Chapter 8 Part 5

In response to that command, the two VRADs banked in opposite directions with particle cannons blazing. Like a pair of gates opening, Roundhouse saw the large drones part revealing a multitude of enemy fighters rushing in towards them.

Several blooms of hot gas replaced a few of the fighters as the drone particle cannons scored vital points. Roundhouse did not wait. He steered with his feet and used his hands to select the first target. When the enemy fighter turned to follow the drone, Roundhouse closed into range and opened up with his own guns. Though not quite as powerful as those on the VRAD, the Adder's cannons were still deadly to an unshielded fighter. Roundhouse scored his first kill.

The Wildcard banked hard to the left and lined up on a medium sized gunship. Lady Luck confirmed an earlier scan and informed her crew of some grizzly news. "It looks like they took all the wounded ships to the rear," she said. "They are going to make us fight through the toughest part of their lines."

"That's what I would do if I were in their place," Blackjack muttered respectfully. "They have long scans. They know that we don't have a battle fleet. If they can get past the fighters and us, the Andromeda will be a sitting duck."

"Missile lock," Lady Luck announced as she instantly activated her ECM systems. "They tried to slip a virus at us at the same time."

Roulette triggered the rail gun and a twin burst from the particle cannons. The gunship responded with dozens of lances of coherent light. Only one beam struck the agile VRAD, and it was only a glancing blow easily deflected by the electromagnetic shielding.

The VRAD's particle beams were also turned aside by the gunboat's own shields, but the rail gun's shot blasted tons of armor outward from the larger vessel's outer hull spilling precious air from its insides.

"I have missile launch," Lady Luck responded excitedly.

Blackjack saw the points of light. Three missiles came at them closing the distance with frightening speed. By reflex, he pulled into a hard climb and fell into a course perpendicular to that of the missiles. They of course adjusted their angle to follow.

Ten seconds went by as the missiles closed the distance. "Turrets active," Lady Luck announced, and the dorsal and belly laser cannons came to life targeting the small but deadly missiles. Long seconds of anxiety preceded the hoped for report. "Missiles destroyed," Lady Luck announced with a release of held breath.

Blackjack banked again, and the Wildcard dove at the gunship from above. The battle craft began to roll about its axis, and lasers flashed out by the dozen. As a cannon discharged, it would roll away from the diving drone, and a freshly recharged cannon would roll into view. The maneuver was deadly, and the onslaught forced the VRAD to break off its attack.

Blackjack cursed. They had taken several jolts from the lasers. None of which had passed through the shielding with enough energy left to do damage, but they had broken the attack.

Blackjack flipped the drone over and then performed a split S maneuver. Suddenly the gunship's engine section loomed in front of them. Immediately Roulette triggered the rail gun and the rocket pods at the same time. The rail gun slug plowed into the hull wrecking the mechanisms within as the multitude of rockets obliterated the surface structures of the larger ship's engines.

"That did it," Lady Luck announced. "She is dead in the water."

Blackjack came about and the Wildcard lined up on the next target, a heavy battle cruiser.

"Be careful with that thing," Lady Luck warned as they skirted around to approach the deadly opponent from head on. "Our shields won't be able to stand a direct hit from its laser or particle cannons."

"Bay coming open," Roulette announced as he opened the Wildcard's weapons bay.

"Make it quick, sport," the woman warned. "They have a hard lock on us with the bay open."

"One, two, three missiles away," Roulette concluded. "Bay closed, clear for action."

"They tried to slip another virus to us again," Lady Luck reported.

Blackjack ground his teeth with a firm jaw. The heavy battle cruiser was definitely more than the VRADs were designed to tackle. He knew that they should turn and run, but that was not an option. They absolutely could not allow the heavily armored and armed warship to get within striking range of the Andromeda.

"Wraith, this is Wildcard," he called over the com. "It looks like we have found their ace in the hole. We are definitely outclassed here and could use a hand if you can spare it." It was not Blackjack's style to call for help, but too much was at stake.

