Bandits Engaged (Battlegroup Z Book 4) by Daniel Gibbs (classic literature list .txt) 📗

void. Justin switched his focus to fire control, toggling his stores selector to the Eagle heat-seeking missiles. His strategy involved some risk, as with full afterburners going, Alpha and Charlie flights would be the hottest things in the local area—and with the enemy coming straight at them, it was unlikely the warheads would lock on. The CDF technology had failsafes built in to prevent an Eagle from coming after a friendly craft, but Justin felt he was in uncharted territory.

“Alpha One, fox two.” Two warheads dropped out of his internal stores bay and rocketed away. The rest of Alpha and Charlie followed suit, and quickly, over two dozen missiles were headed toward the hostiles. The moment Justin confirmed he’d loosed four Eagles at the enemy, he cranked his flight stick upward. “Alpha, Charlie, break and disengage. Max thrust.”

Afterburner plumes lit up the void as all eight Sabres rocketed through the enemy formation. Energy-weapons fire was ineffective thanks to poor interception angles and the relative speed of the friendly craft. Justin didn’t even bother with aiming, and he doubted the others did either. He was firing more for effect.

The enemy wasn’t out of the fight, however. Numerous LIDAR-tracking warheads separated from the pirate formation and raced toward the Sabres. Justin’s missile alarm sounded, and he stared at the HUD-integrated scanner, trying to determine how many were aimed at him. “Alpha One to Alpha and Charlie elements. Maintain formation. Deploy chaff. Redirect power to aft shields and engines.”

A dangerous dance broke out as the Sabre group sent dozens of LIDAR balls confusing chaff into the void while juking to confuse the incoming warheads. Many took the bait, but enough slammed into Alpha and Charlie to cause significant damage. Several friendly craft took hull damage, and Justin’s bird lost its aft shield generator. Just when he thought they were home free, one of the Charlie-element fighters flashed red on his HUD.

“Charlie One declaring an emergency. Master alarm lit. Losing thrust.”

Justin pulled up the diagnostic screen for Hawkins’s craft. “Alpha One to Charlie One. Disengage inertial damper. You’ll continue forward at present speed.”

“Wilco, Alpha One,” Hawkins replied.

Seconds seemed to last hours. “No good, sir. Inertial dampers won’t disengage.”

“Can you manually reignite your afterburner?”

The pirate craft relentlessly pressed forward on the sensor readout, gaining on the sole straggler—Charlie One.

“No joy, sir.” Hawkins’s voice held an element of fear. “Attempting manual engine restart.”

A pregnant pause came over the commlink. Justin held his breath.

“Negative on manual restart. Shit, bandits are in energy-weapons—” A sudden burst of static was followed by nothingness.

“Charlie One, come in.” Justin let out a guttural roar as the blue icon disappeared from his HUD. That the rest of them were beyond the pirates’ reach should’ve been cause for celebration, but it felt like every emotion he had turned to ashes. Dammit.

“CSV Zvika Greengold actual to Captain Spencer. Come in.” Tehrani’s voice cut through Justin’s thoughts like a knife.

“This is Spencer, ma’am.”

“Execute emergency combat landing. All craft.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Justin set his jaw. He still had a job to do.

“Greengold actual out.”

Justin scanned his HUD and saw the green icons associated with the Hadley escape pods disappeared one by one near the Greengold. Good. One less problem for us to worry about. The next few minutes of flight time were about as uneventful as they could be with nineteen hostile fighters and a group of bombers chasing them. In the interim, Gamma and Beta elements landed on the flight deck.

At fifty kilometers out, the commlink came alive with the voice of the air boss, who had full control of launches and landings on the carrier. “Alpha One, this is the boss. How copy?”

“Alpha One to the boss. Read you loud and clear.”

“All remaining craft are cleared to land in Hangar A. Any available space.”

“Understood. Alpha One out.”

Justin toggled his commlink to the all-fighters channel while he scanned his HUD’s sensor readout. “Alpha One to all friendlies. You heard the boss. Set down on any available pad. I’ll stay outside and follow you in.”

“Don’t be a hero,” Feldstein interjected on a private channel. “Please. We’ve already lost enough today.”

As she spoke, Justin could’ve sworn he heard Hawkins’s voice calmly declaring an emergency again in his mind on a loop. He pushed it down. “Don’t worry. I’m landing the moment the rest of you have, so hurry it up.”

Sabre after Sabre entered the hangar as the pirates pressed onward. Two of the enemy heavy fighters, either feeling lucky or not well trained enough to understand the danger, approached the Greengold from the port side on a trajectory for an anti-ship missile launch. Unfortunately for them, the broad side arcs had the most point-defense capability on the vessel. Thousands of rapid-fire bolts of energy shot out from the carrier at the speed of light. While each bolt by itself was inconsequential and not incredibly accurate, the volume of fire more than made up for it.

Both pirate craft took numerous hits on their forward shields and tried to veer off. They were too far into the Greengold’s kill zone and blew apart one after the other. The result was enough to put some fear into the ones that remained. For the moment, they stayed out of range.

Determined to be the last one to land, Justin circled the Greengold. Her point-defense emplacements continued to blaze away into the void, keeping the pirate fighters at bay. The most critical threat to the carrier was the bombers, safely ensconced behind the fighter screen. Justin briefly considered trying to interdict them but saw no way that wasn’t suicide—well before reaching the target.

“Alpha Two to Alpha One. I’m down, sir.”

Justin checked his HUD, noting that he was finally the last craft in space. “Roger that, Alpha Two. I’m looping around for a combat landing.” He toggled his commlink channel to flight operations. “Alpha One to the boss. Request emergency docking clearance in hangar A.”

“Clearance granted, Alpha One. Emergency arrestor field two is charged.”

Justin had no time for the standard landing procedure. Instead, he flew