Bandits Engaged (Battlegroup Z Book 4) Read online

  “TAO, designate Master One as the primary target for the Marcus Luttrell. Take the gloves off. We’ll cause as much damage as we can and get out.”

  “Aye, aye, ma’am.”

  Tehrani felt as if her heart were going to pound out of her chest. “XO, what’s on the flight line?”

  “Four more Sabres, ma’am. Shall I order a general scramble?”

  “Get the Sabres into the vacuum. Order every fighter we’ve got left into ready five. We’ll wait a minute to see how things develop. I don’t want to overplay our hand.” And if I underplay it, we’re going to lose far too many people.

  “Aye, aye, ma’am.” Wright tapped a button on his display. “They’re launching now.”

  “Conn, Communications. The Hadley acknowledges our instructions. Escape pods launching momentarily.

  A new cluster of blue icons appeared directly next to the Greengold before accelerating away. Anxiety made Tehrani’s heart beat faster with the realization that the next few minutes would be decisive.

  Five minutes earlier, Justin had been about to declare victory. While the hostile craft were formidable opponents, Alpha and Beta had worn them down, and Lanchester’s Law had been in effect. Then the carrier appeared, disgorging more than two dozen new enemy fighters. Charlie element had launched, joining Alpha to provide eight Sabres on the battle space. Three Boars from Beta element were left along with a group of Mauler bombers.

  Justin fought to keep situational awareness and control of the battle as he pawed the vacuum, looking for his next target.

  A new voice broke into his commlink. “CSV Zvika Greengold actual to Alpha leader.”

  “This is Captain Spencer, ma’am.”

  “The Hadley is launching escape pods. Covering them is your top priority. Once they’re safely aboard the Greengold, we’re pulling out.”

  “Wilco, ma’am.”

  “Greengold actual out.”

  Justin toggled his commlink to the all-fighters channel. “New orders, people. We’ll provide close escort for civilians escaping the freighter. Gamma element, switch your target to Master One. Beta, provide overwatch for Gamma. Charlie, you’re with the rest of Alpha and me. This is a target-rich environment, folks. Watch your backs, don’t take unnecessary risks, and use the Greengold to your advantage. Her point-defense emplacements are accurate and deadly.”

  “I live for a target-rich environment,” Mateus replied to scattered chuckles.

  “Maintain focus,” Justin snapped.

  “Wilco, CAG.”

  Justin snickered involuntarily. Yeah, I guess I did sound like Whatley just now. He checked his Sabre’s stores as the craft rocketed toward the escape pods. A group of pirates had broken off and headed straight for them.

  He switched his commlink to the guard frequency. “Escape pods, this is Captain Justin Spencer, Coalition Defense Force. Adjust your heading five degrees to port and increase speed to maximum.”

  “We’re going as fast as we can, CDF.”

  Damn. Even with afterburners on, Alpha and Charlie elements were at least three minutes away. Justin flipped back to all-fighters. “Alpha, Charlie, stand by for max range. These guys are tough. Switch missiles to dual-launch mode, and make sure you don’t spike the same bandit.”

  Green acknowledgment lights lit up across the squadron-readiness screen.

  On the HUD-based sensor display, one of the pod icons disappeared. Justin double-checked and confirmed its destruction. Bile rose in his throat. Bastards.

  He toggled the commlink over to guard frequency. “What the hell is wrong with you people? Leaguers are better than shooting down helpless spacers.”

  A rough voice answered him. “Maybe God will judge me for it, Terran.”

  Justin wrapped his hand tightly around his flight stick. “I think I’ll send you on to say hi to Him for me. How about that?”

  “Take your best shot.”

  The missile-lock-on tone filled the cockpit. Justin had picked the nearest bandit as his first target, assuming it would be either the most aggressive pirate or their commander. Either way, the fighter was going down hard. He squeezed the launch button. “Alpha One, fox three.” Two Vulture LIDAR-tracking warheads dropped from the Sabre’s internal stores bay and raced into the void.

  “Charlie Two, fox three.”

  “Alpha Four, fox three.”

  Other pilots called out their launches, and the battle space filled with dozens of missiles. Robust electronic countermeasures on both sides and chaff deployments in the hundreds spoofed most, but a few got through, causing light shield damage.

