The Road to Hell

Chapter 2

The Errant Hawks were composed of three battleships, the Hawk's Nest, the Niveda, and the Gravedigger. Out of the three, the Gravedigger was the only one small enough to reorient and aim as quickly as their attackers could.

Captain Grave had attracted the attention of three enemy ships. The odds were stacked against him, but orders were orders, and Hawke needed him. That meant he'd have to deal with these three on his own.

"Helmsman," he barked, "we're being surrounded. That won't do. Take us straight toward the nearest ship! Artillery, charge main cannon, and standby to fire on the forward target. Ready all missiles, and target the other two. Fire those at will."

The missiles were to distract the other vessels and keep them off of the Gravedigger's back. Half of them were picked off by defensive cannons anyway. Grave stroked his salt and pepper beard, and an idea occurred to him. The artillery officer reported the main cannon fully charged. Grave stared at the oncoming enemy ship. "Helmsman, maintain velocity, but swing us around."

The other officers glanced at their captain, unsure of what he was thinking, but none daring to defy him. The helmsman did as he was told, and the ship slowly reversed orientation. "Fire a volley of nuclear missiles at the target."

The crew executed the order and seconds later, a dozen missiles shot forth towards their target. The ship waited for the missiles to get close, then microjumped. Grave smiled with satisfaction as the ship reappeared behind them just as they completed their revolution. "Please fire the main cannon," he said.

Being much smaller, the Gravedigger's main cannon was less powerful than the cannon on the Hawk's Nest, but it had its advantages. It charged nearly three times as fast, and instead of firing a solid shot, the Gravedigger fired an overcharged shotshell. Like a shotgun, the damage was devastating, but the range was limited. Lucky for Grave, these guys loved to get in close.

Just as they reappeared and begun to charge their plasma cannons, the Gravedigger turned the bow of the alien ship into a shattered mess. However, Grave wasn't done. "Now, reassign those nukes. I want one in the belly of that half-dead ship and the rest are for his grieving comrades. "

The nukes vaporized the first ship and crippled the other two. In less than a minute, all three ships were written off. Grave turned his attention to the Hawk's Nest and made haste to assist the fleet's flagship.

#

The enemy's fighter's attacked in flights of three. David selected one flight and told Tanner to move in. They soon caught Tanner's scent, and one of the ships detached itself from the formation to position itself behind him for the kill. The lead fighter maintained its course, and the third fighter turned around and flew backwards, firing beams at Tanner to keep him busy while the other fighter behind him lined up the perfect shot.

Neither one of them noticed David closing in "above" them, orienting his directional frame of reference as if the enemy was down. Tanner said something over the comm but it was buried in static. David noticed his SLuDAR feed acting up as well. Something was jamming them. That was going to make things harder. But for pilots like them, not much.

Without communications, David would have to rely on the instinctual bond between Tanner and himself.

He dived suddenly, and drummed his fingers impatiently as the computer fought to draw missile locks on all three targets. The second it locked, David flipped the launch switch and watched the missile split away from his ship on the SluDAR feed.

David silently prayed that Tanner would recognize the basic maneuver he was attempting to execute. Halfway to its target the missile split into three separate warheads and began closing in on each target.