Sylvester
Vice Admiral
Hello, fellow Wingnuts.
So...almost nine years ago (15 July 2006), I started a fan fiction called "Chronicles of the Claw". Part of it is posted in the Fan Fiction Chat forum, but there hasn't been a post in there for over a year. I've recently revised and added a bit to the story, so I figured I'd post it here for some more visibility. If the admins want to move it, I have no issues - I'd just like your feedback. Our story begins on October 27th, 2655 (2655.300), 144 days before the Tiger's Claw is destroyed on February 25th, 2656 (2655.056). I figure there is a lot of story to tell there, and when I get to that fateful day, I'll make a decision on where to take the story from there. But, without further ado:
Wing Commander - Chronicles of the Claw
Part 1 - The Unseen Truth
Chapter 1
Dateline 2655.300
0642 Hours
Colonel Peter Halcyon’s Office
TCS Tiger’s Claw CV-07
Vega Sector - McDaniel’s World System
“Ah, Blair, come in.” Peter Halcyon said from his desk. “I have some good news for you Colonel. We’ve received intelligence reports from the Firekka, indicating that they were able to put up substantial enough resistance to force the Kilrathi to leave the planet.”
Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Blair, who went by the callsign Maverick, took a seat in front of Halcyon’s desk. The wing commander of the Tiger’s Claw, Halcyon had recently received a promotion nod and soon would be transferring to Confederation Tactical Command. But in the meantime, Chris was glad that Colonel Halcyon was remaining onboard. They would need him for the upcoming campaign. “That’s outstanding news sir. We can use all the allies we can get right now.”
“Very true Maverick. Unfortunately, the haste at which the Kilrathi have been sending ships back into the Vega sector to make up for the systems they abandoned to chase us down in Antares means that many systems are flooded with Kilrathi ships. We’re here in McDaniel’s World because Confleet Intel believes that the Kilrathi might have a Snakeir class carrier in the system. They want the Claw to take her out. I’m transferring you over to Star Slayer Squadron, you’ll be flying Raptors for the upcoming missions.” Halcyon explained.
“I understand sir. How much longer can we expect the Claw to be on the front?” Blair asked.
“No way to tell Blair, but I have been pressing High Command to send us to a system where some of the crew can take shore leave.” The Colonel replied. Blair had to admire how Halycon kept up with the stress. As well as being the Wing Commander, Halcyon had also served as Tiger’s Claw’s commanding officer since the Thor’s Hammer campaign six months earlier, only giving command of the ship back to Captain Thorn shortly before the Firekka campaign began.
“As long as we aren’t assigned as Diplomatic Corps Honor Guard again. That did not go well.” Chris replied.
“You’re telling me Blair.” Halcyon glanced at the chronometer on his desk. “Well, it’s almost time to being the briefing. Get your gear together and I’ll see you in the briefing room.” Halcyon said.
“Aye sir.” Blair rose from his seat and walked back into the corridor. He turned left, heading for the lift back down to the flight control level. He wished he could swing by Shotglass and get a good stiff drink but it wouldn’t look good on his fitness report if he was inebriated showing up to the briefing.
The lift ride was brief, descending down through the Tiger’s Claw’s conning tower and into the heart of the ship. He stepped off the lift and headed for the berths. As he strolled down the corridor, Maverick could take note of just how much punishment the Claw had received over the past year. The old carrier was looking in a more dilapidated state then she normally did. Wires were hanging from the ceiling, corridor lighting was out in some places and scuff marks littered the old wall panels, which probably hadn’t been replaced since Custer’s Carnival. Certain sections of the ship were still closed off, a testament to the battle damage the carrier had taken hauling ass out of Antares.
Chris walked through the doors into the pilot berthing area of the Claw. It was a long rectangular room with rows of bunks attached to a central ‘rail’ of sorts. Each bunk was adorned with a red mattress, many of them had torn corners or had suffered puncture wounds from all the years of pilots sleeping in their flight gear, the zippers slowly abrading the material. This rail was a long storage unit, with a rack of shelves that would rise up from behind the bed. Along the wall to his right was a row of lockers. There were twenty two lockers on the wall, each belonging to one of the pilots. This berthing area was one of five just like it scattered about the flight control deck. As Blair moved towards his locker, a high pitched voice called to him from the opposite door. “Hey Maverick, how ya doing?”
“Hello Maniac…” Blair said, observing First Lieutenant Todd “Maniac” Marshall jogging over. Marshall’s red hair almost seemed to complement his bloodshot eyes, a testament to just how crazy it had gotten for the young pilot.
“Did ya hear the news? I’ve finally been restored to permanent flight status.” Over the last six months, since the beginning of the Goddard campaign, Maniac had been in and out of sickbay, periodically taken off the flight roster for his almost, well, manic behavior. He started having dreams of flying his fighter into the Kilrathi dreadnought that destroyed Goddard. During the Firekka operation, Maniac had tried getting into a Raptor with just his pajamas on and the flight surgeon, Major Lowe, had immediately put him in the ship’s high security medical ward. He had flown briefly during the pullout through Charon but that was only because the Claw needed every available pilot, sane or otherwise. After five days out of the action, the doctors had apparently found evidence that he was well in the head enough to return to duty. “Maybe I’ll get to be you wingman eh?”
“Maybe…” Blair replied, removing his flight suit from his locker. No pilot with his senses about him ever wanted to fly with Maniac, but he had to go somewhere, and more often than not, it was flying wingman for Iceman. Major Michael Casey was the wearer of that cold moniker, and it seemed to Blair that it must have taken superhuman self-control to have stopped Casey from simply lighting Maniac up with a Javelin after he refused to follow orders and end there. “I assume you’re glad to be away from heavy combat for a week?” He asked.
“Yeah…” Maniac grinned sheepishly. “I’m sorry if I scared you guys there. I was a little nuts for a while.”
“I understand, just try and keep from pissing Iceman off too much today. There’s going to be a point where his patience runs out.” Blair replied. At that point, two short klaxon bursts sounded, indicating all pilots should report to the briefing room. Maverick finished putting on his flight suit. It consisted of a brown flight jacket, which seemed to hail from the days of Earth’s Second World War, complemented by denim colored pressure pants that locked into the shoes of the pilot. He grabbed his helmet from the locker, closed it, and walked with Maniac through two large double doors into the briefing room.
Colonel Halcyon was already at the podium. Blair moved down to the front row and took his usual spot between Iceman and Joseph Khumalo, who went by the callsign of Knight and had recently been promoted to Major. Maniac sat in the row behind them, between Captain Tanaka “Spirit” Mariko and 1st Lieutenant Hector “Grunt” Paz, a fiery Hispanic and former Repleetah marine who Blair had served with in the command academy program some years back.
“Everyone present?” Halcyon asked, and nods greeted him. “Allright, let’s begin.” The Colonel flipped a switch on his podium which changed the lighting in the briefing room to a low red. Behind him, a large viewscreen twelve feet across and about six feet high came to life. It displayed a navigation map indicating the Tiger’s Claw, and then four boxes which indicated navigation points. Areas outlined with gray and red lines indicated asteroid and mine fields on the chart. Off to the right hand side of the map listed basic mission details. This was Alpha Wing. “Allright, first to go is Alpha. That’s going to be Hunter and Skeleton. Your wing will sweep through these four nav points and report back to the Claw on what you find. Be advised that the Kilrathi may have more of their newer Hriss class heavy fighters operating in the system, so stay on watch for those ships. Any questions?”
“Aye Colonel.” Captain Ian “Hunter” St. John began, his gruff Australian accent filling the briefing room. “If we encounter any bleedin’ Kilrathi capital ships, what should we do with them.
