Elite Starfighter, Game 3 by Grace Goodwin

10

Darius, five hours later

The mission briefingroom onboard Battleship Resolution was not quite as big as the room we used at Arturri, but there was ample seating for the seven Titan teams, a handful of Starfighter pilots and Lily’s friend Mia and her pair bonded, Kassius, our only full Starfighter-level mission control specialists.

Lily’s other human friend, Jamie, an Elite Starfighter pilot, sat next to us on Lily’s right with her pair bonded, Alexius.

As the women had shortened their males’ names to Kass and Alex, I’d begun thinking of them the same way. We’d all shared a meal prior to this meeting, during which Alex had told me my name should be shortened to Earth speak as well and they would all call me Dar.

Thank Vega Lily had told them all an instant no. Saved me beating the other Starfighters into giving that one up. Kass and Alex had both laughed at her protest, but I had a feeling if I were ever alone with them, they would call me Dar just to poke at me. Which was fine. I wasn’t above forgetting the K sound at the beginning of Kass’s name. I hadn’t come up with ideas for Alex yet, but I would. We were family now, as our pair-bonded females considered one another sisters, per Lily. If they were important to Lily, they were important to me.

“Starfighters, we have an unexpected opportunity before us.” General Romulus paced the front of the room as the wall behind him became a massive screen.

At that moment the meeting room door slid open and General Aryk, General Jennix, and two Elite Starfighter pilots I did not recognize entered the room. General Romulus looked at General Aryk, who gave an imperceptible nod. He, in turn, gave a silent signal to Mia and Kass, who stood.

“All right. Starfighters MCS Mia Becker and Kassius Remeas will take over from here.”

Lily’s friends walked to the front of the meeting room and pulled up a nav grid that appeared to show placements of a large fleet of Queen Raya’s forces massing just beyond the planet Xenon’s moon.

“Is that a Dark Fleet cruiser?” A voice from the back of the room brought all chatter to a halt, the room suddenly eerily silent.

“Yes.” Mia pointed to a small dot near the corner of the nav grid. “And it’s not the only one. There are three cruisers in the attack formation.”

Lily leaned forward, squinting a bit to try to make out the ship Mia was pointing to. From our seats the small image was difficult to see clearly, no more than a dot on the wall. Otherwise she seemed unaffected. Unlike me. I knew how powerful those ships were. How massive. Dangerous.

A ship like that had killed my brother.

Lily looked at Mia. “So, are we going to go take them out or what?”

My chest tightened at the idea of Lily getting anywhere near one of those ships, and I answered her question. “No, we are not.”

Lily held up her hand, elbow on the table in front of us, palm turned toward me. “I didn’t ask you, Darius. Mia?”

“We have reason to believe that Queen Raya is on the third cruiser.”

“That’s not enough reason to attack. We’ll lose too many fighters.” That same voice from the back. I glanced over my shoulder to see Elite Starfighter Pilot Ryzix and his pair-bonded partner, Gustar. They flew the Lanix. I had met them a long time ago but hadn’t seen them since my brother’s death. They were very skilled. Highly respected. Merciless in a fight.

Neither one looked at all pleased at the prospect of taking on one Dark Fleet cruiser. But three? I was in complete agreement. It was a suicide mission.

Kass waited for the mumbles of agreement to die down before speaking. “We also have reason to believe Queen Raya’s forces are amassing in preparation for a direct assault on Velerion.”

The stillness was so profound I could hear my own heartbeat.

“When?” Jamie asked.

“In two days,” Mia said.

Up to this point in the war, Queen Raya had not dared assault our planet directly. She’d struck at our former Starfighter base, but that had not been located on our planet’s surface. Velerion’s satellite defense grid was formidable. When combined with the Starfighters stationed on Moon Base Arturri, our ground-to-air forces on the surface, and the Velerion space fleet, a direct assault on the home planet was unthinkable.

“Is this a joke? Because this is not amusing.” This time it was the golden-haired Gustar who had spoken. We all waited for Kass or Mia to respond. I hoped, prayed this information, wherever they had acquired it, was wrong. But when I looked at Mia’s drawn, worried expression, my heart sank into my boots.

This was no joke. And we, all of Velerion, were in serious trouble.

Mia adjusted the nav grid, enlarging sections as she detailed their intelligence. Queen Raya’s Dark Fleet allies, disturbed by her recent defeats, first at the hex port and then on the colony planet of Xenon, had decided the incoming Starfighter trainees from Earth posed too large a threat to their war efforts. To mitigate that threat, they were choosing to launch a direct assault on Velerion now, presumably before any more Starfighters from other worlds could join the fight.