"Sorry guys," Specter's voice returned. "We have our hands full as it is. You are on your own."

"Four seconds to impact," Roulette announced referring to the trio of SRAMs he had launched only moments before. Almost immediately two brilliant plumes of light erupted. Two seconds later a third explosion flowered and convulsed wildly.

"They shot two of the SRAMs down," Lady Luck announced. "The third one got through though." Then, "here comes the reply," she added abruptly. Half a dozen tiny plumes materialized along the huge ship's spine. The telltale signs of missile launches lighted gently away from the ship and curved towards the VRAD.

Blackjack throttled to full velocity and reversed direction. There was still a lot of distance between the two ships and they needed time to defeat the missiles.

"Jam them, Lady," Blackjack said. "Jam them and shoot them."

Lady Luck worked diligently at her console. She banked jammers onto the scan wavelengths. She put white noise interference on the missile guidance uplink, and she activated the defense laser turrets. "Put 'em on the gee limit," she advised her pilot.

Blackjack instantly obeyed. He threw the drone into a course that would cause the missiles to have to turn more sharply than they were designed to do. As a result, they would lose their lock and the countermeasures would have a much better chance of shaking them.

The maneuver worked for the most part. Only one missile hit but it took off most of the starboard wing including one of the particle cannons.

"What do we have left?" Blackjack asked his gunner.

Roulette checked his status. "We have half a load of HERPs, eighty percent of our kinetic load, five SRAMs on the forward rotor, a full eight on the aft rotor and one proton cannon. We have both laser turrets and we haven't used any of the electronic package yet," he added.

"Okay," Blackjack decided, "it's time to roll the dice. Let's go in at full speed, pass over their dorsal while they are reloading their missiles. Hit them with all guns and give them the rest of the rockets. Then we will go over-the-shoulder with two more SRAMs."

"Off we go," the pilot said. "Longshot give me one hundred percent on the reactor."

"Break it down," Longshot replied as he complied.

Blackjack answered his engineer's request for power allotment. "Put fifty into thrust, twenty into weapons and thirty into shields until we pass. Then drop weapons to five percent pn weapons and increase shields to forty-five."

"We are riding a star," Longshot replied using the engineer lingo for a fusion reactor at full power.

The Wildcard shot straight at the battleship and unleashed three shots from her rail gun and four shots from her remaining particle cannon before pulling up slightly to pass over the enemy ship's upper hull.

As the drone passed over the hull, the rocket pods fired repeatedly blasting chunks of armor and sensory equipment into useless scrap. At the same time, the belly turret spat globs of laser light searing into the pockmarked upper hull of the huge ship.

The battle cruiser's own guns belched forth energy in reply, but the drone was too close and too agile for the defending guns angular tracking to be effective. And when the drone passed to the aft of the battle cruiser, the weapons bay opened and another pair of missiles dropped out, ignited their engines, and reversed course to fly right into the vital areas of the engineering section of the big ship.

"They are trying to decipher our data link," Lady Luck warned. That was a serious problem. It meant that the enemy was trying to wrest control of the Wildcard from her crew.

"Give them something to chew on," Blackjack ordered.

The electronic warfare specialist activated a previously unused panel and dialed a number on the selector. Then she initiated the program and hit a transmission button. "Let's see how they like this one," she mused. "Get us some distance," She suggested to her crew.

"What did you hit them with?" Roulette asked curiously.

"I slipped the Bulldog 7 into our transponder frequency," she answered. "If they don't catch it in time, it will foul up their stabilizer routine badly. That is why we don't want to be too close."

Lady Luck was right on the money. As Blackjack brought the VRAD around for another attack run, the heavy ship began to yaw and roll randomly.
"She's out of control," Blackjack laughed. "I don't think we need to worry about her for a while."