“I’d recommend engaging anything up to a Ralari in size if you have the ordinance to do so, but if you encounter that Snakier, back off, and we’ll send a Broadsword wing to deal with it.” Hunter nodded, and Halcyon proceeded through the briefing. As he was detailing Bravo wings assignment, Blair caught the eye of Major Jeanette “Angel” Deveraux sitting a few seats down. Angel and Maverick had been spending some time together in the rec room over the past month, especially after the death of Kien Chen. It was the most emotional anyone had ever seen Angel, given her always professional attitude. At the conclusion of that operation, Angel had been promoted, and in a week, she would be leaving the Claw to take over as squadron commander on the TCS Austin, a Gettysburg class battlecruiser and the personal flagship of Rear Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn, who was Halcyon’s nominal superior.
Blair and Tolwyn had clashed a bit when Tolwyn had been a commodore instructing at command school but Blair had come out of it with respect for the man. Angel smiled, but then looked back at the screen, which made Blair retune into the briefing. The Colonel went through Beta, Gamma and Delta wings quickly enough, mostly patrol and interdiction missions.
“Next up is Epsilon Wing. That’s going to be Maniac and Iceman.” Halcyon began. Beside him, Blair could see Iceman tightly grasp the armrests. Maverick didn’t know what would crack first, Casey or the plastic. But through it all, Iceman retained a straight face. “You two are going to escort a Drayman heading out system carrying wounded marines from the Firekka operation and some other transferring personnel. Make sure it reaches the jump point for Beacon intact.”
“You got it sir.” Iceman replied, puzzled, as was Blair, as why Maniac didn’t have a smart-ass comment as he always did during the briefing.
“Oh, in addition, you two also get to do an operational test of one of our new light fighters, the Epee. It’s fast and has good shields for a ship its size. Armament consists of two laser cannons and four missiles.” Casey nodded in approval. It was well known that Iceman liked fast maneuverable ships, which was reason why he had been overly elated when the Scimitar had been retired last month.
“Okay, Theta wing. That is going to be Maverick and Knight.” Blair smiled slightly, most pilots enjoyed drawing Knight as their wingman, and Chris was no exception. “I want you to fly a three point patrol terminating at the Blytheheart jump point. It’s the only jump leading into this system from the direction of the Kilrathi advance, so if the Kilrathi have brought capital ships into the system, that is where they should be.” Halcyon looked back up at the rest of the pilots. “I will repeat what I said earlier - do not engage the Snakeir if you find her. I don’t want to lose any more pilots who want a Silver Star for gunning down a fleet carrier. Take recon data and call the Claw so we can send in a flight of Broadswords. The rest of you are in hot chairs for rotating CAP assignment. Dismissed.”
The lighting returned to normal tones and Blair rose from his seat. He looked over at Iceman. “Don’t worry Ice, maybe the docs have it right this time. Maybe Todd really is okay now.” Blair said sounding hopeful.
“Yeah…” Casey began as he saw Maniac move towards him smiling. “And maybe Knight will be selected as Miss Vega Quadrant at our next stop in McAuliffe.”
Knight smiled. “Hey, you never know, I am quite the charmer.” He grinned, walking back with Maverick to the briefing room door. Casey groaned softly and began lecturing Maniac for the hundredth time on why it’s a good idea to let your wingleader know what you are doing.
As the pilots headed for the flight deck, Grunt jogged up to Maverick and Knight. “I got fifty that Ice kills him before they even clear the ship.” Blair grinned and turned back towards Paz. “I’ll take that.”
Chapter 2
0718 Hours
Flight Deck
TCS Tiger’s Claw CV-07
The particular Raptor that Blair was going to be flying that day was new, recently ferried onto the Claw by a transport a few days earlier. The bulky heavy fighter was shining, its new paint carrying a polish that probably wouldn’t survive the mission. Missiles with red fins dotted its six hardpoints, and Maverick recognized the spherical shape of a Porcupine mine attached to the rear of the craft. All the markings and labels were easily readable, standing out in fluorescent yellow on top of the soft silver and green that was the standard fare for most Confederation fighter. It was in stark contrast to the majority of equipment on the flight deck. Most of the fighters had scorch marks dotting their dulled paint and small chinks in the armor were everywhere, gaps left by makeshift replacement armor that didn’t quite fit. Front line carriers rarely had enough replacement armor for an operation, so in more than a few cases, the new armor a pilot would find on his fighter for the morning mission was probably taken from a ship that had come back the previous day and was deemed unflyable.
As Chris moved around to the step ladder, he was greeted by the face of Master Chief Petty Officer Robert Lewis. Rusty, as the ship crew knew him, was the chief tech onboard the Tiger’s Claw, and usually welcomed home pilots by rolling up the stepladder himself and making a smart-ass comment about how badly the ship was damaged. “You going to bring back this new bird clean Colonel?” he asked with a grin.
“Of course Chief, do I ever let you down?” Blair asked, pulling himself up the ladder into the cockpit of the Raptor. Lewis just shook his head as Maverick closed the canopy of the fighter. The tech saluted, and Blair returned his salute. Once the pleasantries were out of the way, his fighter was pushed forward into one of the twelve launch tubes on the Claw. Each of the carrier ‘wings’ contained six tubes, which quickly hurled fighters away from the ship. Fighters could also take off using the ship’s long flight deck but that was usually reserved for larger craft and shuttles.
“Radio check. Maverick to Claw Control. Do you read?” Blair asked as the hatch was sealed behind his fighter. The magnetic accelerators in the tubes were already powered up, ready at a flip of a switch to pull his fighter down the tube.
“Maverick, we read your signal fine. Prepare for launch in ten seconds.” At this warning, Chris grabbed two handles on the side of his seat so that he wouldn’t accidentally touch the controls of the fighter. There was an automatic system built into the computer of the Raptor and other Confed fighters to prevent the ship from responding to control inputs while moving down the launch tube but the system periodically failed and a few pilots bought it when they slammed their fighters into the side of the tube during the acceleration phase. So it was standard procedure to remove your hands from the controls during launch.
“5…4…3…2…….launching.” He was slammed back into his seat as the Raptor traveled down the launch tube. The blast doors at the front opened as soon as the accelerator kicked in and his fighter was soon in open space. Maverick placed his hand on the control stick and brought the Raptor into a wide turn off the port side of the Tiger’s Claw.
“Maverick to Knight, all systems check. Ready to proceed to nav point one.” He said into the microphone.
“Copy that Maverick, standing by to engage autopilot on your mark.” Knight replied, his fighter taking up a position roughly three hundred meters behind Blair’s ship and slightly to Maverick’s right.
“Engage autopilot for Nav 1.” Chris ordered, flipping the switch to the right of his control stick. The computer brought the Raptor on course for its first steering point, some fifty-three thousand kilometers distant.
“So Maverick, you have a favorite for the Galactic Cricket Cup final? Sirius Prime versus Gainer’s World.” Knight asked as the two fighters cruised along.
“I’m surprised you had time to keep up with the tournament Joseph.” Blair thought for a moment. “Gainer’s World, just because I like picking underdogs to win.”
“I thought as much. It was just amazing that they made it to the final, especially with that win over Warsaw in the quarterfinals.”
“Well it probably will be a good match, if we’re ever off duty for long enough to actually watch it.” Maverick said with a chuckle. They were silent for a few moments longer, until Knight chimed in about their current mission.
“You think there is actually a Snakeir in this system? I mean, there are plenty of grey towns in Blytheheart. With all the smuggler traffic, you would have thought someone would spot a Kilrathi fleet carrier moving through the system.”
“You never know…” Blair began. “I’m sure the smugglers have no love lost for the Kilrathi but on the other hand, they wouldn’t mind if Confed’s presence was reduced in the immediate area.
Knight was about to reply when a beep issued from his console. The two Confederation fighters dropped out of autopilot. “Hold on Maverick, I have hostiles on my radar. Looks like four coming in from port.”
Maverick was seeing the same thing on his own radar. The computer had enough data to classify the contacts as hostile but it wasn’t close enough to tell what type of ship they were.
“Okay Knight. Go to max throttle, let’s move in and see what our Cat friends are up to.” Maverick replied, advancing the throttle lever up and bringing the Raptor to its maximum sustainable speed of 400 kps. He also toggled a switch under his left VDU, which selected full guns for the Raptor. A squeeze of the trigger would fire both the mass drivers and the neutron cannons of the fighter.