  Justin’s forward shield indicator dropped after a few hits from energy-weapons fire before he rolled out of it. Quickly scanning the HUD’s sensor display, he saw one fighter curving back toward the pods. Not so fast, you son of a bitch. Justin kicked his afterburner to maximum and accelerated. “This is Captain Spencer. Hadley pods, are you still with me?”

  “We’re here, CDF.”

  “Break left relative to us and bug out toward the carrier. We’ll cover you.”

  “Acknowledged, CDF.” The voice had an odd quality to it, as if the person speaking had accepted death.

  Purple pulses ripped through one of the pods. The following explosion turned it into a cloud of dust. Rage built within Justin. He wasn’t used to feeling that emotion in the cockpit, but seeing civilians murdered for no reason brought it out in a way he’d never experienced. Whoever the pirates were, they didn’t deserve to live. The missile-lock-on tone sounded again, and Justin pressed the launch button.

  Twin warheads accelerated away from Justin’s Sabre along with Vultures from Feldstein and Adeoye. Six in all, they tracked the single bandit relentlessly. Half were spoofed by either ECM or chaff, but the others pushed forward, bracketing the enemy craft. It had nowhere to go. One after the other, small explosions dotted across its shields.

  “Alpha Three, guns guns guns.” Adeoye’s voice sounded garbled across the commlink. His Sabre slid behind the pirate, and bolt after bolt of blue neutron-cannon energy zipped through the void. The enemy rolled away, attempting a scissors maneuver to get behind Adeoye.

  Unfortunately for the pirate, Justin had already anticipated such a move. With the bandit’s aft shields below twenty percent, he made every shot from his neutron cannons count. A dozen bolts later, the enemy exploded in a mass of orange-and-blue fury. “Alpha One, splash one.”

  Justin toggled the channel to guard. “Hadley pods, you’re clear. We’ll fly close escort back to the carrier. If you’ve got any more juice in your engines, now’s the time.”

  “Acknowledged, CDF.”

  The voice of another pilot filled the commlink. “Rot in hell, whoever you were.”

  I can’t disagree with them. Justin took the momentary lull in combat to check on Beta and Gamma’s progress. Master One, the up-gunned corvette, was still very much in the fight. The Maulers were lining up another attack run while a horde of fighters from the pirate carrier bore down on them. If I leave them out there, they’ll get cut to shreds.

  He toggled the commlink to a private channel with Green. “Alpha One to Beta One. Come in.”

  “Beta One reads you loud and clear,” Green replied.

  “There’re too many of ’em out there. I want you to pack it in along with Gamma. Abandon the attack and get back to the barn.”

  “Respectfully, sir—”

  “That’s a direct order, Lieutenant.” Steel crept into Justin’s voice. “All of you. Now.” Yeah, I do sound like Whatley. Wow.

  “Acknowledged, sir.”

  A few seconds later, the Boars and Maulers reversed heading and turned toward the Greengold. Thankful that while Green seemed angry, at least she was following orders, Justin turned his attention back to the mass of pirate fighters. He did some quick mental arithmetic and didn’t like the outcome. They’re going to overtake the bombers before they get to the carrier. Justin narrowed his eyes. Not if I can help it.

  “Alpha One
to Alpha and Charlie elements. There’s no intercept vector left to the pods, but our bombers are about to get it.”

  “Yeah, that doesn’t look good,” Feldstein replied. “They’ll get eaten alive by these heavy fighters.”

  “Eight against twenty-plus isn’t good odds.” Justin let out a breath. “But if we loose most of our Vultures at max range, I think we can mix it up long enough for Beta and Gamma to get back to home plate along with the pods. I don’t want to order you all to do this.”

  “We’re with you, sir,” Feldstein replied immediately.

  “Charlie element isn’t pulling out without a fight,” First Lieutenant Hawkins interjected. He led the second group of Sabres.

  “Okay, people, let’s do this.” Justin tightened his grip on the flight stick. “Break left, afterburners to maximum.”

  The flight of eight fighters broke toward the enemy force like a wave. Their maneuvers compared favorably with the highest trained exhibition squadrons in the CDF, and they were honed by thousands of flight hours working together as a team.

  Justin toggled his commlink to guard. “Hadley pods, we’re moving off to engage the rest of the pirates.” Hopefully, they don’t freak out. “Get yourselves landed on the Zvika Greengold. Stay on this frequency and ask the air boss for landing instructions.”