"Don't get too comfortable," Lady Luck advised. "The Bulldog series of viruses are good at getting in, but they are also easy to wipe out. We probably have about five minutes before they regain control of their attitude systems."

"Then let's make the best of this run," Roulette urged.

The Wildcard dove in for another attack run. This time the only defensive response was a token shot or two from independent gunnery stations on the ship's undamaged sides that badly missed. The VRAD came in low with turret, rail gun and single remaining particle cannon blazing. The damage was enormous as armored plating ruptured exposing vital sections of the huge ship.

"Hey, gang," Longshot warned as the other three watched the heavy cruiser suffer from their furious attack. "One of the smaller gunships is trying to sneak past us."

Blackjack brought the Wildcard about and lined up on an intercept course with the smaller and quicker battle craft. He gunned the throttle and took pursuit.

The Wildcard closed the distance quickly, but before they could close to attack range, the enemy ship launched a pair of missiles towards the bright point of light in the distance that was the Andromeda.

"Heads up," Longshot warned abruptly. "Those missiles have fusion warheads!"

"Damn," Blackjack swore. "Push it to the edge, Longshot," he urged. "We have to catch those things."

"Power down the weapons," Longshot advised. "We are going to need everything we have to catch those nukes."

Blackjack gave the VRAD a kick in the rear and burned the engines to their maximum rating. "Lady," he calmly ordered, "as soon as you can, start hacking into those things. Try to shut down their drives, alter their course, disarm, or if necessary prematurely detonate those warheads."

"I'm on it," she confirmed. If the missiles attacked the Andromeda, that would be the end of them all.

Dozens of seconds passed, and the distance between the missiles and the VRAD was decreasing, but was doing so very slowly. "Roulette," Blackjack asked, "are we going to catch them?"

"No," Roulette answered calmly. "Not close enough for me to shoot them down. How about you, Lady?"

Lady Luck sounded unsure. "I think we can get within ECM range," she admitted, "but I don't know if there will be time enough to hack into their systems."

"I have notified Haunted House of the missiles," Longshot interrupted. "They are putting out interceptors."

Blackjack eased back on the engines. "Well, there is no need in burning out our drive," he remarked. "The carrier's defenses should be capable of stopping two unprotected missiles. Our primary concern should be to keep that damn gunboat from launching any more of them."

Blackjack brought the VRAD about and lined up on the light battle craft. They made one pass and Roulette sent three SRAMs and another round from the rail gun slamming into the other ship's hull. One of the SRAMs obliterated the enemy's bridge and the ship began to drift.

They were about to go in for the kill when the Wildcard lurched violently to one side.

"Bandit coming in from the port beam," Lady Luck announced sheepishly.

"No kidding," Blackjack muttered as he struggled to regain control of the space craft.

"We have lost the port proton cannon too," Roulette announced.

"Turrets are active," Lady Luck announced as the defensive lasers came on line.

Blackjack redirected the VRAD to give chase to the new arrival. But when they came onto the prescribed course, the attacker had moved off to their flank again. "Whoa!" the pilot exclaimed startled. "Where'd he go?"

Once again the VRAD lurched. "I think he is to port again," Roulette mused.

"He has a tighter turn radius than we do," Lady Luck advised. "It must be a drone."

"That last hit did not cost us anything vital," Longshot added. "But that could change if he keeps up these attacks."

"Put shields at fifty percent and drop thrust to forty five and weapons to five," Blackjack ordered. "We know that he is shielded, so our defensive turret won't be able to hurt him. On the other hand, with our shields at fifty percent, his won't be able to hurt us either."

Blackjack throttled the Wildcard back to where most of the other ships were slugging it out. They needed a little help to get rid of the pest fighter drone. "Lady see if you can mess with him some," he ordered as they cruised back with the drone in chase.

Lady Luck opened her sensors and began to read the drone's telemetry messages. "Their coding is pretty complex," she reported. "I can interject garbage into their steering signals, but it may or may not do any good. And if I do, it would leave us open to a viral attack."