“Copy Maverick.” The hostiles were now less than ten thousand meters away, and the computer had identified them. “Ah lovely, I always enjoy a stack of pancakes in the morning.” Khumalo chuckled. He was referring to the common Confed nickname for the Dralthi class fighter. The ‘Flying Pancake’ as the ships had become known during the war, were the most common variety of Kilrathi fighter in service.
“Mark I or Mark II?” Maverick asked. The two variants were visually identical, the only difference being that the Mark II was armed with a pair of mass drivers instead of lasers. The way the computer identified it was by reading the power signatures of the ships. The Dralthis’ armed with mass drivers used more power.
“Mark I. Watch it, they’re splitting up.” Knight warned. The four fighter wing had split into pairs, each pair now making for one of the Confederation fighters.
“Break and attack, I’ll take the pair to port.” Maverick replied, tapping his afterburners and pulling the Raptor into a sliding starboard turn called a burnout. The ship’s momentum carried it parallel to the two Dralthi while his nose swiveled around to give him a shot on the enemy. Blair depressed the trigger, and balls of blue and silver emanated from his gun barrels, raking the shields of the two ships.
The engines now carried the fighter around the arc of the turn, and he was now behind the two Dralthi, who quickly pulled into a loop to get out of Maverick’s firing cone. As it performed the maneuver, one of the Dralthi pilots sent a taunt over the comm channels. “You pathetic descendants of monkeys!” came the shrill call over his headset.
This only made both Confederation pilots laugh. The Kilrathi were fierce warriors, but twenty years of war had done nothing to improve their taunting skills. Maverick flipped on the seeker for his Pilum friend or foe missile and loosed it as he pulled up into a roll. “Watch it Knight, I just loosed a friend-or-foe.”
“I just hope the techs repaired the comm system.” Knight said. Every so often, a FoF missile would acquire a Confed ship as its target because the radio on the fighter was damaged and not transmitting proper IFF codes.
The missile arced over to left, it had acquired a target. The particular Dralthi was attempting to turn back to lock a heatseaker on to Knight’s tail but this just brought it in front of the missile, which smacked into the forward shields of the ship, bringing them down. Fragments of the missile then peppered the forward armor, making small holes around the cockpit of the Dralthi.
Maverick pulled his own fighter around to concentrate on the lightly damaged Dralthi. The target in question was now surrounded by red brackets indicating that the targeting system had acquired it. Blair switched the system to lock mode, which made the brackets change into a box. He jinxed to avoid laser fire from the Kilrathi pilot and returned it in kind, sending a barrage into the weakened shields of the Dralthi. The first two salvos knocked down the already damaged shields. The second two made hard contact right above the cockpit of the Dralthi. The pilot didn’t have time to scream as his cockpit burst into flames. The fire quickly burned through into the power plant and the Dralthi exploded into multiple pieces.
“One down!” Blair called, pulling up on the control stick to avoid the debris. The wingman of the destroyed Kilrathi fighter swore over the comm system. “You can not defeat the Drakhai!” referring native Kilrathi term for their Imperial Guard. The Dralthi swarmed in behind Maverick on afterburner, letting loose two trails of laser bolts. They impacted the rear shields of the Raptor, red laser colliding with the blue hue of Confederation shielding. A red light started flashing on the shield display, indicating that his rear shields were close to failure.
Blair engaged his afterburners and attempted to do an Immelmann to shake loose the Kilrathi but the stubborn Dralthi maintained pursuit. Another Dralthi broke off engagement with Knight and joined with his companion. Mavericks fighter was caught in a crossfire and he soon heard the characteristic tones of laser fire knocking off pieces of his armor. “Knight, help me out here. The bastards are all over me!”
“One second Maverick, I’ll be right there.” The other Dralthi was on Knight’s tail, but that was by Khumalo’s own design. He pulled up into a half loop, flipped over and quickly dropped his Porcupine Mine. The Dralthi followed him into the maneuver, right into the waiting surprise. It promptly exploded upon contact, leaving Knight free to assist Blair.
Maverick continued to do snap rolls, pulling hard away from incoming Kilrathi fire. Whenever he had attempted to come around and fire on one of the Dralthi, the other started following him from the opposite direction. “Can’t shake em…”
“I got you covered buddy.” Knight replied, releasing a Spiculum IV Image Recognition missile from the undercarriage of his Raptor. The Spiculum was tuned to the image of one of the hostile Dralthi, and it bore in on the Kilrathi craft. The Dralthi attempted an evasive, which gave Maverick the room to pull out of the laser fire. The missile sailed wide of the Dralthi, which had a much sharper turning radius.
Maverick started firing again as the Dralthi came out of its turn. It was at this point that the Kilrathi pilot made his critical mistake. He pulled the Dralthi to port, attempting to avoid the fire. He didn’t realize however that the fast moving IR missile had finally completed its turn and was now a mere hundred meters in front of the ship. There was no room to try and turn out of its way. The purpose built electronic brain of the Spiculum tracked all the way into its target. The missile impacted in the center of the large starboard wing of the Dralthi, blowing it clear off. The crippled fighter flew on for a few more moments until its fuel tank exploded, vaporizing the Kilrathi ship.
The last Dralthi pilot came to the logical conclusion that the battle was a lost cause. He pulled away from the engagement and engaged his afterburners
“Let him go.” Maverick ordered. “We’ll just waste AB fuel trying to catch him. Resume course for nav one.”
“You got it Mav.” Knight replied. The two fighters resumed formation and once the Kilrathi fighter cleared their radar, engaged autopilot towards the first nav point.
“Well, the kats at least have a scouting force in the system. I’m going to radio the Claw and inform them of our encounter.” Blair noted. He tapped the flight console and contacted the carrier. “Theta Leader to Claw. We encountered a group of four Dralthi en-route to nav point one. Three enemy fighters destroyed, the fourth bugged out. We are now back on course for nav 1.”
“We copy Theta leader. Continue on your patrol and report if necessary. Claw out.” The communications channel clicked off and both pilots continued on silently towards the nav point.
Nav 1 was empty, save for the stray piece of debris that had been floating in the void for eternity. “Looks like nobody is home Maverick. Resetting nav computer for Nav 2, engage autopilot on your mark.”
“Engage autopilot for Nav 2.” Blair replied. The two Raptors began a turn to port and slightly above the galactic axis, towards the second steering point on their patrol. Nav point two was significantly closer than one had been, only twenty eight thousand kilometers away.
As they approached the nav point, Maverick clicked on the comm channel. “You picking up anything on radar?”
“Nothing, upcoming nav point appears to be clear, but we can’t be sure until we get to it. I would think we would find more activity if there was a fleet carrier in this system.”
“Yeah, but maybe they’re keeping their fighters close to hide their presence.” Maverick noted. The two Raptors passed through the second navigation point without incident either. Wherever the Kilrathi were, they didn’t want to reveal themselves to the pair of Terran Raptors.
“Empty…” Maverick said. “Allright, set course for the Blytheheart jump point. Let’s see if the kats are hanging around there.” He flipped the autopilot back on and the Raptor flew on towards the jump point, one of two ways out of the McDaniel’s World system. The other led back into the Beacon system and the Sol Sector.
It was at Blytheheart that the cats began to show their faces. As the two Raptors approached the jump point, the radar started to light up with new contacts. Ten contacts were indicated on his radar, nine of them red and one was orange. The orange blip indicated the presence of a Kilrathi capital ships.
“Whoa, we have company…” Blair observed. “Cut your engines and EM signature, I don’t want them to pick us up.” He retarded the throttles completely on the fighter and both Raptors came to a relative stop, although the constant rotation of the galaxy meant that the fighters were never truly at rest.
“I’m starting to get some readings now. The capital ship is a Fralthi, no doubt about it. The computer can’t pin down the class of the fighters but judging by the radar returns, it’s got to be either Krants or Grathas.”
