Faith & Empire: Book One of The Holy Terran Empire

5. Boots On The Ground

The details were all but lost, blurred by the explosions of torpedoes, the bursts and blasts of plasma and laser bolts burning against shields and hulls. Our fleet's combat computer's running tally scrolling across the bottom of our faceplates assured us that the pirates were suffering the majority of the losses.

Once past each other, the swarms banked into turns, the Angels splitting into two groups. The Lepanto's Angels were quick to turn back towards the enemy. The King Alfred's fighters banked into a much wider arc, leaving them further away from the pirates. The longer route back would allow them the time to hit the enemy horde with fully recharged plasma cannons. With the rival fighter groups separated, the King Alfred turned her guns on the pirate horde, destroying another score of the enemy's ships.

The Lepanto's Angels chose to forego their cannons for a more immediate, second strike. They charged the enemy swarm in a tight, three fighter-wide, column formation. The column of Imperial fighters undulated in its approach, the rising and falling of each trio of Angels perfectly coordinated by their combat computers to allow each ship to fire their lasers in a continuous stream.

One pirate fighter after another was destroyed by such concentrated fire. All the while, fire from our frigate and carrier batteries continued to take out additional enemy fighters as the Angels charged the pirate swarm.

The Lepanto's Angels tightened their formation as they approached. From straight, wingtip-to-wingtip lines, our fighters clustered into triangles, each trio of Angels flying close enough to overlap shields, amplifying their power. In an impressive display of precision flying, the combat computer would drop the lead triangle of Angels from point position after absorbing four or five torpedo strikes, slide them to the rear where they could recharge their shields and advance the next trio of fighters to fly point defense for the entire column.

We watched the column cycle through seven sets of trios, safely absorbing dozens of torpedo strikes, before it finally lanced the enemy swarm.

Only one Angel was lost to collision as most of the pirates, having grown suddenly skittish, gave them a wide berth. Once through the swarm, the Angels split into their remaining wing groups and did as much damage as they could from the outside. The pirates lost fifteen fighters in the exchange. We lost four, or rather, three and a half counting the pilot that was able to eject from his Angel before it plummeted to the planet like a falling star.

We sent prayers his way when we heard his mayday call.

The King Alfred dispatched a Spontoon to the rescue.

The pirate horde was quickly losing discipline. Their attacks on the King Alfred and her escorts ceased as all of their attention was concentrated on defending themselves against our Angels. They were beginning to disperse when another fusillade of missiles from the second wave of Angels fell upon them. Eleven were destroyed by the barrage. Another two-dozen burst into shrapnel when the King Alfred's Angels hit them like a wall, plasma cannons firing at close range.

The pirate fighters lost all cohesion. They turned tail and retreated towards Muvuru-3, spreading out as they did. The Angels pursued them. The two swarms broke up into small clusters and pairs of fighters, wildly flitting about the upper atmosphere in scores of dog fights.

This was the sort of fighter combat that pitted pilot against pilot, forcing them to rely on their wits, reflexes and training rather than their computers. The Imperial fighters had the better hand here as well. They slowly but steadily whittled down the enemy's numbers, driving them further and further from us.

"Lieutenant, let's get more eyes to the far side of the planet," Captain Devereaux ordered.

His tactical officer returned with, "Aye, Captain. Echoes one, two and three away."