown – “Your clear to engage Fireball. Burn them up.”
Fireball – “Understood. Fireball engaging.”

Fireball turned his fighter slightly to the left and bracketed one of the things in his crosshairs. He yanked back on the trigger on his stick and laser blasts started firing in sequence from his fighter. The red laser blasts lanced out through space and stabbed into the mysterious creature then passed harmlessly through it and continued on into space.

Fireball – “Negative impact, repeat, negative impact. Lasers are ineffective, I’m switching to missiles.”

A concussion missile detached from under the wing of Fireball’s fighter and it’s engine lit, sending the missile soaring ahead at rocket speed. Fireball had set it to proximity detonate but kept his finger on the abort button just in case whatever this thing was, it didn’t trigger the proximity sensor. The missile exploded right next to the mysterious thing. Whatever it was, it seemed to be damaged by the concussion missiles explosion and reeled away from the blast.

Fireball – “Ha! That got it. Effective weapon is missiles, they don’t like explosions.”
Crashdown – “Understood, green flight, we’re on the defensive. You heard fireball, switch to missiles and make a fighting retreat back to Halcyon.”
Apollo – “Flyboy, if you can hear me pull your throttle back to nill.”
Flash – “Flash engaging! Fox One away! Impact… that’s two bandits hit for the price of one. Boy do they look pissed. They’re bugging out, headed towards the asteroid field.”
Apollo – “ok, ok, ok, on six, five, four, ready… steady… go!”
Hobbit – “I got one on my tail, he’s come up hard. I’m about to get boned in the ass out here guys.”
Fireball – “Steady Hob, I’m on your six coming up on your bandit. Fox one away! Impact! Your tail is clear Hobbit, bandit is bugging out.”
Hobbit – “Thanks F.B.”
Crashdown – “Apollo report!... Report damn it!”

Apollo didn’t answer though. He was too busy to bother with it. He’d matched Flyboy’s spiral and eased his fighter in under Flyboy’s the top of his canopy was inches away from the belly of Flyboy’s fighter now. He eased back on the stick and caused the fighter to rise those few inches as slow as he could, which in a fighter jet was about 5 miles per hour. His canopy slammed into the belly of Flyboys fighter and the sound of metal scraping sounded through his cockpit. He tugged slightly left on the stick, which banked his right wing up into the underside of Flyboy’s right wing. Locked against Flyboy’s fighter in such a way, he pulled back on his stick to bring his nose up more, causing Flyboy’s to do the same. Very gently, he eased his fighter into an overhead loop to try and bleed off some of Flyboy’s speed and hopefully get him headed back towards Halcyon.

Alarms screamed at him inside his cockpit telling him he had a breach. Apollo ignored it for now, focusing on the maneuver that might save his friends life. He kept it up, dealing with the tremendous grinding noise the hull of his fighter was making as it scraped against the underside of Flyboy’s. When a quick look at his sensors told him that Galactica was cresting the nose of his fighter, Apollo cut his throttle and applied reverse thrust. His fighter slid out from under Flyboys and he banked away. Free from the high risk maneuver, he quickly checked his status. His canopy was cracked above his head and was slowly hissing out air…

Crashdown – “Apollo, what’s your status? Flyboy, are you there?”
Apollo – “I’m here, status is yellow. My canopy is cracked. Pulling out my EVA kit now. Flyboy is bound for Halcyon on a ballistic course, I can’t raise him on radio.”
Crashdown – “Get it sealed Apollo, we need everyone headed back to Halcyon right now!”
Green 8 (Snake Doctor) - “Lead, I’ve spotted some more of those things yall have been having trouble with.”
Crashdown – “Where are you Snake?”
Snake Doctor – “I’m over Halcyon’s dorsal surface right now, 2 and a half clicks out. Uhhh, you may want to get over here.”
Crashdown – “Whats the matter Snake? What is it?”
Snake doctor - “I’ve got at least a dozen or more and they’re headed right for Halcyon.”
Crashdown – “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

On the bridge of the Jor Halcyon, Captain Stowe had listened with undivided attention. The fact that their own sensors weren’t picking anything up, and that the fighters were only making these target through visual contact worried him. He wanted to get out of this situation and come back when he was ready but he already had two pilots in trouble out there and he wasn’t about to let Green Flight twist in the wind.

The captain threw the headset down into the com tech’s lap and bounded to the back of the bridge to the holo table. He reached over his head and grabbed the intercom mic, switching it to contact the hanger deck. “Now! CAG, contact the bridge. CAG contact the bridge.”

He waited a tense few seconds before the intercom buzzed. Stowe answered it. “This is the CAG.” Came the voice of LCMD Devereaux.

“CAG, I take it you’ve been listening?” Stowe asked.