“Allright, let’s make a subtle exit.” Chris said. “Set course back to the Tiger’s Claw, low cruise power so we don’t attract attention. We’ll contact the Claw as soon as we’re far enough away that they can’t pick up our signal.” The two fighters used their thrusters to turn around, and then engaged engines back towards the carrier. The Kilrathi units didn’t seem to indicate that they had spotted the two Confederation fighters as they observed them.
Once the two ships had exceeded twenty thousand meters of range, Blair and Knight increased throttle back to full power and Maverick contacted the Tiger’s Claw. “Theta Leader to Claw. We have sighted a Kilrathi Fralthi class cruiser and nine fighters at the Blytheheart jump point. No sign of enemy carrier in system.” he reported.
“Understood Maverick. Return to base and…” The transmission cut off for a moment. “Belay that Theta lead. We’re picking up a distress call from a civilian privateer in the system. They are under attack by three Kilrathi fighters. We’re sending you the navigation data. Proceed and assist them immediately. Claw out.” As the communication ended, his nav computer switched to the new location. “Okay Knight, let’s help em out. Engaging autopilot.”
“I just hope we get there on time.” Knight said softly, as the two fighters proceeded towards the engagement on afterburners. The two pilots picked up the privateer within thirty seconds of the initial call from the Tiger’s Claw. It was an Orion class light freighter, being pursued by three Salthi light fighters.
A static laced face appeared on the right VDU of Maverick’s console. “Attention Confederation craft. This is the Fairweather. Can you assist?” the freighter pilot asked.
“This is Lieutenant Colonel Blair of the Tiger’s Claw. We are engaging now.” Maverick said, observing the civilian vessel. The Orion class ship was making tight turns to avoid Kilrathi fire. It had a rear turret, which was peppering the Salthis with laser fire if they attempted to get behind the Orion. The ship had been damaged already. Coolant was streaming from its starboard engine and its hull was scorched all along the boxy neck of the cargo ship.
Knight and Maverick wasted no time getting into the fray. They moved in on afterburners, diving straight through the Kilrathi formation, breaking them up and for the moment postponing the firing on the Orion. One Salthi veered in front of Mavericks fire, and Blair quickly depressed the trigger. The energy weapons fire from the Raptor quickly depleted the shields of the light fighter, and then impacted the exposed engines of the Salthi. The neutron bolts and mass driver projectiles easily tore through the light metal covering of the engines and detonated the power plant. In one brief flash, the Salthi exploded.
Knight was occupied with a Salthi of his own, making it pull hard turns to port to avoid his energy weapons fire. Blair came around to get a bead on the third Salthi to cut it off but the Kilrathi fighter was already making a run on the Fairweather. He saw red fire issue from the twin laser cannons of the light fighter. Maverick tapped his afterburners, hoping to get within gun range before the Salthi did too much damage to the freighter.
The laser fire impacted the unshielded rear of the Orion, scoring the armor plating above the engines. The plating began to peel away and another engine on the Orion was knocked out. Finally in range of the Kilrathi ship, Chris pulled the trigger and fired his own energy weapons. The fire had the desired effect, making the Salthi break off its attack run before it could launch a dumbfire missile which could have destroyed the Orion.
As Blair followed the Kilrathi ship as it pulled away, he noticed one of the red dots on his radar display wink out. “Scratch one bogey” came Knight’s call over the comm system. The last Salthi now attempted to make a run for it, but Blair wouldn’t let that happen. He tapped the afterburners and pulled in behind the Salthi, which was about to hit its own burners to egress the area. A cross within a circle appeared on the targeting bracket overlaid on the Salthi on his heads-up display, indicating that one of his Raptor’s Javelin heat-seeker missiles was locked on. Maverick depressed the button on top of his control stick and pulled the trigger simultaneously.
The missile flew off the rail and tracked in on the heat signature of the Salthi’s engines. Heat seeking weapons were the earliest of guided munitions, and even though they had been around for seven hundred years, that didn’t make it any less effective. The Javelin hit the rear shield of the Salthi dead on. The explosion blew clear through the shields and enveloped the rear of the fighter. Shrapnel from the warhead pierced the fuel tanks and set them on fire. The Kilrathi pilot let out a guttural scream over the radio as his cockpit began to burn, mercifully terminated as the Salthi broke apart.
“What’s your status Knight?” Chris asked.
“No damage Maverick.” Khumalo replied as he took up escort position next to the damaged Orion. Blair maneuvered his own fighter alongside the Fairweather. The freighter’s pressure hull appeared to be intact, and it was limping along on its two remaining operational engines.
“Fairweather, what is your situation?” Blair asked.
The pilot of the Fairweather appeared on his screen once more. “Thank you for your assistance Colonel. I’m Trevor Portland, master of the Fairweather. Its good you arrived when you did, or we might have been slagged. We have damage to two engines, our shielding system, forward weapons and our jump drive is trashed. Damn cats were after us with a passion.
“Any idea why they would pursue a freighter so far from the jump point?” Blair asked.
Portland nodded earnestly. “Yes. I spotted their carrier on my run from Blytheheart. Sent a couple squadrons after me, those three and four of those Dralthi ships. I lost the Dralthi in the asteroids but those Salthi picked me up again.”
Blair was impressed with the freighter pilot, now they had a definite fix on the Kilrathi carrier, and could quickly move in to take it out before the Kilrathi got wise that the Tiger’s Claw knew where they were. “That is good news for us Mister Portland. We’re going to escort you to our carrier, you’re small enough to land on our flight deck. Hold while I contact my ship.” Blair switched channels and contacted the Tiger’s Claw. “Theta Leader to Claw. We’ve destroyed the Kilrathi pursuing the freighter and are escorting her back to the ship so she can land and make repairs. The pilot says he has the location of the Kilrathi carrier. I recommend recalling our patrols as not to tip off the Kilrathi.”
“Acknowledged Maverick, we’ll pass that along to the Colonel. You are cleared back to the carrier. Tiger’s Claw out.”
The Raptors flew on at roughly one hundred kps, the highest speed that the crippled Orion positioned between them could maintain. The Tiger’s Claw soon appeared on the radar, and it was not long before the carrier was visible through the viewport. Blair contacted the freighter as they lined up for approach. “Okay Fairweather. The Claw has ACLS, our automated landing system. Just contact them for landing clearance and approach the flight deck. Our ship will interface with the navigation computer on your ship and bring you in automatically.”
Portland nodded and turned the Fairweather in towards the front of the Tiger’s Claw. Blair monitored the landing frequency as the freighter approached the flight deck.
“Okay, we have you on approach, computer interfacing….damn. Your navigation computer is damaged. Can you land her manually?” The LSO asked. Blair sighed, things were never as easy as they could be.
“Yeah, I’ve landed on asteroid depots before and they were tighter than your flight deck. I’ll bring her in nice and slow.” Maverick chuckled as he observed the Fairweather glide down the flight deck of the Tiger’s Claw and into the hangar bay.
“Theta leader, the freighter is aboard. Line up for landing approach.” The LSO instructed. Blair made a turn to starboard and lined up his Raptor with the landing deck.
“Maverick requesting permission to land.”
“Permission granted Maverick, you are cleared to land.” The ride in for Chris’ fighter would take less effort, and the ACLS system brought his fighter in for a smooth landing. Knight was right behind him in the cycle and both fighters were towed over to the repair bay.
The cockpit slid back and Maverick hopped up out of his fighter. Rusty was already there with the stepladder and Chris looked over at the shot-up privateer vessel.
“We pulled that guy’s ass out of the fire. He’s going to repay us by letting us know where the Kilrathi carrier is.” Blair noted as he removed his flight gloves. Lewis just shook his head.
“Yeah, how is he going to repay me? I’ll have to use a bunch of spare parts to fix his piece of shit ship and it just means more work for me.” The tech replied, opening the fuel hatch on the Raptor. Blair just grinned as he walked away towards the hatch leading to flight control.