"Don't risk it then," Blackjack decided. "We will get one of the fighters to work it over."

"Their lasers probably won't be able to hurt it either," Roulette doubted.

"That is true, but their ordinance should be able to," Lady Luck explained. "Those thirty millimeter cannons are quite formidable to lightly armored craft. They are useless against the big ships, but the fighters and that drone should be easy prey."

Blackjack keyed the comm transmitter; "Wildcard to Daytona Lead."

"This is Daytona Lead," Roundhouse's voice returned hesitantly. "I am a little busy if you don't mind, Blackjack. What do you want?"

"Sorry for the interruption," Blackjack apologized, "but I seem to have one of those Syndicate fighter drones on my tail and he is really getting on my nerves. Do you think you or one of your boys could give us a hand?"

"This is Atlanta four," a youthful voice interrupted. "I am not far from Ghost two. I'll bail the tights out."

"All right Atlanta four and five, break formation and rendezvous with Ghost two. After you save his butt, stay with him as escort. I will send Darlington six and seven to do the same for Ghost one."

"Thanks Roundhouse," Blackjack replied. "Who is Atlanta four?" he asked Longshot as he turned the drone onto a rendezvous course.

"Lieutenant Searchinghawk," Longshot replied. "He is okay. Unlike most of the rookie jocks, he has his head on right."

"What kind of name is Searchinghawk?" Roulette asked.

"Native American," Blackjack guessed. "But I could not tell you which tribe."

"He told me he is Sioux," Longshot offered, "the grandson of a tribal leader of some sort."

"Here they come," Roulette advised.

The scene which followed was quick and well coordinated. The two fighters skimmed just beneath the VRAD's hull and then popped up from the larger craft's cover and opened up on the pursuing fighter drone. The combined firepower of the two fighter's cannons disabled the lightly armored drone before its controller could react.

"That was some good shooting Atlanta four," Blackjack complimented. "Thanks."

"No need for thanks," a youthful and irritatingly familiar voice replied. "You weren't in any real danger, were you?"

"Cool it, Render," the voice of Atlanta four interrupted.

"Hey, we are risking our necks for an empty overpriced robot ship," Render snapped.

"Listen to me, Render," Searchinghawk advised calmly. "If those battleships get within striking distance of the carrier, where are you going to land that Adder when your fuel runs out? The Syndicate executes prisoners as corporate saboteurs."

The two fighters circled and formed up off either side of the VRAD. Searchinghawk continued his lecture. "The VRADs are the only weapons we have capable of holding the battle craft at bay unless you want to take your fighter in on a strafing run yourself."

"That's telling him," Roulette muttered.

"I wouldn't cry too much if our turret cannon accidentally blew Lieutenant Render into next year," Longshot agreed.

"Can it," Blackjack ordered. Then over the radio he addressed his escort fighters. "Atlanta four and five, we are going in for another attack run. Our target is the vessel at twelve mark seven degrees. Follow us in and lead us out."

"Roger Wildcard," Searchinghawk replied. "We will follow you in, strafe and then lead you out."

"Very well," Blackjack agreed. Then to Roulette he asked, "what do we have left?"

"We still have a few shots left on the railgun, a full rotary launcher of SRAMs and the defensive cannon turrets."

"We also have a few electronic bugs we can throw at them if we catch them probing us actively," Lady Luck added.

"Okay team," Blackjack decided, "our best results seem to come when we lead with a kinetic attack. So, let's follow the rail gun with a pair of SRAMs if we can get them off. Then as we pass by, rake them with the belly turret. Their shields will probably turn the lasers aside, but you never know."

"Wildcard to Atlanta squad, we're going in," Blackjack radioed.

"We're right behind you Wildcard," the fighters answered.