  “I understand, CDF.”

  Whoever’s flying over there is in shock. Justin could hear it in his voice. He briefly reflected on the fateful day almost a year ago when the war broke out. The day I had to grow up. The knots in his stomach that used to be present before every engagement were gone, replaced by the steel constitution of a battle-hardened veteran.

  The range closed rapidly between Alpha element and the enemy. Justin felt eager to just get on with it already. He intended to use similar tactics to those employed by the CAG at the Battle of Sol. “Alpha One to all fighters. I want you to rapidly launch all Vultures the moment we get into range. We’ll see how it develops from there.”

  “Wilco, Alpha One,” Feldstein replied.

  “Alpha One, fox three,” Justin called out as he pressed the missile-launch button a split second after the lock-on buzzer sounded. It took the flight computer a moment to regain positive lock. “Alpha One, fox three,” Justin said into the commlink again.

  In quick succession, four Vultures dropped from his Sabre’s internal stores bay two at a time. All around him, the other friendly fighters launched their own munitions. The battle space came alive with dozens of LIDAR-tracking missiles. Faced with an overwhelming volume of inbound fire, the pirate craft broke off their pursuit of the bombers and focused instead on avoiding the warheads headed straight at them.

  While the smaller craft fought it out, Master One had moved away. Justin noted its shields were down, and it appeared to be losing atmosphere or fuel. A pity Gamma didn’t have time to finish the job. Still, the large group of red dots representing almost three dozen enemy fighters and bombers would be more than enough to put the hurt on the Zvika Greengold. Running the math in his head of distance to the hangar bay, the time needed to land, and the bandits' relative speed profiles against Maulers, Justin determined they needed another five minutes. Longest five minutes of our lives.

  He cued the commlink. “Alpha One to Alpha and Charlie elements. Form on my starboard wing, line abreast. Follow me in. Do not break off for individual dogfights.”

  Acknowledgment lights lit up across Justin’s HUD from each fighter in the Red Tails. He adjusted his heading to put the Sabre on a course cutting through the enemy formation at an angle and redirected aft shield strength forward. “Alpha One to Alpha and Charlie elements. Break now.”

  Rolling to his starboard relative position, Justin accelerated to max thrust and engaged his Sabre’s afterburners. Missile alarms sounded, and he triggered the chaff dispenser. Clouds of spoofing material spread out behind the friendly craft, and the formation they maintained maximized the effectiveness of their ECM pods. There were few hits on either side from the LIDAR-trackers.

  The group of eight fighters streaked through the void as they entered energy-weapons range, which had been Justin's plan all along. Purple and blue streaks zipped outward from both groups, though the Sabres had more accurate gunnery. Two of the pirate craft didn’t survive the pass, while all of the friendlies did.

  “Nice shooting,” Mateus said. “A few more passes like that, and we’ll thin out the herd.”

  Left unsaid was that most of Alpha and Charlie elements had shields below thirty-percent strength, and recharging them before another firing pass was impossible. Justin searched his mind, thinking as outside the box as he could. “Okay, next plan.”

  “What’s the matter with the old plan?” Adeoye asked.

  “Nothing, if we had all day.” Justin adjusted his course back toward the enemy. “Form up, line abreast. This time, we’ll drop our entire complement of heat-seeking missiles, hit the afterburners, and run like hell.”

  “That’s nuts, sir,” Feldstein replied.

  “You got a better idea? Now’s the time.”

  Silence was her reply. Justin squinted at his HUD scanner. The red dots had scattered to some extent, but groups still held unit cohesion. Now would be a good time for our superior training to help out. “Come to heading zero-one-eight, full afterburner.”

  The Sabres quickly assumed the directed formation and accelerated through the void. Justin switched his focus to fire control, toggling his stores selector to the Eagle heat-seeking missiles. His strategy involved some risk, as with full afterburners going, Alpha and Charlie flights would be the hottest things in the local area—and with the enemy coming straight at them, it was unlikely the warheads would lock on. The CDF technology had failsafes built in to prevent an Eagle from coming after a friendly craft, but Justin felt he was in uncharted territory.