So...almost nine years ago (15 July 2006), I started a fan fiction called "Chronicles of the Claw". Part of it is posted in the Fan Fiction Chat forum, but there hasn't been a post in there for over a year. I've recently revised and added a bit to the story, so I figured I'd post it here for some more visibility. If the admins want to move it, I have no issues - I'd just like your feedback. Our story begins on October 27th, 2655 (2655.300), 144 days before the Tiger's Claw is destroyed on February 25th, 2656 (2655.056). I figure there is a lot of story to tell there, and when I get to that fateful day, I'll make a decision on where to take the story from there. But, without further ado:
Wing Commander - Chronicles of the Claw
Part 1 - The Unseen Truth
Chapter 1
Dateline 2655.300
0642 Hours
Colonel Peter Halcyon’s Office
TCS Tiger’s Claw CV-07
Vega Sector - McDaniel’s World System
“Ah, Blair, come in.” Peter Halcyon said from his desk. “I have some good news for you Colonel. We’ve received intelligence reports from the Firekka, indicating that they were able to put up substantial enough resistance to force the Kilrathi to leave the planet.”
Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Blair, who went by the callsign Maverick, took a seat in front of Halcyon’s desk. The wing commander of the Tiger’s Claw, Halcyon had recently received a promotion nod and soon would be transferring to Confederation Tactical Command. But in the meantime, Chris was glad that Colonel Halcyon was remaining onboard. They would need him for the upcoming campaign. “That’s outstanding news sir. We can use all the allies we can get right now.”
“Very true Maverick. Unfortunately, the haste at which the Kilrathi have been sending ships back into the Vega sector to make up for the systems they abandoned to chase us down in Antares means that many systems are flooded with Kilrathi ships. We’re here in McDaniel’s World because Confleet Intel believes that the Kilrathi might have a Snakeir class carrier in the system. They want the Claw to take her out. I’m transferring you over to Star Slayer Squadron, you’ll be flying Raptors for the upcoming missions.” Halcyon explained.
“I understand sir. How much longer can we expect the Claw to be on the front?” Blair asked.
“No way to tell Blair, but I have been pressing High Command to send us to a system where some of the crew can take shore leave.” The Colonel replied. Blair had to admire how Halycon kept up with the stress. As well as being the Wing Commander, Halcyon had also served as Tiger’s Claw’s commanding officer since the Thor’s Hammer campaign six months earlier, only giving command of the ship back to Captain Thorn shortly before the Firekka campaign began.
“As long as we aren’t assigned as Diplomatic Corps Honor Guard again. That did not go well.” Chris replied.
“You’re telling me Blair.” Halcyon glanced at the chronometer on his desk. “Well, it’s almost time to being the briefing. Get your gear together and I’ll see you in the briefing room.” Halcyon said.
“Aye sir.” Blair rose from his seat and walked back into the corridor. He turned left, heading for the lift back down to the flight control level. He wished he could swing by Shotglass and get a good stiff drink but it wouldn’t look good on his fitness report if he was inebriated showing up to the briefing.
The lift ride was brief, descending down through the Tiger’s Claw’s conning tower and into the heart of the ship. He stepped off the lift and headed for the berths. As he strolled down the corridor, Maverick could take note of just how much punishment the Claw had received over the past year. The old carrier was looking in a more dilapidated state then she normally did. Wires were hanging from the ceiling, corridor lighting was out in some places and scuff marks littered the old wall panels, which probably hadn’t been replaced since Custer’s Carnival. Certain sections of the ship were still closed off, a testament to the battle damage the carrier had taken hauling ass out of Antares.
Chris walked through the doors into the pilot berthing area of the Claw. It was a long rectangular room with rows of bunks attached to a central ‘rail’ of sorts. Each bunk was adorned with a red mattress, many of them had torn corners or had suffered puncture wounds from all the years of pilots sleeping in their flight gear, the zippers slowly abrading the material. This rail was a long storage unit, with a rack of shelves that would rise up from behind the bed. Along the wall to his right was a row of lockers. There were twenty two lockers on the wall, each belonging to one of the pilots. This berthing area was one of five just like it scattered about the flight control deck. As Blair moved towards his locker, a high pitched voice called to him from the opposite door. “Hey Maverick, how ya doing?”
“Hello Maniac…” Blair said, observing First Lieutenant Todd “Maniac” Marshall jogging over. Marshall’s red hair almost seemed to complement his bloodshot eyes, a testament to just how crazy it had gotten for the young pilot.
“Did ya hear the news? I’ve finally been restored to permanent flight status.” Over the last six months, since the beginning of the Goddard campaign, Maniac had been in and out of sickbay, periodically taken off the flight roster for his almost, well, manic behavior. He started having dreams of flying his fighter into the Kilrathi dreadnought that destroyed Goddard. During the Firekka operation, Maniac had tried getting into a Raptor with just his pajamas on and the flight surgeon, Major Lowe, had immediately put him in the ship’s high security medical ward. He had flown briefly during the pullout through Charon but that was only because the Claw needed every available pilot, sane or otherwise. After five days out of the action, the doctors had apparently found evidence that he was well in the head enough to return to duty. “Maybe I’ll get to be you wingman eh?”
“Maybe…” Blair replied, removing his flight suit from his locker. No pilot with his senses about him ever wanted to fly with Maniac, but he had to go somewhere, and more often than not, it was flying wingman for Iceman. Major Michael Casey was the wearer of that cold moniker, and it seemed to Blair that it must have taken superhuman self-control to have stopped Casey from simply lighting Maniac up with a Javelin after he refused to follow orders and end there. “I assume you’re glad to be away from heavy combat for a week?” He asked.
“Yeah…” Maniac grinned sheepishly. “I’m sorry if I scared you guys there. I was a little nuts for a while.”
“I understand, just try and keep from pissing Iceman off too much today. There’s going to be a point where his patience runs out.” Blair replied. At that point, two short klaxon bursts sounded, indicating all pilots should report to the briefing room. Maverick finished putting on his flight suit. It consisted of a brown flight jacket, which seemed to hail from the days of Earth’s Second World War, complemented by denim colored pressure pants that locked into the shoes of the pilot. He grabbed his helmet from the locker, closed it, and walked with Maniac through two large double doors into the briefing room.
Colonel Halcyon was already at the podium. Blair moved down to the front row and took his usual spot between Iceman and Joseph Khumalo, who went by the callsign of Knight and had recently been promoted to Major. Maniac sat in the row behind them, between Captain Tanaka “Spirit” Mariko and 1st Lieutenant Hector “Grunt” Paz, a fiery Hispanic and former Repleetah marine who Blair had served with in the command academy program some years back.
“Everyone present?” Halcyon asked, and nods greeted him. “Allright, let’s begin.” The Colonel flipped a switch on his podium which changed the lighting in the briefing room to a low red. Behind him, a large viewscreen twelve feet across and about six feet high came to life. It displayed a navigation map indicating the Tiger’s Claw, and then four boxes which indicated navigation points. Areas outlined with gray and red lines indicated asteroid and mine fields on the chart. Off to the right hand side of the map listed basic mission details. This was Alpha Wing. “Allright, first to go is Alpha. That’s going to be Hunter and Skeleton. Your wing will sweep through these four nav points and report back to the Claw on what you find. Be advised that the Kilrathi may have more of their newer Hriss class heavy fighters operating in the system, so stay on watch for those ships. Any questions?”
“Aye Colonel.” Captain Ian “Hunter” St. John began, his gruff Australian accent filling the briefing room. “If we encounter any bleedin’ Kilrathi capital ships, what should we do with them.