The VRAD nosed over and dove at the surface of the enemy ship. At Roulette's command, the massive rail gun which made up the drone's backbone shuddered and hurled a projectile into the battle craft's external structure. Immediately following that, the weapons bay doors snapped open, and a missile jettisoned and fired its engine. The rotor launcher inside the bay rotated another missile into position, and then jettisoned that one too. Then the bay doors snapped closed as the second missile fired and sped towards its target.

The Syndicate cruiser fired volley after volley at the unpowered projectile speeding towards it, but the speed and small size of the object defied their attempts to destroy it. Even so, when it struck the ship, it tore into the hull obliterating a power distribution station and blacking out part of the ship.

Seconds later the first missile detonated ripping a massive hole in the craft's hull. The second missile was destroyed prior to impact.

"Fighter's off the port," Longshot announced excitedly. "But they are ignoring us and moving on to the engage the carrier."

"This is a perfect opportunity," Render's voice interrupted over the radio. "We can take them by surprise."

"Let the other fighters take care of them," Searchinghawk decided, "we stay with the drone."

They completed the attack and pulled out of the dive. Both fighters moved out ahead of the VRAD as the drone's shields protected the two Adders from the cruiser's laser turrets.
A second pair of Syndicate fighters skipped by off in the distance headed for the melee taking place near the Andromeda.

Without warning, one of the two escort fighters peeled off and took pursuit. "Atlanta four to Atlanta five: Render, get back here," Searchinghawk's voice indicated his anger.

"I'll be right back," Render replied. "These will be a pair of easy kills."

"Our task is to work with the VRAD," Searchinghawk insisted. "You are putting the mission at risk with this glory hunt. Now get back."

The conversation was fierce and distracting. Searchinghawk's attempts to regain control over his rogue wingman almost cost him his life.

"Atlanta four watch your six!" Longshot warned suddenly

From the far side of the battered cruiser, a lone Syndicate fighter drone had emerged and flown at a fantastic velocity closing the distance between itself, and the fighter.

"He can't outrun that thing," Lady Luck announced. "And without a wingman he can't fight it."

"Hang on," Blackjack advised. He yanked the controls and placed the Wildcard between the drone fighter and its prey. Lady Luck opened up with the defensive turrets, but the laser beams simply skipped off its hull like stones on water.

"We can't stop it and we can't keep ourselves between it and Searchinghawk forever," Roulette noted.

Blackjack made a rash decision. At the last second, he brought the Wildcard about and rammed the enemy fighter.

His three crew members all gazed at him in stunned silence as hundreds of status indicators changed inside the VR cockpit. "Status report," he ordered.

There was a long silence. "We have lost the rail gun," Roulette began. "In addition, the ship's frame has been torqued. We can't open the weapons bay any more."

"What about navigation?"

"We still have directional control for now," but it you pull any more stunts like that we may lose all control," Roulette answered.

"We lost the dorsal laser turret," Lady Luck added. "Our electronic warfare package is intact, but we probably lost a lot of jamming ability due to external damage."

"We still have telemetry," Longshot completed the list. Otherwise we would be flying blind and self destructed by now. The bad news is that we took a nasty jolt and our reactor's maximum potential is now forty percent. And we lost the dorsal shield generators."

Blackjack cursed. "Shut all power to weapons off," he decided. "We can't use them anyhow. Pour everything into thrusters."

"Atlanta four to Wildcard: are you guys still alive in there?"

"Yeah, we are still here," Blackjack answered. "But we just lost everything we had to fight with."

"Maybe you had better return to base. I'll cover you. The Market knows I owe you that."

"He's right," Longshot advised. "We can't do any good out here."

"Well if you are going to do something, do it now," Roulette interrupted. "Because that cruiser has recovered from our attack and is coming."

"Can we outrun him?" Blackjack asked Longshot.

"No. Our reactor can't generate that kind of speed anymore."

"Atlanta four, this is Wildcard." Blackjack made a decision, "break formation and return to your flight."