“always skipper, what do you need?” Came back the reply. Her voice sounded confident which helped the captain stay calm.

He keyed his mic. “Who can you get in the tubes right now?”

There was a moment’s pause. The Captain could imagine her checking her roster to see who was on the board to relieve Green Flight’s CAP. “Ghostrider is good to go Skipper, just give the word.”

Captain Stowe thought about it for another moment, wonder if he really was doing the right thing by throwing more pilots into this. He’d never let the crew notice his doubt, but a large part of him just wanted to recall the fighters and jet out of here. He came to the realization though that he couldn’t do that to his pilots, nor to any member of his crew. The Halcyon would remain as long as it took to get everyone out and not a minute less. “The word is given Guardian. Get out there and bring your sheep home safe.”

[MikDaTv]

"Fox 1 away!" "Watch it Apollo, you got one on your tail, moving up quick." "Crashdown, this is Flash, i'm on your starboard wing." "Watch out Five! Holy crap that was a near miss. you ok five?" "Yeah I’m fine, thanks for the heads up." "Missile away! impacting. yeah, that’s a hit. boy he really didn't like that. he's moving away at high speed."

The com chatter being relayed through the bridge speakers had the full attention of everyone on the bridge. Stowe's hands were gripping the edge of the holotable with such force that they had turned white.

"Adjust course skipper?" Commander Peter asked.

The captain shook his head. "negative, maintain course and speed. I don't want to change the situation for our pilots out there. they have enough to think about without having to worry about our position."

"What about weapons? We can have missiles inbound and back up the fighters." The commander suggested.

The captain thought about it for a moment before replying. "Arm one ACM and keep it on standby. Have Chopo arm all our torpedo's as well. I don't want to add explosives into the situation right now but if the target presents itself we should be ready."

The XO nodded and turned around to face the bridge crew. "Operations, ready tube one and keep it on standby. Arm all our Mark IIs and move them to standby status as well. firing solutions if you please."

Commander Taylor who had been facing the XO turned around to face the Operations crew. "Arm tube one and move to standby. Arm all PT-Mark II's and begin a firing solution search."

Acknowledgements rang out around the firing control team. The XO turned back around to face the captain. The captain reached down to the console and adjusted one of the knobs. the hologram of the ship zoomed out to also include the distant fighters. "Status of Flyboy?"

"He's been tractored into the starboard hanger, deck 2. Deck crew had some trouble with him but a coreman drugged him and they got him to sickbay." Peter replied.

"Good, tell Dad to report his status every hour on the hour." Graham ordered. The XO nodded and moved to comply.

* * *

"we're in trouble out here boss." Came the voice of Flash over the com. "I'm out of missiles and my lasers aren't doing crap to these guys."

Crashdown looked at his own fighter's status. He was down to his last missile as well. The problem was that they weren't actually downing any of the enemy.... things. They would just hurt it, make it run away and then it would come back later. The only good news that he'd gotten was that Apollo's trick had worked and Flyboy had been tractored into the Halcyon's hanger bay safely. Apollo himself had sealed his canopy leak with emergency foam and continued with the fight.

In normal circumstances Crashdown would have ordered Apollo to land his fighter for repairs but right now he needed everyone and he was already down a man. "Bug out Flash. I'll cover you." Crashdown finally said, seeing no other options.

"Alright boss. I'll be waiting on the flight deck for you." Flash said before peeling away and heading out of the engagement.

Crashdown watched his tail for a few moments to make sure none of the things gave chase. When he saw that Flash's tail was clean he turned back and went hunting for a target with his last missile.

What greeted him as he turned his fighter about was not pretty. In the distance he could see the engine flares of his friendly fighters chasing after the faint glowing enemies they had encountered. The enemies lit up the area like fire flies, adding a whole new field of moving stars to the dark back ground of space. It was obvious they were out numbered. They were moving too fast for Crashdown to count but he knew it was at least three to one at this point.

The situation was hopeless. they were putting up a good fight but they'd run out of missiles eventually and when that happened they would be unable to defend themselves. These things were both faster and inhumanly more maneuverable than the fighter pilots.

"Green Leader, This is Boss Man. Your ordered to put your flight on an inbound course to Halcyon for landing." Came a crackled voice over his com's general frequency.

Crashdown switched to the frequency. "Negative Boss Man. Negative! If we go into a retreat they'll be on our tail. They can overtake easily."

"We got you covered Green Leader." Came the female voice of their CAG. Crashdown looked around and saw a missile zoom past his canopy overhead and impact with one of the things in front of him. A moment later an element of fighter flew overhead and waggled their wings. "Ghostrider has you covered. Retreat to the barn, combat landings authorized. Stay clear of Halcyon's firing solution."