“I’d recommend engaging anything up to a Ralari in size if you have the ordinance to do so, but if you encounter that Snakier, back off, and we’ll send a Broadsword wing to deal with it.” Hunter nodded, and Halcyon proceeded through the briefing. As he was detailing Bravo wings assignment, Blair caught the eye of Major Jeanette “Angel” Deveraux sitting a few seats down. Angel and Maverick had been spending some time together in the rec room over the past month, especially after the death of Kien Chen. It was the most emotional anyone had ever seen Angel, given her always professional attitude. At the conclusion of that operation, Angel had been promoted, and in a week, she would be leaving the Claw to take over as squadron commander on the TCS Austin, a Gettysburg class battlecruiser and the personal flagship of Rear Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn, who was Halcyon’s nominal superior.
Blair and Tolwyn had clashed a bit when Tolwyn had been a commodore instructing at command school but Blair had come out of it with respect for the man. Angel smiled, but then looked back at the screen, which made Blair retune into the briefing. The Colonel went through Beta, Gamma and Delta wings quickly enough, mostly patrol and interdiction missions.
“Next up is Epsilon Wing. That’s going to be Maniac and Iceman.” Halcyon began. Beside him, Blair could see Iceman tightly grasp the armrests. Maverick didn’t know what would crack first, Casey or the plastic. But through it all, Iceman retained a straight face. “You two are going to escort a Drayman heading out system carrying wounded marines from the Firekka operation and some other transferring personnel. Make sure it reaches the jump point for Beacon intact.”
“You got it sir.” Iceman replied, puzzled, as was Blair, as why Maniac didn’t have a smart-ass comment as he always did during the briefing.
“Oh, in addition, you two also get to do an operational test of one of our new light fighters, the Epee. It’s fast and has good shields for a ship its size. Armament consists of two laser cannons and four missiles.” Casey nodded in approval. It was well known that Iceman liked fast maneuverable ships, which was reason why he had been overly elated when the Scimitar had been retired last month.
“Okay, Theta wing. That is going to be Maverick and Knight.” Blair smiled slightly, most pilots enjoyed drawing Knight as their wingman, and Chris was no exception. “I want you to fly a three point patrol terminating at the Blytheheart jump point. It’s the only jump leading into this system from the direction of the Kilrathi advance, so if the Kilrathi have brought capital ships into the system, that is where they should be.” Halcyon looked back up at the rest of the pilots. “I will repeat what I said earlier - do not engage the Snakeir if you find her. I don’t want to lose any more pilots who want a Silver Star for gunning down a fleet carrier. Take recon data and call the Claw so we can send in a flight of Broadswords. The rest of you are in hot chairs for rotating CAP assignment. Dismissed.”
The lighting returned to normal tones and Blair rose from his seat. He looked over at Iceman. “Don’t worry Ice, maybe the docs have it right this time. Maybe Todd really is okay now.” Blair said sounding hopeful.
“Yeah…” Casey began as he saw Maniac move towards him smiling. “And maybe Knight will be selected as Miss Vega Quadrant at our next stop in McAuliffe.”
Knight smiled. “Hey, you never know, I am quite the charmer.” He grinned, walking back with Maverick to the briefing room door. Casey groaned softly and began lecturing Maniac for the hundredth time on why it’s a good idea to let your wingleader know what you are doing.
As the pilots headed for the flight deck, Grunt jogged up to Maverick and Knight. “I got fifty that Ice kills him before they even clear the ship.” Blair grinned and turned back towards Paz. “I’ll take that.”
Chapter 2
0718 Hours
Flight Deck
TCS Tiger’s Claw CV-07
The particular Raptor that Blair was going to be flying that day was new, recently ferried onto the Claw by a transport a few days earlier. The bulky heavy fighter was shining, its new paint carrying a polish that probably wouldn’t survive the mission. Missiles with red fins dotted its six hardpoints, and Maverick recognized the spherical shape of a Porcupine mine attached to the rear of the craft. All the markings and labels were easily readable, standing out in fluorescent yellow on top of the soft silver and green that was the standard fare for most Confederation fighter. It was in stark contrast to the majority of equipment on the flight deck. Most of the fighters had scorch marks dotting their dulled paint and small chinks in the armor were everywhere, gaps left by makeshift replacement armor that didn’t quite fit. Front line carriers rarely had enough replacement armor for an operation, so in more than a few cases, the new armor a pilot would find on his fighter for the morning mission was probably taken from a ship that had come back the previous day and was deemed unflyable.
As Chris moved around to the step ladder, he was greeted by the face of Master Chief Petty Officer Robert Lewis. Rusty, as the ship crew knew him, was the chief tech onboard the Tiger’s Claw, and usually welcomed home pilots by rolling up the stepladder himself and making a smart-ass comment about how badly the ship was damaged. “You going to bring back this new bird clean Colonel?” he asked with a grin.
“Of course Chief, do I ever let you down?” Blair asked, pulling himself up the ladder into the cockpit of the Raptor. Lewis just shook his head as Maverick closed the canopy of the fighter. The tech saluted, and Blair returned his salute. Once the pleasantries were out of the way, his fighter was pushed forward into one of the twelve launch tubes on the Claw. Each of the carrier ‘wings’ contained six tubes, which quickly hurled fighters away from the ship. Fighters could also take off using the ship’s long flight deck but that was usually reserved for larger craft and shuttles.
“Radio check. Maverick to Claw Control. Do you read?” Blair asked as the hatch was sealed behind his fighter. The magnetic accelerators in the tubes were already powered up, ready at a flip of a switch to pull his fighter down the tube.
“Maverick, we read your signal fine. Prepare for launch in ten seconds.” At this warning, Chris grabbed two handles on the side of his seat so that he wouldn’t accidentally touch the controls of the fighter. There was an automatic system built into the computer of the Raptor and other Confed fighters to prevent the ship from responding to control inputs while moving down the launch tube but the system periodically failed and a few pilots bought it when they slammed their fighters into the side of the tube during the acceleration phase. So it was standard procedure to remove your hands from the controls during launch.
“5…4…3…2…….launching.” He was slammed back into his seat as the Raptor traveled down the launch tube. The blast doors at the front opened as soon as the accelerator kicked in and his fighter was soon in open space. Maverick placed his hand on the control stick and brought the Raptor into a wide turn off the port side of the Tiger’s Claw.
“Maverick to Knight, all systems check. Ready to proceed to nav point one.” He said into the microphone.
“Copy that Maverick, standing by to engage autopilot on your mark.” Knight replied, his fighter taking up a position roughly three hundred meters behind Blair’s ship and slightly to Maverick’s right.
“Engage autopilot for Nav 1.” Chris ordered, flipping the switch to the right of his control stick. The computer brought the Raptor on course for its first steering point, some fifty-three thousand kilometers distant.
“So Maverick, you have a favorite for the Galactic Cricket Cup final? Sirius Prime versus Gainer’s World.” Knight asked as the two fighters cruised along.
“I’m surprised you had time to keep up with the tournament Joseph.” Blair thought for a moment. “Gainer’s World, just because I like picking underdogs to win.”
“I thought as much. It was just amazing that they made it to the final, especially with that win over Warsaw in the quarterfinals.”
“Well it probably will be a good match, if we’re ever off duty for long enough to actually watch it.” Maverick said with a chuckle. They were silent for a few moments longer, until Knight chimed in about their current mission.
“You think there is actually a Snakeir in this system? I mean, there are plenty of grey towns in Blytheheart. With all the smuggler traffic, you would have thought someone would spot a Kilrathi fleet carrier moving through the system.”
“You never know…” Blair began. “I’m sure the smugglers have no love lost for the Kilrathi but on the other hand, they wouldn’t mind if Confed’s presence was reduced in the immediate area.
Knight was about to reply when a beep issued from his console. The two Confederation fighters dropped out of autopilot. “Hold on Maverick, I have hostiles on my radar. Looks like four coming in from port.”
Maverick was seeing the same thing on his own radar. The computer had enough data to classify the contacts as hostile but it wasn’t close enough to tell what type of ship they were.
“Okay Knight. Go to max throttle, let’s move in and see what our Cat friends are up to.” Maverick replied, advancing the throttle lever up and bringing the Raptor to its maximum sustainable speed of 400 kps. He also toggled a switch under his left VDU, which selected full guns for the Raptor. A squeeze of the trigger would fire both the mass drivers and the neutron cannons of the fighter.