I didn’t bother to ask how Queen Raya knew about Jamie or Mia. I knew Jamie had spent time as the queen’s prisoner. And like any other ruler, she had spies everywhere. Not to mention that the success of the Starfighter Training Academy program on Earth was big news on Velerion. It wasn’t exactly a secret, not after the first two Starfighters to arrive had won such decisive victories. Jamie had been captured, escaped, and managed to save an entire planet from an IPBM attack. Mia had helped plan and coordinate the successful attack on Xenon station and disabled the Dark Fleet’s primary communication and defense system on that planet’s moon.

Jamie and Mia had been too fucking good.

“We believe the bunker on Xenon was a trap designed to eliminate our newest Starfighter Titan, Lily Becker of Earth,” General Romulus added from where he stood to the side of the nav grid. “They knew we would deploy the Titan teams to that location. Not only was the interior wired to blow, but the cliffs had been drilled to ensure anyone in that area would be buried under massive rockslides.”

Lily leaned forward, an angry glare on her face. “Are you telling me they set that whole thing up for me?”

Mia looked her dead in the eye. “Yes.”

“That’s insane.”

“And yet you survived,” the general pointed out. “Elite Starfighters are powerful. You are no exception.”

“But—”

I placed my hand on her thigh and gently squeezed. Lily blinked rapidly, shaking her head. To me she whispered, “I’m a librarian, Darius. This is crazy. How do they even know about me?”

“Spies.”

“Brilliant.”

“They were nearly successful in killing not only Lily, but several members of the Titan teams,” Kass added. “Three Titan fighters remain in medical. Lily, your Titan, Athena, was destroyed. They are building you a new one, but it won’t be ready for several days, and we don’t have that long.”

Was I an ass for breathing a sigh of relief at the news? I did not want my Lily in another battle so soon after I’d nearly lost her. The medics said her leg was healed, but that did nothing to calm me or my need to protect her.

My relief was short-lived.

“Elite Starfighter Titan Divi suffered severe burns during the battle on Xenon. She is still in the medical station, sedated, as her skin regenerates. Her second-tier bonded fighter, her sister Dea, spoke briefly with Divi this morning, and she has agreed to transfer her Titan, Bellator, to Lily for use in this battle.”

“Athena was completely destroyed? Wreckage?” Lily looked heartbroken.

“She saved your life, and she is being rebuilt,” Mia assured her. “She just won’t be ready for this mission.”

Lily sat back, her arms crossed over her chest. As Mia adjusted the images again, Lily turned to me. “Sisters? I didn’t know we could be siblings.”

I shrugged. “Off-world pairings have always been pair-bonded, but not all partnerships are. Some are siblings. Best friends. Anyone you fight well with and are willing to die to protect.”

“Except your brother died and you didn’t.”

The cutting voice came from nearby. I closed my eyes as the familiar guilt and pain swelled in my throat, burning its way in two directions to make both my chest and my head ache.

“What?” Lily turned around. “Who said that?”

“Lily.” Mia cleared her throat and Lily faced forward to listen, but her gaze repeatedly darted to me, the accusation I saw there one I could not deny. I had not told her everything, that was true. But I’d done it to protect her.

Mia and Kass detailed the mission. Queen Raya’s fleet was set up for multiple waves of attack. First would be drones to take out Velerion’s satellite defense grid. Thousands of them. Followed by waves of Scythe fighters clearing a pathway for ground troop deployment via shuttle drops. The cruisers were going to triangulate multiphase and multifrequency jammers so we would have direct line of sight, laser communication only.

It was going to be a complete fucking nightmare.

And then General Romulus spoke directly to the Titan teams.

“According to intel, Queen Raya will be orbiting near Velerion’s equator on this cruiser.” He pointed to a large ship. “Our plan is to take one Titan team to each cruiser before they arrive in Velerion space. The Titan teams will deploy from a stealth shuttle that will use Xenon’s magnetic field to hide their presence and remain just outside their scanner range. When the cruisers pass Xenon on their way here, those Titan teams will rely on ejection velocity and their own boosters to navigate and attach to the cruisers’ hulls.”

“Holy fuck.”

Ryzix again, and I completely agreed. The Titans would be hurtling through space with no support team, no backup, no way out if they didn’t make it, and not enough air or reserve fuel to return to Velerion any way but on one of those cruisers’ hulls.

Titans could fly, but the external shielding couldn’t handle the heat and stress of planetary re-entry. Nor did the Titans have enough energy reserve to make that kind of landing or wait for another ride home.

