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“All hands, General Quarters! All hands, General Quarters!” the ship’s intercom blared loudly over Alex’s bunk, waking him up with a jolt. His training helped him clear the cobwebs from his head as he quickly got into his flight suit and dashed out of his room, heading towards the launch bay.
From the klaxons going off and him usually knowing when a drill was coming up, he knew this was the real thing. His heart was pounding fast as he turned the last corner and almost ran into David Cox. They both dodged each other and kept going.
“Do you know what’s going on?” David asked him as he ran beside him.
“Nope. I know it’s not a drill, though,” Alex replied between labored breathes.
When they both got to the launch bay, Alex could see that both of their teams had already assembled and were climbing into their Talons through the hull hatches. Even though they did most of their training in the simulator, they had still run drills with the actual Talons that were secured to the outside hull of the ship. Everyone knew that when this day came, it was going to be tough to actually launch quickly from the hull of the ship. It was a new concept, and it hadn’t been fully tested in battle conditions. Excellent, he thought, as he saw his team respond so quickly. Out of mutual respect, Alex nodded towards David as they split off towards their respective ships. Within minutes, Alex had all of his weapon and navigation systems up and running.
“Weapon and navigation systems check complete, Scott,” Alex informed his pilot, as he looked out the cockpit. He noticed that several Talons had already released from the hull and were headed towards their respective formations.
The pilot nodded his head and said, “Roger. Pre-flight check complete. We’re cleared fer release in three, two, one.”
Alex smiled as he thought back to the first day he had met his pilot during his WEP/NAV training. Many of his WEP/NAV companions didn’t like to fly with him because of his hard to understand accent and strange personality, but there wasn’t any other pilot Alex would rather fly with. Besides, Scott’s accent seemed to clear up when they were getting down to serious business, and Alex understood him just fine after all these years.
“What do you see on radar, Alex?” his long-time pilot friend asked, as he pulled the Talon into formation with the rest of Echo Squadron. He looked out and saw that the majority of the squadrons had fallen into their respective formations. It was an impressive sight, seeing so many Talons arrayed in several smaller diamond formations.
“Nothing yet; I’m still looking.” Alex knew that the Legacy was very close to making it back to Earth, but hadn’t heard if they had found the Stinson. They were all coming close to Earth’s orbit.
“Lieutenant Gordon, do you see anything?” Alex asked one of his squadron WEP Navigators on one of the preset radio channels he had set up to use with his squad if ever necessary. Lieutenant Gordon was in one of the head formations. Alex figured he might have a better view of whatever was out there.
“No, Captain. All I see is Earth. My pilot still thinks we’re doing a drill,” Lt. Gordon replied over their frequency.
As Alex heard Gordon’s report, he was working the dials feverishly trying to determine exactly what was out there. All he could see with his radar was Earth and what must be the entire Legacy’s fighting force, numbering just over a hundred, surging ahead of their main ship. Maybe they were on an elaborate drill.
As they continued orbiting the Earth, Alex looked up when Scott whistled and the reason for them being out here became crystal clear. His eyes grew big as he saw the Stinson engaged in a fiery battle just in front of them. He looked at his radar and only saw the Stinson and the few Talons on the screen. At that same moment, their main radio crackled to life.
“Attention, all fighters. This is General Williams. You all did a fine job of handling your first real launch. As you can see, we have finally found the Stinson, and she needs our help badly. She’s engaged with about thirty small fighters, and you’ll notice they don’t appear on your scopes. The Stinson reports that they have some kind of cloaking technology. You won’t be able to target them, you’ll have to fire your missiles at them and set them on a timer. The Stinson has serious battle damage, and it’s up to you to get these fighters’ attention so we can come in and protect her. We’ve already told the Stinson’s fighters to get back to their ship. Good luck, everyone.”
Alex’s mind was racing. He thought back a few months ago when the general had asked him if there was any reason he knew of that would cause the Earth’s orbiters to stop responding to their transmissions. His answer of no didn’t make him too happy. Alex now knew why.
As they got closer to the fight, Alex started getting very nervous. Fighting in the simulator was one thing, but this was for real. He felt himself starting to freeze up.
“ALEX!” Scott yelled into the intercom, frustrated that he was being ignored.