“Copy Maverick.” The hostiles were now less than ten thousand meters away, and the computer had identified them. “Ah lovely, I always enjoy a stack of pancakes in the morning.” Khumalo chuckled. He was referring to the common Confed nickname for the Dralthi class fighter. The ‘Flying Pancake’ as the ships had become known during the war, were the most common variety of Kilrathi fighter in service.
“Mark I or Mark II?” Maverick asked. The two variants were visually identical, the only difference being that the Mark II was armed with a pair of mass drivers instead of lasers. The way the computer identified it was by reading the power signatures of the ships. The Dralthis’ armed with mass drivers used more power.
“Mark I. Watch it, they’re splitting up.” Knight warned. The four fighter wing had split into pairs, each pair now making for one of the Confederation fighters.
“Break and attack, I’ll take the pair to port.” Maverick replied, tapping his afterburners and pulling the Raptor into a sliding starboard turn called a burnout. The ship’s momentum carried it parallel to the two Dralthi while his nose swiveled around to give him a shot on the enemy. Blair depressed the trigger, and balls of blue and silver emanated from his gun barrels, raking the shields of the two ships.
The engines now carried the fighter around the arc of the turn, and he was now behind the two Dralthi, who quickly pulled into a loop to get out of Maverick’s firing cone. As it performed the maneuver, one of the Dralthi pilots sent a taunt over the comm channels. “You pathetic descendants of monkeys!” came the shrill call over his headset.
This only made both Confederation pilots laugh. The Kilrathi were fierce warriors, but twenty years of war had done nothing to improve their taunting skills. Maverick flipped on the seeker for his Pilum friend or foe missile and loosed it as he pulled up into a roll. “Watch it Knight, I just loosed a friend-or-foe.”
“I just hope the techs repaired the comm system.” Knight said. Every so often, a FoF missile would acquire a Confed ship as its target because the radio on the fighter was damaged and not transmitting proper IFF codes.
The missile arced over to left, it had acquired a target. The particular Dralthi was attempting to turn back to lock a heatseaker on to Knight’s tail but this just brought it in front of the missile, which smacked into the forward shields of the ship, bringing them down. Fragments of the missile then peppered the forward armor, making small holes around the cockpit of the Dralthi.
Maverick pulled his own fighter around to concentrate on the lightly damaged Dralthi. The target in question was now surrounded by red brackets indicating that the targeting system had acquired it. Blair switched the system to lock mode, which made the brackets change into a box. He jinxed to avoid laser fire from the Kilrathi pilot and returned it in kind, sending a barrage into the weakened shields of the Dralthi. The first two salvos knocked down the already damaged shields. The second two made hard contact right above the cockpit of the Dralthi. The pilot didn’t have time to scream as his cockpit burst into flames. The fire quickly burned through into the power plant and the Dralthi exploded into multiple pieces.
“One down!” Blair called, pulling up on the control stick to avoid the debris. The wingman of the destroyed Kilrathi fighter swore over the comm system. “You can not defeat the Drakhai!” referring native Kilrathi term for their Imperial Guard. The Dralthi swarmed in behind Maverick on afterburner, letting loose two trails of laser bolts. They impacted the rear shields of the Raptor, red laser colliding with the blue hue of Confederation shielding. A red light started flashing on the shield display, indicating that his rear shields were close to failure.
Blair engaged his afterburners and attempted to do an Immelmann to shake loose the Kilrathi but the stubborn Dralthi maintained pursuit. Another Dralthi broke off engagement with Knight and joined with his companion. Mavericks fighter was caught in a crossfire and he soon heard the characteristic tones of laser fire knocking off pieces of his armor. “Knight, help me out here. The bastards are all over me!”
“One second Maverick, I’ll be right there.” The other Dralthi was on Knight’s tail, but that was by Khumalo’s own design. He pulled up into a half loop, flipped over and quickly dropped his Porcupine Mine. The Dralthi followed him into the maneuver, right into the waiting surprise. It promptly exploded upon contact, leaving Knight free to assist Blair.
Maverick continued to do snap rolls, pulling hard away from incoming Kilrathi fire. Whenever he had attempted to come around and fire on one of the Dralthi, the other started following him from the opposite direction. “Can’t shake em…”
“I got you covered buddy.” Knight replied, releasing a Spiculum IV Image Recognition missile from the undercarriage of his Raptor. The Spiculum was tuned to the image of one of the hostile Dralthi, and it bore in on the Kilrathi craft. The Dralthi attempted an evasive, which gave Maverick the room to pull out of the laser fire. The missile sailed wide of the Dralthi, which had a much sharper turning radius.
Maverick started firing again as the Dralthi came out of its turn. It was at this point that the Kilrathi pilot made his critical mistake. He pulled the Dralthi to port, attempting to avoid the fire. He didn’t realize however that the fast moving IR missile had finally completed its turn and was now a mere hundred meters in front of the ship. There was no room to try and turn out of its way. The purpose built electronic brain of the Spiculum tracked all the way into its target. The missile impacted in the center of the large starboard wing of the Dralthi, blowing it clear off. The crippled fighter flew on for a few more moments until its fuel tank exploded, vaporizing the Kilrathi ship.
The last Dralthi pilot came to the logical conclusion that the battle was a lost cause. He pulled away from the engagement and engaged his afterburners
“Let him go.” Maverick ordered. “We’ll just waste AB fuel trying to catch him. Resume course for nav one.”
“You got it Mav.” Knight replied. The two fighters resumed formation and once the Kilrathi fighter cleared their radar, engaged autopilot towards the first nav point.
“Well, the kats at least have a scouting force in the system. I’m going to radio the Claw and inform them of our encounter.” Blair noted. He tapped the flight console and contacted the carrier. “Theta Leader to Claw. We encountered a group of four Dralthi en-route to nav point one. Three enemy fighters destroyed, the fourth bugged out. We are now back on course for nav 1.”
“We copy Theta leader. Continue on your patrol and report if necessary. Claw out.” The communications channel clicked off and both pilots continued on silently towards the nav point.
Nav 1 was empty, save for the stray piece of debris that had been floating in the void for eternity. “Looks like nobody is home Maverick. Resetting nav computer for Nav 2, engage autopilot on your mark.”
“Engage autopilot for Nav 2.” Blair replied. The two Raptors began a turn to port and slightly above the galactic axis, towards the second steering point on their patrol. Nav point two was significantly closer than one had been, only twenty eight thousand kilometers away.
As they approached the nav point, Maverick clicked on the comm channel. “You picking up anything on radar?”
“Nothing, upcoming nav point appears to be clear, but we can’t be sure until we get to it. I would think we would find more activity if there was a fleet carrier in this system.”
“Yeah, but maybe they’re keeping their fighters close to hide their presence.” Maverick noted. The two Raptors passed through the second navigation point without incident either. Wherever the Kilrathi were, they didn’t want to reveal themselves to the pair of Terran Raptors.
“Empty…” Maverick said. “Allright, set course for the Blytheheart jump point. Let’s see if the kats are hanging around there.” He flipped the autopilot back on and the Raptor flew on towards the jump point, one of two ways out of the McDaniel’s World system. The other led back into the Beacon system and the Sol Sector.
It was at Blytheheart that the cats began to show their faces. As the two Raptors approached the jump point, the radar started to light up with new contacts. Ten contacts were indicated on his radar, nine of them red and one was orange. The orange blip indicated the presence of a Kilrathi capital ships.
“Whoa, we have company…” Blair observed. “Cut your engines and EM signature, I don’t want them to pick us up.” He retarded the throttles completely on the fighter and both Raptors came to a relative stop, although the constant rotation of the galaxy meant that the fighters were never truly at rest.
“I’m starting to get some readings now. The capital ship is a Fralthi, no doubt about it. The computer can’t pin down the class of the fighters but judging by the radar returns, it’s got to be either Krants or Grathas.”