“We have analyzed their attack strategy. If they succeed in placing the cruisers in orbit, Velerion will fall.” General Aryk, our highest-ranking officer in the fleet and leader of the Galactic Alliance, paused for a long minute to let that sink in.

“So, how do we stop them?” Lily asked. “The shuttle shoots one of us out like a cannonball, we adjust on the fly using our boosters, grab onto the cruiser hull, and then what? Won’t they know the second we land?”

Mia shook her head. “No. The Titans are too small. As far as their ship is concerned, you’ll be space debris, a pebble bouncing off the hull. Even their defense system will ignore you until you start tearing things apart.”

“But we do get to tear them to pieces?”

“Absolutely.”

Lily made an odd gesture with her hand in a rolling motion that caused Mia to smile as she continued. “Once the Titan team attaches to the cruiser hull, you will target one of the two grav generators that power their thrusters.” She adjusted the nav grid screen so that a schematic drawing of the cruiser filled the entire wall. Mia pointed to two distinct areas on the cruiser’s exterior. “Here’s where things get dicey.”

“Dicey?” I asked Lily.

“Dangerous.”

I grunted. As if the rest of the mission up to this point was not.

“The Titans will be carrying modified IPBM triggers recovered from the production facility on Xenon. The triggers are not as powerful as full IPBMs, but will be more than enough to start a chain reaction that will cripple the ship, perhaps even destroy it.”

“And how does the Titan team evacuate?” I asked.

“Booster reserves will be used to launch the Titan toward a previously designated set of coordinates where you will await retrieval by a shuttle.” General Romulus’s tone did not invite comment. “The Titans have a critical role to play in ending this war. The Starfighter pilots will be needed to engage with the Scythe fighters. Our MCS team and their support crews will be working to hack into the attack drones’ communication systems as well as fight to keep our satellites and comms operations. Shuttle pilots will be evacuating civilian targets as well as moving ground forces and supplies. Our entire fleet has been recalled and ordered into defensive positions around Velerion, the moon, and Xenon to protect our people and repel the attack. We cannot lose this fight. Do you understand?”

Dea, the Titan whose sister was recovering from burns, spoke softly. “What about our families on the surface? Does the public know? Can we call them? Warn them?”

“Not yet. Queen Raya is being very careful to keep her ships in the dark zones, outside of our normal scan or patrol areas. If we alert the public too soon, her spies will report back that we are aware of the attack. As of right now, the only people who know are in this room, and it needs to stay that way until we have Titans in place on those cruisers.”

Dea nodded. “When do we leave?”

General Romulus inclined his head to Dea in respect and thanks. “I have already spoken to several Titans who have volunteered for the mission. We need six Titans. With your addition, we have five.”

“I’ll go,” Lily offered before I could stop her. “I volunteer, assuming I can take your sister’s Titan?” She looked at Dea, who nodded.

“Of course. She would be honored.”

“No.”

Lily turned to me. “You don’t control me, Darius.”

“You are not going on that mission.” I looked up at General Romulus. “I’ll go instead.”

The general shook his head. “Negative. The mission positions are assigned and filled. You will report with the rest of the Titans tomorrow at twelve forty to go over ground support on Velerion.”

“No.”

“Are you refusing a direct order?”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. “No, General, but respectfully, it doesn’t make sense to split up a pair-bonded team. They work better together, more instinctively. I should go.”

“I’ve already spoken to Dea’s family. Provided she volunteered, I told them she would be mission approved. I understand you were just pair-bonded, but you’ll have to sit this one out.”

I stared into General Romulus’s eyes. Fuck, I hated politics. There would be no mission beside his pair bond. The General had made the decision before entering the room. I straightened. “Very well.”

“Excellent. Titans heading for the cruisers, be back here at zero eight twenty tomorrow. We’ll go over the ordinance and booster fuel options. Mission details will be available to each of you on your personal devices. Study them. Memorize everything. You launch at ten, sharp.” He looked around the room. “This is the end, Starfighters. We live or we die. But we fight to the end.”

A collective shout went around the room. I raised my voice with the rest, but I could not accept what had just happened. And Lily? She stood, turned on her heel, and walked away from me without a backward glance.

What the fuck was happening here? How was I supposed to protect her if she fought me at every turn? This was unacceptable.

Lily was going on the most dangerous mission I could ever imagine. Alone. And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop her.

I glanced over my shoulder to watch the Starfighter Titan, Dea, speaking to one of the pilots.

Maybe there was something I could do after all.