Crashdown smiled. "Understood Guardian. Green Flight bugging out. Good hunting. Ok, boys, you heard the lady. Form up in pairs and burn back to halcyon. Flank speed."

Crashdown brought his fighter around again and punched his throttle to full and hit his after burners. The engines roared and his inertial compensator couldn't keep up with the sudden acceleration forcing him back into his seat. behind him, All of green flight was doing the same as the Ghostriders rode through the furball, missiles firing.

* * *

"Green Flight on their way back captain." Said the voice of Senior Chief Cal "Boss Man" Blackburn. "I'll have them on the deck in no time."

the XO keyed the intercom mic. "Understood Senior. prep deck 1 for landings as well for Ghostrider."

The plan had so far worked perfectly. Ghostriders high speed flyby had caused most of the things to bug out back towards the asteroid field for a few kilometers before turning back. They had split up and circled around to set up for another run on the retreating things before they too would retreat.

With Green and Ghostriders heading back, and the things all by themselves now, Halcyon could pound away at them with its own more powerful torpedoes.

The Captain watched with his full attention on the holographic readouts on the table. The hologram didn't show the locations of the things since they did not register on sensors, but the explosions of missiles did. It was almost pretty to see a dozen or so explosions flair to life and then fade. They're plan was working though and that was beautiful enough for Graham. "Have Jester and Chappy on Alert 5 Standby and the rest of Helo Flight on Alert 10. Just in case."

The XO nodded and set about issuing the orders through the intercom.

* * *

Guardian's pilots had just finished pulling Green Flight's bacon out of the fire so morale was high. The celebrations of hits rang through the com all around the board and even Guardian caught herself issuing herself a silent "Hell Yeah!" when her missile struck one of the bandits. They're job wasn't done yet and Guardian didn't want them getting cocky.

"Cut the chatter. Ok, run one complete. Commence cattle drive." She said into the com.

Her fighter turned to port in a wide banking circle. Three other fighters turned with her. The other four had turned to starboard in a mirrored maneuver. They were going to circle around, and hit the bandits again, driving them even further away from Halcyon and then bug out at flank speed to get Halcyon's gunners a chance at the bad guys.

Guardian's fighter circled round until it was once again on course to target the things with her missiles. She glanced down to her weapons control console and flipped some switches, arming all but one of her missiles. She was going to scatter shoot them into the formation of bandits to spread the damage out.

The countdown on her time to firing range reached zero and she pulled the trigger. 6 missiles detached from the underside of her hull and fired their rockets, jetting out ahead of her fighter.

More rockets joined hers from the other three fighters in her group and over to her starboard fired their missiles as well.

"Cattle drive complete, head for home." She said and pulled her fighter in a high G turn and set course for The Halcyon.

[MikDaTv]

The sound of metal screeching across metal filled the small space of Guardian's cockpit as her fighter skidded across the Jor Halcyon's flight deck. Her landing skids were sparking and leaving a wide scratch mark on the deck as the fighter ground to a halt and settled into position. In seconds a ground crew was on her fighter and the canopy was open, raised up out of the way. Guardian hopped out quickly and helped the ground team get a jack under the nose landing skiff. They had to clear the deck for the next fighter and he wasn't going to bother waiting.

Guardian runs with her fighter and the flight crew as they pull the craft down the deck into wing off to the side when a loud thunder fills the hanger. Guardian covers her ears with her hands and ducks her head away from the sound, well aware of what it is.

Another has broken through the magfield and is now skidding across the deck, using pure friction to slow it down. As this next one slows to a stop a crewman tosses Guardian a pair of ear muffs and she puts them on, then rushes over to help them with this new fighter on their once brand new, pristine flight deck...

* * *

"Ghostrider Six ... Aboard.... Ghostrider Seven... Aboard Ghostrider Eight.... aboard. All fighter present and accounted for!" Said the voice of Boss Man over the bridge speakers.

Graham smiled and turned to his second in command. "Mr. Peter, you may fire when ready."

The Commander nodded and practically jogged over to the weapons station. The Chief Operations officer was standing there waiting. "Weapons ready, firing solutions across the board based on visual scans and estimated locations."

Commander Peter nodded. "Ready tube one."

ChoPo turned to his weapons crew and repeated the order. The crewmen manning the ACML Station turned around in his chair. "ACM One is primed and ready Sir."

Peter didn't wait for the relay of the report. He took another step forward. "Fire." He said simply.

The crewman turned back around to face his console and pushed the large red button at the top. A "swoosh" sound reverberated through the whole ship and everyone on the bridge could look through the front viewport and see the huge Assault Concussions Missile being ejected from it's tube near the bow of the ship.