"Negative, Wildcard. I'll cover your withdrawal."

"Thanks, four," Blackjack refused graciously. "Thanks, but you would be defending an empty, useless drone. Don't risk your life over it."

There was a long pause. "Roger, Wildcard," came the reply at last. "I will find Render and rejoin the fight."

"Wildcard out," Blackjack replied and turned off the radio.

"So what now?" Lady Luck asked.

"Now we try to sell the Wildcard as expensively as possible," Blackjack replied.

"You mean to ram that cruiser don't you," Longshot guessed.

"I do," Blackjack answered. "Any objections?" There were none. "Okay crew. Let's go out in a blaze of glory." He brought the battered VRAD around and lined up on the cruiser, aiming for the already weakened hull structure.

"I wonder what my next assignment will be?" someone asked, but Blackjack concentrated only on guiding the Wildcard into its death dive.

The cruiser slowly swelled in size as the large craft closed in. Lances of laser light reached out to the VRAD, but Blackjack kept his only operating shield between them and the cruiser.

"We are losing power!" Longshot yelled surprised. "We have lost maneuverability.

"Did we take a hit?" Blackjack demanded.

"No we picked up a virus," Lady Luck answered. "Our electronic filter was damaged in the collision. Damn! There is no way to tell if it's damaged until a virus gets past it."

"How deep is it?" Blackjack demanded.

"We've lost maneuverability and we are losing navigation," Longshot sounded almost panicked. "It will hit our telemetry next unless we shut command and control down now."

"Do it," Blackjack commanded angrily. They could not afford to lose telemetry. That would mean flying blind and an automatic self destruction.

Longshot complied with the order and began cutting interfaces off. "Done," he reported. "We can monitor what happens, but we can't control the ship. We are almost blind."

"Maybe they will think its dead and ignore it," Blackjack offered.

"Or if they try to capture it, we could power it up in their hangar and blow their cruiser apart," Roulette suggested.

The cruiser loomed ever larger in their viewer. As it grew they could see the heavy damage their first attacks had inflicted. The cruiser shifted its course slightly in order to avoid the collision.

"She is locking her guns," Lady Luck announced regretfully.

"I can't watch this," Roulette announced and disconnected himself from the VR interface. He did not want to see the Wildcard destroyed as it drifted powerless. He removed his helmet and left the module.

In the hallway, Roulette made his way to the ready room. The red corridor lights indicated that the Andromeda was at battle stations. He was not worried. With the destruction of the Wildcard, his career was ruined. He would be lucky to get an assignment as a simulator instructor. And that, itself would be nothing short of torture.

"Roulette disconnected," Longshot announced as they watched the cruiser close in for the kill.

"He didn't want to watch our ship die," Lady Luck stated with a hint of emotion. "And neither do I." With that she too disconnected and left the VR cockpit.

"She sure was a good ship," Longshot said reverently. He reached around to his left and unplugged his own suit from the VR interface and promptly disappeared from the cockpit leaving Blackjack alone in the cockpit of the Wildcard.

The commander of the VRAD was determined to ride out the fate of his ship. He could see that they were almost within range of the rocket launchers and cannons of the enemy ship. Soon it would not matter whether the drone was shielded or not. They would blast him from the sky. Blackjack's thoughts recalled something about ancient sea faring captains going down with their ships.

The cruiser hovered monstrously over the Wildcard like a giant predator about to snatch up its helpless prey when suddenly a brilliant bolt of lightning slammed into the side of the huge battle craft sending shorts and static crawling along the damaged shielding of the Syndicate ship. Blackjack stood frozen. At first he thought that the Wraith had come to the rescue, but as the shock wave of the attack swept over the Wildcard's dead hulk, the view slowly rotated and Blackjack beheld his savior.

A Market destroyer eclipsed the sun and engaged the damaged cruiser at point blank range. The Whirlpool's battle group had arrived and taken the enemy by total surprise.