“WHAT?” Alex yelled back, not realizing that his pilot had been trying to talk to him.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine. I’ve got the missile’s timer set. We’ll be in range in three minutes,” he said, trying to hide his nervousness over the intercom and guessing what his pilot may have asked him. Scott didn’t say anything back, so he must have guessed correctly.
As the Legacy’s fighters neared the Stinson, Alex couldn’t help but notice how his seat above the pilot gave him an excellent view of the battle. He also noticed for the very first time how precarious this position was. Oh well. It was too late to think about that now. He saw the Stinson was on fire and burning in several locations throughout the ship.
“In firing range in five seconds,” Alex said, like he had done a thousand times before in the simulator.
Almost all at once, the Legacy’s Talons fired. Alex smiled as he watched a hundred missiles speed towards the enemy fighters. These attackers didn’t know what was about to hit them, he thought. Alex had never been in battle before, and the adrenaline was pumping through him like never before.
After what seemed like an eternity, the missiles reached the battlefield, and most of them exploded in a brilliant display of fire and destruction. Alex looked back to his radarscope to see how many survived the initial attack and yelled jubilantly over the intercom.
“Woo hoo! We got them all!”
“Sorry to burst your bubble, ol’ pal, but remember, they’re cloaked on radar,” Scott reminded Alex.
Alex felt so stupid that he didn’t even respond. He looked back out and tried counting what he thought were still enemy bogeys.
“How many do you think are left? About twelve?” Alex asked, hoping Scott would just let his earlier comment go.
“Looks more like eight.”
The general came over the radio. “Excellent job, everyone. Talons…keep it up. Don’t let any of them escape. Scouts…scan the battlefield and look for survivors.”
Alex could hear all the squadron commanders acknowledging, and he already had their next missile timer set.
The surprise attack had succeeded in killing most of the fighters, and the remaining enemy fighters looked like they were scrambling to find out what had just happened. As Alex fired their second missile, he noticed that the remaining enemy fighters had reorganized into formation and were headed straight towards the new threat – them.
The distance between them and the bogeys was counting down quickly. Alex knew that the timer he had set on his missile was too long now since the enemy fighters had shortened the distance between them considerably. Alex quickly set up the next missile based on this new data.
As Alex prepared to launch the third missile, he watched the second wave of missiles get closer to the enemy fighters when, all of a sudden, all of their missiles exploded prematurely. The enemy fighters continued to come right at them.
“Alex, what happened? Why did the missiles explode early?” Scott asked Alex, who was rechecking the second missile’s timer.
“I don’t know. I actually expected those missiles to explode AFTER they passed those enemy fighters,” Alex replied nervously, trying to figure this out.
The missiles and bogeys were too far away when the missiles exploded to see what happened with his eyes. Alex wondered if they had shot them down somehow. If these enemy fighters were able to shoot down the missiles, then they were in real trouble once they got into close space combat. The Talons only had missiles. Now that they knew they were here, they wouldn’t be able to get in another surprise shot. How were they going to fight?
“Lieutenant Gordon, did you see why our missiles exploded?” Alex asked his squad member.
“Yes, sir. Those fighters have some kind of lasers. They just shot all of our missiles down with ease,” Lieutenant Gordon responded with fear in his voice. “I don’t know how we can fight that kind of firepower.”
The first wave of Legacy’s squadrons reached the bogeys. Alex watched in horror as the enemy fighters destroyed several Talons in one pass and one shot. Alex knew they were in big trouble. They were matched up against superior technology.
“Lieutenant Gordon, do you see any distinguishing markings on those fighters?” Alex asked him, hoping to get an idea of what they were dealing with. There was no response. He looked to his scope and saw that Lt. Gordon’s Talon was gone. Oh no!
Alex saw the next wave of Legacy fighters shoot their missiles, and the enemy fighters made quick work of those missiles with their lasers, and then killed several more Talons. They had to come up with a way to fight these bogeys quick. They were sitting ducks out here, especially now that the bogeys had broken formation and were picking off the Talons one by one.
“Captain Cox, do you read me?” Alex radioed his WEP/NAV counterpart.
“Roger, Alex.”