The ACM drifted away from the ship for a few seconds, with boosters tilting it forward slightly. Then, all at once it's main booster flared to life and the missile shot off like a rocket. It's maneuvering boosters guiding it towards it's target.

"Ready all forward proton torpedo's. Full spread, fire at will." Peter said as soon as the sound of the missile launching died down.

In mere seconds after the order was given the forward proton torpedo launchers began firing off their ordinance with the "thump" sound the crew had grew accustom too in the drills. 24 Proton Torpedo MK II's spread out across space then veered away to port following after the larger assault concussion missile.

"Time to hyperspace?" Graham asked from his place at the back of the bridge.

Their navigator turned his head around. "Course plotted, we clear the gravity well of M234-P in 45 seconds."

The helmsman shouted over his shoulder. "Hyperdrive spun up and ready to go."

ChoPo turned to the Captain. "Missiles nearly to target. The torps will hit first."

The captain looked down to his holographic table and adjusted the image to focus on the missiles. In a few seconds he saw 24 small explosions ripple across space off the Halcyon's port side. They were followed by the ACM which detonated in a huge explosion causing the holographic image to fuzz out for a moment then snap back into it's high definition clarity. "Visual scanning, do you have an eye on our friends?"

Simon walked over to the sensor stations and looked up and down the workstations. He turned his head over to the Captain "Negative Captain. No visual contact."

the Navigator shouted from his station. "We're clear of all gravity wells. Hyerdrive ready at the order!"

Graham would have liked to know if their attack had worked and the Halcyon's weapons had harmed the things that had hurt on of his pilots, but he wasn't so curious he was about to endanger more crew to find out. "Punch it. Helm, get us out of here."

The helmsman locked the course into his instruments and raised his throttle control to maximum. The stars outside the viewport became streaks of blue light and twisted into the familiar image of a hyperspace tunnel. They had made it out. They were safe. Whatever it was at M234-P that they had disturbed couldn't get them now. Captain Stowe let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and leaned against the holotable. "Simon, fire up the hypercom and send word to Ilum. We need to mark that system as a hazard to navigation. Send word to the Federation too. I don't want another ship to go through what we just did."

The XO nodded and looked around the bridge. No one was happy but everyone was relieved. They're first time away from home and they had their ass kicked by ghosts. It was a sobering experience for them all.

* * *

Captain Stowe walked into the Halcyon's sickbay. It was mostly empty at the moment, save for one bed in the corner occupied by Flyboy who was currently sleeping.

the Chief Medical Officer Captain Henry "Dad" Shen walked over to Stowe with his datapad, still reviewing his notes on the case. "He's sleeping now. The doctor said, pointing out the obvious."

"Whats wrong with him?" Graham asked.

Dad shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Nothing as far as i can tell. He seemed to have a psychological breakdown, then passed out and went to sleep as soon as we entered hyperspace.

"I know the ground crew had to drug him in order to get him here. What kind of breakdown are we talking here Doc?" Graham asked.

Dad handed over his datapad. On it was a crude sketch of what looked like a lion head, done all in gold. "You tell me Captain. When the drugs wore off he asked for something to draw on and drew that. In fact he drew about a dozen of them. Little variations between drawings but all of the same image."

The image looked familiar to Graham somehow, like he'd seen it before somewhere. "is he ok now?"

Dad nodded. "he's fine physically. When we jumped to hyperspace it was like a light switch went off. He instantly calmed down, was very lucid for a few short seconds and then said he was tired. right after that he fell right to sleep."

The sound of a throat clearing caused the Skipper and Dad to turn around. Lieutenant Commander Devereaux was standing at the entrance to sickbay, still in her flight suit with her helmet in her hand. "Is it ok to see him Dad?"

The doctor waved a hand towards the bed. "Be my guest Jeanette. He's not contagious."

The pilot walked over to her fellow pilot and subordinates bed and sat down next to him, just looking at him laying there. Graham watched her for a moment then turned his head back to Dad. "Give him a full workup when he wakes up. If he checks out put him on light duty for 6 weeks. If he doesn't have another episode by then we'll consider putting him back to full flight status."

The doctor jotted the orders down on his datapad and nodded. Graham pushed past him and walked over to the bed with the sleeping pilot on it. "going to watch him all day CAG?"

Jeanette looked up at him and smiled with a slight blush. "No sir. I had a watch schedule made up and i'm pulling the first watch. Viper will be by to relieve me in 2 hours. I figured it would be best if he woke up to the friendly face of a pilot instead of a bunch of doctors poking him."

Graham smiled. "It's a good idea. Send me a copy of your schedule and i'll make sure their duty schedule is clear."

Jeanette nodded and pulled out her datapad to comply. Graham stood their, looking at Flyboy for a few more seconds before he turned and left Sickbay.

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