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Commander Stacey was in command on the bridge, sitting in the command chair, bored as ever. He was almost wishing for something to happen. A fighter, carrier, a cat in a tree in the ship garden... anything! Lt.Cmd. Brett Brule entered the bridge. He saluted to the commander as he stood to attention.
"At ease" the commander said in the usual way. "What have you been doing to keep busy?"
"Not a whole lot ma’am. I've been flying the simulator to keep my skills sharp, fixing a few invisible dents on my fighter, reading up on reconnaissance from previous ships in the sector..." Brett trailed off with a sigh. "To make it short, I've been sitting on my hands for so long they went numb so I came to see if I could do anything creative."
Commander Stacey laughed at the joke. "Sorry to disappoint you Brett but it's just as quiet up here."
An alarm went off on a console where an ensign sat. It was the radar post. Brett and Stacey smiled at eachother in hopes of some action.
"Ma’am! Multiple jump signatures detected. The instruments count 2 corvette class warships and 100 fighters." The ensign said excitedly. A corvette class ship is the equivalent to a Frigate in today's world. Not a formidable foe for a juggernaut class but it was action none the less. With 100 fighters, it made Brett happy.
"WOOHOO!! Some action! Yeah!” Brett jumped for joy. He clicked a button on a communications console to the rear of the bridge to open a channel all over the ship. "This is Lt. Cmdr. Brule. Alpha, Beta and Gamma wing report to flight deck, we have incoming boys and girls! Delta wing will be on standby incase we need reinforcements. All hands to battle stations and non-essential personnel to their quarters." Her ended the broadcast.
"Ok. Helm, do a 90 degree turn to port. We'll use the starboard beam cannons on the 2 corvettes. Use only half the flak cannons. We don't want to take too much fun away from the fighters." Commander Stacey ordered.
A flak cannon is a turret that shoots multiple shots around a target. It is designed to take out the shields of a fighter, then destroy it afterwards. A beam turret fires a large blue beam at an enemy warship, any and all fighters in the way are destroyed so the GTA fighters take care in where they fly.
Brett made his way to the flight deck where the 3 wings and the 1 support wing were getting ready. Brett was the leader of Alpha wing. Among the people there was Kat, the leader of Beta wing and Ashley, the leader of Gamma.
"Ok, do you guys want a plan or do we just shoot to kill any enemy that moves?" Brett asked them both.
"I go for the second one." Ashley motioned
"Me too." Kat agreed.
"Alright, let's have fun." Brett smiled
The 3 wings were made up of Myrmidon fighters, a heavy assault class. 8 Missile banks and 4 laser banks. They were able to fly any type of ship, but Brett liked it for the sheer firepower mixed with maneuverability. Ashley liked it for it's strength and Kat thought it looked cute. Brett was never able to figure that one out.
Once all the fighters were out in space, the orders were given out.
"Ok people, I want Alpha to take out the fighters, Beta will take out bombers and Gamma will do both." Ashley said.
"You hogging all the fun on me Ash?" Brett taunted.
"You know it." Ashley laughed.
"I hate to break this up you two but the fighters are attacking." Kat interrupted. "Break and attack!"
The two forces charged eachother head on. The GTA fighters were outnumbered 6 to one, but that didn't phase any of the GTA people. Once they were in range of eachother, a wall of missiles came out from both sides with streams of yellow behind them. As the two sides met, explosions erupted all over, shields were hit and ships passed so close to eachother that the pilot saw the other's eye colour.
"This is Alpha one to Command, get Delta out here." Brett ordered through the comm systems.
"Alpha one, this is Gamma one, cover me!" Ashley said
"Don't you do nothing crazy over there, you know how I worry." Brett said
"Don't worry about me, I know what I am doing." Ashley said.
"That's what I'm afraid of." Brett said to himself. "Kat, care to join us?"
"Love too!" Kat jumped at the chance.
Brett and Kat formed up on each of Ashley's wings in formation as they sped towards the enemy warship. It was then that Brett and Kat didn't know where Ashley was going. The two looked at eachother through the side windows and exchanged looks.
"Ummm... Ashley, it's not that I don't love to fly through a battle with missiles and laser fire missing us by millimeters, heading towards an enemy warship that can easily destroy us with one shot and all but.... What are we doing?" Brett asked
"We are taking out the beam turret on that ship." She answered casually.
"Oh we're taking out the…" Brett repeated without a thought. "Wait a sec… We’re what?!”
"Why are you afraid? You did it millions of times in the simulator... or so you boasted." Kat said
"What I neglected to mention is that I never made it out alive in the simulator." Brett said.
"Now he tells me!" Ashley rolled her eyes. "Well, we're more than half way there, split up so we have room to move if they fire at us."
"Roger" Kat acknowledged.
"No, he's in Zeta wing." Brett said.
"Remind me to smack you behind the head for that one." Kat laughed
The three put some distance themselves as Ashley suggested. Just then, Kat noticed something wasn't right. There were no fighters chasing them. Brett just shrugged at the idea. A blue light was forming at the enemy warship, which could only mean one thing; they were about to fire.
"This is not good! Evasive maneuvers!" Brett yelled as he banked hard right. The 2 other ships did the same as a beam passed between them, still hitting them hard.
"Status report" Brett said
"I'm still in one piece. Shields at 60%" Kat responded
"I'm ok. Mine are at 75%" Ashley answered.
"Good. I'm at 84%. What is your status Colossus?" Brett wondered
"Shields holding, minor casualties." Commander Stacey answered the pilot.
"Good. Can you fire and destroy the big warship now please?" Ashley pleaded.
"I guess you had enough fun then?" the Commander joked.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that." Ashley said.
"This is Command. All fighters prepare for beam turret fire.” The commander said.
A few minutes later, the cockpits of all the fighters was bright blue as the Colossus fired its giant beams at the enemy corvettes. The juggernaut has 4 beam turrets on each side, so 2 of the 4 beam turrets on the starboard side were used on each corvette. They exploded in bright red, orange and yellow fireballs with blue shockwaves emanating from the explosions.
"Both corvettes are destroyed. Fighters, take out remaining bogeys and report to flight deck." the commander ordered through the comm.
"Acknowledge command." Brett answered as he blew up his 20th kill with a spread of missiles. "I love the sight of wreckage in the morning!"
"Your crazy, you know that Brett?" Kat commented.
"It’s a gift." Brett said.
"Ok, all bogeys are destroyed. Let's get back." Ashley ordered the squads.
Commander Stacey was on the flight deck when the squads came in. He waited to congratulate the fighters on a job well done.
After a short and motivating speech, the pilots were free to relax. The casualties went off to the medical bay and most of the others went to the mess hall.
Brett, Kat and Ashley went to enjoy a quiet drink.