“We’re fish bait out here. We need to find a way to knock the rest of these alien ships out while we still have the numbers advantage. Any ideas?”
“I’ve been looking at their weaponry. It looks like they only have those laser guns in the front. Maybe we should try getting behind them,” David reasoned.
“It’s a good idea, but they’re too fast and maneuverable for just one of us. We’re going to have to team up on them. I’ll try and get the attention of one of them so they start chasing me. You follow behind and shoot him down before he kills me.”
“I’ve got your back,” David promised.
“Okay, Scott. Get in front of the nearest enemy fighter, and do your thing. Don’t let him get a shot on us.” Alex hoped he wasn’t committing suicide for the both of them.
Alex saw Scott maneuver their Talon close to one of the enemy fighters and was successful in getting its attention. He could see lasers shoot pass their canopy as Scott maneuvered their fighter as best as he could.
“David. You’re going to have to get this guy quick. We’re not going to last much longer,” Alex pleaded with him.
Soon the lasers stopped. Alex couldn’t see what had happened behind them.
“You’re all clear, Alex. He had no idea what hit him.”
“Thanks. Good job. Let’s spread the word on how to kill these guys.”
After informing the surviving Talon pilots and WEP/NAVs on how to attack these alien fighters, it didn’t take long before most of them had been killed. The battle was over. They had lost over thirty Talons before they had come up with a strategy to fight back. One enemy fighter had survived, and it was speeding back towards Earth.
“Scott, one’s getting away,” Alex said to his pilot.
“No he ain’t!” Scott said through clenched teeth. “We’re getting them ALL.”
Scott pushed their Talon hard as they sped by the burning Stinson towards the fleeing fighter. Alex could see the fires and the damage clearly now. It didn’t look like there was any chance they could salvage it. He wondered how many people died today. He shook his head, completely confused as to what was going on.
Alex looked back out front and finally got a good look at Earth. He was stunned. It was beautiful. He could see through some of the clouds. That was something he had only heard and read about in school.
“Scott., do you see what I’m seeing?” A shocked Alex asked in almost a whisper.
“I sure do. Somethin’ strange goin’ on, that’s for sure,” Scott said, reverting back to his thick accent for some reason.
Alex was very curious as to who had attacked the Stinson and why, but that would have to wait. They were making up some time on the last fighter. It must be badly damaged if they were able to catch up to it.
“We’ll be in range in five minutes,” Alex informed his pilot. They were still quite a ways away from Earth’s atmosphere, the bogey’s obvious destination. Alex’s training told him that no way they could simply enter the Earth’s atmosphere at this angle; they would burn up. The fighter would have to change course and slow down soon if he really wanted to enter the atmosphere. And when he did, Alex would be ready with his missile.
Alex continued to monitor the bogey’s speed and distance to the atmosphere. He wasn’t slowing down. This is impossible, thought Alex.
“Scott, be ready to break off the pursuit. We can’t follow him in like this,” Alex reminded Scott, hoping he didn’t really have to. “He’s committing suicide!”
“I’m not letting him get away! Get that missile ready,” shouted Scott.
Alex watched in astonishment as the fighter continued accelerating into the atmosphere without slowing down. It quickly became a fireball as it plummeted towards the surface.
“Scott! Break off NOW!” Alex yelled into his headset.
“Uh oh!” Scott shouted as he fired his reverse thrusters and tried to change heading. Unfortunately, it was too late. He had waited too long, and they were still coming in too fast and too steep. The hull of their Talon was heating up hotter than it was designed to take.
“I’m losing control,” shouted Scott. “I can’t slow down our descent.”
Furious for not listening to him, Alex looked at his navigation computer to see where they were and to look for a good place to crash land. If they made it through this, he was going to kill him. He was sweating profusely, and not just because of the intense heat coming through their heat shield.
“Scott, I can’t get a fix on our location. Something must be wrong with the global positioning satellites.”
He could see his pilot nodding his head. He was obviously too busy to respond verbally. There was nothing else Alex could do. They broke through the clouds and he saw the surface was coming up very fast. He reached up and grabbed his cross on his necklace, which reminded him the last time he had grabbed it in fear; it was when he was launching out of Earth’s atmosphere. How ironic, he thought. He closed his eyes and waited for the impact.
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