“Allright, let’s make a subtle exit.” Chris said. “Set course back to the Tiger’s Claw, low cruise power so we don’t attract attention. We’ll contact the Claw as soon as we’re far enough away that they can’t pick up our signal.” The two fighters used their thrusters to turn around, and then engaged engines back towards the carrier. The Kilrathi units didn’t seem to indicate that they had spotted the two Confederation fighters as they observed them.
Once the two ships had exceeded twenty thousand meters of range, Blair and Knight increased throttle back to full power and Maverick contacted the Tiger’s Claw. “Theta Leader to Claw. We have sighted a Kilrathi Fralthi class cruiser and nine fighters at the Blytheheart jump point. No sign of enemy carrier in system.” he reported.
“Understood Maverick. Return to base and…” The transmission cut off for a moment. “Belay that Theta lead. We’re picking up a distress call from a civilian privateer in the system. They are under attack by three Kilrathi fighters. We’re sending you the navigation data. Proceed and assist them immediately. Claw out.” As the communication ended, his nav computer switched to the new location. “Okay Knight, let’s help em out. Engaging autopilot.”
“I just hope we get there on time.” Knight said softly, as the two fighters proceeded towards the engagement on afterburners. The two pilots picked up the privateer within thirty seconds of the initial call from the Tiger’s Claw. It was an Orion class light freighter, being pursued by three Salthi light fighters.
A static laced face appeared on the right VDU of Maverick’s console. “Attention Confederation craft. This is the Fairweather. Can you assist?” the freighter pilot asked.
“This is Lieutenant Colonel Blair of the Tiger’s Claw. We are engaging now.” Maverick said, observing the civilian vessel. The Orion class ship was making tight turns to avoid Kilrathi fire. It had a rear turret, which was peppering the Salthis with laser fire if they attempted to get behind the Orion. The ship had been damaged already. Coolant was streaming from its starboard engine and its hull was scorched all along the boxy neck of the cargo ship.
Knight and Maverick wasted no time getting into the fray. They moved in on afterburners, diving straight through the Kilrathi formation, breaking them up and for the moment postponing the firing on the Orion. One Salthi veered in front of Mavericks fire, and Blair quickly depressed the trigger. The energy weapons fire from the Raptor quickly depleted the shields of the light fighter, and then impacted the exposed engines of the Salthi. The neutron bolts and mass driver projectiles easily tore through the light metal covering of the engines and detonated the power plant. In one brief flash, the Salthi exploded.
Knight was occupied with a Salthi of his own, making it pull hard turns to port to avoid his energy weapons fire. Blair came around to get a bead on the third Salthi to cut it off but the Kilrathi fighter was already making a run on the Fairweather. He saw red fire issue from the twin laser cannons of the light fighter. Maverick tapped his afterburners, hoping to get within gun range before the Salthi did too much damage to the freighter.
The laser fire impacted the unshielded rear of the Orion, scoring the armor plating above the engines. The plating began to peel away and another engine on the Orion was knocked out. Finally in range of the Kilrathi ship, Chris pulled the trigger and fired his own energy weapons. The fire had the desired effect, making the Salthi break off its attack run before it could launch a dumbfire missile which could have destroyed the Orion.
As Blair followed the Kilrathi ship as it pulled away, he noticed one of the red dots on his radar display wink out. “Scratch one bogey” came Knight’s call over the comm system. The last Salthi now attempted to make a run for it, but Blair wouldn’t let that happen. He tapped the afterburners and pulled in behind the Salthi, which was about to hit its own burners to egress the area. A cross within a circle appeared on the targeting bracket overlaid on the Salthi on his heads-up display, indicating that one of his Raptor’s Javelin heat-seeker missiles was locked on. Maverick depressed the button on top of his control stick and pulled the trigger simultaneously.
The missile flew off the rail and tracked in on the heat signature of the Salthi’s engines. Heat seeking weapons were the earliest of guided munitions, and even though they had been around for seven hundred years, that didn’t make it any less effective. The Javelin hit the rear shield of the Salthi dead on. The explosion blew clear through the shields and enveloped the rear of the fighter. Shrapnel from the warhead pierced the fuel tanks and set them on fire. The Kilrathi pilot let out a guttural scream over the radio as his cockpit began to burn, mercifully terminated as the Salthi broke apart.
“What’s your status Knight?” Chris asked.
“No damage Maverick.” Khumalo replied as he took up escort position next to the damaged Orion. Blair maneuvered his own fighter alongside the Fairweather. The freighter’s pressure hull appeared to be intact, and it was limping along on its two remaining operational engines.
“Fairweather, what is your situation?” Blair asked.
The pilot of the Fairweather appeared on his screen once more. “Thank you for your assistance Colonel. I’m Trevor Portland, master of the Fairweather. Its good you arrived when you did, or we might have been slagged. We have damage to two engines, our shielding system, forward weapons and our jump drive is trashed. Damn cats were after us with a passion.
“Any idea why they would pursue a freighter so far from the jump point?” Blair asked.
Portland nodded earnestly. “Yes. I spotted their carrier on my run from Blytheheart. Sent a couple squadrons after me, those three and four of those Dralthi ships. I lost the Dralthi in the asteroids but those Salthi picked me up again.”
Blair was impressed with the freighter pilot, now they had a definite fix on the Kilrathi carrier, and could quickly move in to take it out before the Kilrathi got wise that the Tiger’s Claw knew where they were. “That is good news for us Mister Portland. We’re going to escort you to our carrier, you’re small enough to land on our flight deck. Hold while I contact my ship.” Blair switched channels and contacted the Tiger’s Claw. “Theta Leader to Claw. We’ve destroyed the Kilrathi pursuing the freighter and are escorting her back to the ship so she can land and make repairs. The pilot says he has the location of the Kilrathi carrier. I recommend recalling our patrols as not to tip off the Kilrathi.”
“Acknowledged Maverick, we’ll pass that along to the Colonel. You are cleared back to the carrier. Tiger’s Claw out.”
The Raptors flew on at roughly one hundred kps, the highest speed that the crippled Orion positioned between them could maintain. The Tiger’s Claw soon appeared on the radar, and it was not long before the carrier was visible through the viewport. Blair contacted the freighter as they lined up for approach. “Okay Fairweather. The Claw has ACLS, our automated landing system. Just contact them for landing clearance and approach the flight deck. Our ship will interface with the navigation computer on your ship and bring you in automatically.”
Portland nodded and turned the Fairweather in towards the front of the Tiger’s Claw. Blair monitored the landing frequency as the freighter approached the flight deck.
“Okay, we have you on approach, computer interfacing….damn. Your navigation computer is damaged. Can you land her manually?” The LSO asked. Blair sighed, things were never as easy as they could be.
“Yeah, I’ve landed on asteroid depots before and they were tighter than your flight deck. I’ll bring her in nice and slow.” Maverick chuckled as he observed the Fairweather glide down the flight deck of the Tiger’s Claw and into the hangar bay.
“Theta leader, the freighter is aboard. Line up for landing approach.” The LSO instructed. Blair made a turn to starboard and lined up his Raptor with the landing deck.
“Maverick requesting permission to land.”
“Permission granted Maverick, you are cleared to land.” The ride in for Chris’ fighter would take less effort, and the ACLS system brought his fighter in for a smooth landing. Knight was right behind him in the cycle and both fighters were towed over to the repair bay.
The cockpit slid back and Maverick hopped up out of his fighter. Rusty was already there with the stepladder and Chris looked over at the shot-up privateer vessel.
“We pulled that guy’s ass out of the fire. He’s going to repay us by letting us know where the Kilrathi carrier is.” Blair noted as he removed his flight gloves. Lewis just shook his head.
“Yeah, how is he going to repay me? I’ll have to use a bunch of spare parts to fix his piece of shit ship and it just means more work for me.” The tech replied, opening the fuel hatch on the Raptor. Blair just grinned as he walked away towards the hatch leading to flight control.