  “Alpha One, fox two.” Two warheads dropped out of his internal stores bay and rocketed away. The rest of Alpha and Charlie followed suit, and quickly, over two dozen missiles were headed toward the hostiles. The moment Justin confirmed he’d loosed four Eagles at the enemy, he cranked his flight stick upward. “Alpha, Charlie, break and disengage. Max thrust.”

  Afterburner plumes lit up the void as all eight Sabres rocketed through the enemy formation. Energy-weapons fire was ineffective thanks to poor interception angles and the relative speed of the friendly craft. Justin didn’t even bother with aiming, and he doubted the others did either. He was firing more for effect.

  The enemy wasn’t out of the fight, however. Numerous LIDAR-tracking warheads separated from the pirate formation and raced toward the Sabres. Justin’s missile alarm sounded, and he stared at the HUD-integrated scanner, trying to determine how many were aimed at him. “Alpha One to Alpha and Charlie elements. Maintain formation. Deploy chaff. Redirect power to aft shields and engines.”

  A dangerous dance broke out as the Sabre group sent dozens of LIDAR balls confusing chaff into the void while juking to confuse the incoming warheads. Many took the bait, but enough slammed into Alpha and Charlie to cause significant damage. Several friendly craft took hull damage, and Justin’s bird lost its aft shield generator. Just when he thought they were home free, one of the Charlie-element fighters flashed red on his HUD.

  “Charlie One declaring an emergency. Master alarm lit. Losing thrust.”

  Justin pulled up the diagnostic screen for Hawkins’s craft. “Alpha One to Charlie One. Disengage inertial damper. You’ll continue forward at present speed.”

  “Wilco, Alpha One,” Hawkins replied.

  Seconds seemed to last hours. “No good, sir. Inertial dampers won’t disengage.”

  “Can you manually reignite your afterburner?”

  The pirate craft relentlessly pressed forward on the sensor readout, gaining on the sole straggler—Charlie One.

  “No joy, sir.” Hawkins’s voice held an element of fear. “Attempting manual engine restart.”

  A pregnant pause came over the commlink. Justin held
his breath.

  “Negative on manual restart. Shit, bandits are in energy-weapons—” A sudden burst of static was followed by nothingness.

  “Charlie One, come in.” Justin let out a guttural roar as the blue icon disappeared from his HUD. That the rest of them were beyond the pirates’ reach should’ve been cause for celebration, but it felt like every emotion he had turned to ashes. Dammit.

  “CSV Zvika Greengold actual to Captain Spencer. Come in.” Tehrani’s voice cut through Justin’s thoughts like a knife.

  “This is Spencer, ma’am.”

  “Execute emergency combat landing. All craft.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Justin set his jaw. He still had a job to do.

  “Greengold actual out.”

  Justin scanned his HUD and saw the green icons associated with the Hadley escape pods disappeared one by one near the Greengold. Good. One less problem for us to worry about. The next few minutes of flight time were about as uneventful as they could be with nineteen hostile fighters and a group of bombers chasing them. In the interim, Gamma and Beta elements landed on the flight deck.

  At fifty kilometers out, the commlink came alive with the voice of the air boss, who had full control of launches and landings on the carrier. “Alpha One, this is the boss. How copy?”

  “Alpha One to the boss. Read you loud and clear.”

  “All remaining craft are cleared to land in Hangar A. Any available space.”

  “Understood. Alpha One out.”

  Justin toggled his commlink to the all-fighters channel while he scanned his HUD’s sensor readout. “Alpha One to all friendlies. You heard the boss. Set down on any available pad. I’ll stay outside and follow you in.”

  “Don’t be a hero,” Feldstein interjected on a private channel. “Please. We’ve already lost enough today.”

  As she spoke, Justin could’ve sworn he heard Hawkins’s voice calmly declaring an emergency again in his mind on a loop. He pushed it down. “Don’t worry. I’m landing the moment the rest of you have, so hurry it up.”

  Sabre after Sabre entered the hangar as the pirates pressed onward. Two of the enemy heavy fighters, either feeling lucky or not well trained enough to understand the danger, approached the Greengold from the port side on a trajectory for an anti-ship missile launch. Unfortunately for them, the broad side arcs had the most point-defense capability on the vessel. Thousands of rapid-fire bolts of energy shot out from the carrier at the speed of light. While each bolt by itself was inconsequential and not incredibly accurate, the volume of fire more than made up for it.