Chapter 1
Vega Sector: Enyo
System
The afterburners burned
bright blue as the two Scimitars flew in. The only two objects in the void, it
felt rather empty...
They were looking for something,
though. The wingleader looked over to his navigation computer, the two Scimms
heading towards a blinking spot on the map grid. A lost Hornet pilot, his
callsign Honeybee...His last location anyways. They had to find him, or what
was left of his remains...
"Swordblade, are you
seeing anything over there? I'm not..." The wing commander looked to his
wingmate, flying five hundred klicks to his left flank.
"No Delta. Nothing at
this nav point." She glanced back, adjusting herself in her seat for the
long trip ahead. Even if it was slow, it was comfy, she thought.
"Affirmative
Swordblade. We're going to boost over to the second nav point and look over
there...We'll be out of fuel by then so we'll go back home and have Pilgrim and
Valentine sent out for the next shift." He looked at the vid-comm,
watching Swordblade work on her computer.
"Right...Do you think
he's still alive Rick? Hornets can't take much..." He frowned at his
teammate.
"I don't think there's
any kitties around if you mean that. If he's dead he must of ran into a
asteroid or something."
"Heh. He's too smart
for that." Rick grunted at her reply.
"Hornets are quick,
Meg. If he flew into the belt here there's a good chance he might of." She
sighed.
"Whatever you
say." Meg checked her computer, several thousand more klicks before the
next nav point.
The Scimms flew at a pretty
fast rate, covering the difference in a couple minutes, finding something to
greet them...
"I found something
Delta!" She slowed down to a stop, part of a Kilrathi fighter wing was in
front of her. Used to belong to a Salthi...Other debris floating around nearby
it.
"Evidence of enemy
presence. Told you." She smiled, waiting for a reply.
"...Keep looking, stay
alert in case there's more." The two started off again, space dust flying
behind them as they passed. While the particles flew by, Meg checked her
equipment again, seeing a blue contact on her radar.
"Found a allied
contact. Must be Honeybee." She looked at the radar again, the blue contact
moving away...Three red contacts in front of it and closing in on them.
"Kitties coming for us
Delta!" Rick tensed up...The leader and he still wasn't used to this.
"Wait until you can get
a lock...Then break and attack!" She nodded, watching the blue streaks of
light moving towards them...Soon a Dralthi was in range, her target. Right with
it came a Salthi that Rick decided to take on.
In seconds the two were
barely two thousand meters away, the Salthi getting ready to shoot...He had the
faster trigger finger, the twin Mass Drivers firing off four sets of two shots
at the Salthi's front, wearing it's front shields out. As the final set hit he
shot off four more, ripping it's right wing off and causing it to explode. As
the Salthi fell apart the last thing the pilot saw was the emblem on the left
side of his Scimitar, a red unicorn head.
Swordblade had also been
working on shooting down her Dralthi, several Mass Driver hits and a
heat-seeking missile later the deed was done, the kitty unable to get away.
"Woo! Got one
Delta!" She grinned...Then noticed another Dralthi on his tail.
"One on you Rick! Watch
him!" She grimaced as a shot found it's way to his engine block, sparks
flying off.
"I know, I can see
him..." He stopped the Scimm, the kitty flying too fast to stop from
flying in front of him, too late to get out of the way...In several seconds the
Dralthi was cut down by Mass Driver fire, the fighter skipping and flailing
around as the shots hit until it finally turned into a fireball.
"That was my second
one, Meg." He smiled, as Meg came onto the comm. and snorted at him.
"You lucky
bastard!" He laughed as he checked the radar for more contacts. None
except for the blue one.
They came upon him several
minutes later, he had been moving away from them. It was Honeybee alright, his
Hornet in bad shape. There were shot marks all over, a small puff of smoke
coming from the engines. On of the guns was gone, easily noticed since the guns
were huge on the little fighter.
"Honeybee, are you
there?" There was no reply, but he sped up towards them.
"Swordblade, he must of
gotten his comm. busted, let's go home. Tell them we found him."
"Affirmative." She
patched through to home base as they started for home, the two Scimitars
leading as the Hornet lagged behind...Thousands of more klicks to go.
"So...How many was that
for you, Delta?"
"Five total, got two
this time."
"You just made an ace!
I still have to get one more." She sighed.
"You lucky sob...Wait,
they hit you, right?"
"Yea, nothing the shields
couldn't handle." Meg frowned.
"...Don't die on me
now, Rick." She sounded concerned.
"I won't..."
"You're the only
wingman I want to fly with, don't die..." Rick nodded.
"I'm still here, still
have a reason to be here." He assured her, she nodded but didn't know what
the reason was.
The Exeter came into view
soon after, the guide beams lighting up. The Scimitar pair slowed down, as the
Hornet quickly made it's landing.
"Delta Element, good
work on finding Honeybee."
Rick looked down at his left-side
HUD while Meg made her landing, seeing that the real shields were worn down. He
sighed, praying softly for the reason he had to live...
The Scimm touched down.
