A sizzling pop snapped through the radio speakers. Before Tyra could find out what had happened to Ljungquist, the computer gave her a lock onto her target. Her right index finger hit the trigger beneath it, and the LRM pod mounted beneath the cockpit spat out a score of missiles in rapid-fire succession. The missiles streaked away until their rockets seemed little more than stars in the distance, then a series of explosions cast light into the void. Hit!
She knew better than to hope one volley of LRMs had destroyed her enemy, and she gained quick confirmation of that fact as both aerospace fighters shot past each other. Instantly, her computer stopped its vacillation between Stukaand Corsairfighters. It settled on neither and instead filled the secondary monitor with a digitized visual representation of the craft she faced.
The craft had definitely been built along the lines of a Stuka.The rectangular body and stubby wings supporting large weapons pods were unmistakably those of an STU-K5. It also had the forward stabilizers, located beneath the dome-covered cockpit, which added stability to the aerospace fighter when forced into atmosphere. Slight variations in the outline of the weapon canisters on the wings suggested, however, that they carried even more weapons than the standard complement of twin heavy lasers, which did not please Tyra at all.
What did please her was the ruined armor on the Stuka'snose and the gaping, fire-blackened hole where the computer reported a short-range missile launcher should have been. Good! In a tight fight, that will be to my advantage, though his lasers are more than enough to destroy this thing. And not only is it packing more weapons, but its performance profile suggests it has more armor, too.
Most intriguing, the visual image showed the craft's crest. At first glance, it looked to Tyra like a polar bear silhouetted against a black moon. No, that can't be right. No bear has six legs. And why is there a white star in the middle of the moon?
Tyra kicked her Shilonearound in a split-S, sending it arcing up and off to the right and then rolling the craft back around, its nose pointed one-hundred-eighty degrees from where it had just been. She tried to get another weapons lock onto the enemy fighter, but it had pulled a similar move, sending their warbirds straight at each other again. Tyra, seeing that the abbreviated range of the battle would give her heavily armed enemy the advantage, let the Shilonecontinue its slide to the right. Then she brought the craft over and around in a broad barrel roll that looped her around her enemy's line of attack.
She armed another weapon as her scanners reported her foe nosing up abruptly and rolling in an Immelmann. Fancy flying, but real risky. You gotta be woozy from the gees you've just pulled.She looked at the icon of the craft behind her, then when the rim of her display disk pulsed gold, hit the switch beneath her left thumb. Here's where you earn your pay.
Four SRMs shot straight in on their target, hitting the enemy fighter just as it completed its roll. The missile explosions marched in succession up the nose of the fighter and onto the cockpit canopy. Tyra's combat computer updated the picture of her enemy by ripping holes in armor and denting the crystalline cockpit dome.
The pilot reacted to the attack after only a moment's hesitation. During that moment, the craft continued its roll, so the pilot increased thrust to bring the craft down and to the right. Tyra jerked her fighter up onto its left wing, then feathered the pitch controls to bring up the nose. The maneuver slammed her down into her seat and ground her teeth together, but she hung with it. Boosting the thrust from her right wing, she sent the Shilonespinning back down to where it dove like a hawk on the fleeing raider craft.
Shimmering, multicolored balls danced before her eyes as she brought the Shilone'snose back up. My dive arc is steeper than his. Gotta come up to target...She pressed her left foot down, vectoring more thrust to that wing, which brought the left side of the craft up and around by fifteen degrees. Hold it! Hold it!Her Shiloneswung in behind the raider as though being towed on a string. Now!
Tyra fired all her forward weapons at the enemy, and in turn, took damage from the medium laser he fired back into his rear arc. The scarlet beam of light slashed a blackened scar through the armor on the right side of the Shilone'sfuselage. Tyra's combat computer updated the status of her ship, but no warning lights flashed or sirens sounded. Clean bill of health.
The nose-mouthed large laser pumped kilojoules of energy into the enemy fighter. The ruby beam swept over the fuselage like a spotlight, but concentrated its attack on the left rear-thrust port. In combination with the medium laser mounted on the Shilone'sleft wing, it fused the port shut, instantly bouncing the enemy fighter to the left. The Shilone'sother medium laser sliced armor plates from the aerospace fighter's right wing, but did little more real damage than melt the moon and bear insignia from its surface.
Tyra rode her fighter over to the left, relentlessly tracking the enemy. With the left vector port gone, the pilot can't easily turn right. I've got him!
Before she could lock her weapons onto target for another savage assault, the piercing wail of warning alarms filled her cockpit. "SRM lock!" She stomped down with both feet, engaging the overthrusters and hurtling her craft forward. Smashed back into her seat, she overshot her intended target and tried to pull another wingover to cut out of her current vector. Just as the Shilonebegan to react, the trio of SRMs launched by the raiders's wingman hit.
One blasted into the surface of her left wing. The explosion rocked her craft and blew chunks of armor from the Shilone,but the inertial reaction to the blast actually helped her bring the fighter over on her intended maneuver. The other missiles slammed into the engine in the Shilone'saft. The computer dropped her power output by 7 percent and flashed two small icons against the Shilone'soutline on the primary monitor.
A wave of heat washed into the cockpit to tell her what the computer silently displayed. Great. Two heat sinks hit. I lose speed with the engine damage and now this baby will slowly roast me. Well, I won't have to worry about that if this new raider gets a lock on me again."Nik, where are you?"
"On him, Cap. Break left. Three, two, one ... missiles and lasers away!"
Tyra rolled her Shiloneto the left, and Anika's fighter shot through the area she'd just left. As her ship corkscrewed through space, Tyra saw a series of explosions on the ship Nik had been chasing. Righting her craft, Tyra radioed a quick congratulation to her wingmate, then looked at her sensor screen and found her quarry. Easing back on the thrust, she sent another flight of SRMs from her rear-arc launcher at him.
The missiles missed their target, but forced the pilot further left in his wild attempt to elude them. That pulled him even with Tyra only thirty meters off her left wing. The pilot actually tossed her a salute, then began to pull up. Of all the ... salute this!
Tyra sent a microburst of ion thrust through her right yaw control and cut all acceleration thrust. Unfettered by atmosphere, the Shilonerotated on its vertical axis, tossing Tyra forward against her safety belts and the left side of the cockpit. The fighters continued to sail along in the same direction, but suddenly Tyra's craft brought all weapons to bear on her foe.
The raider whipped his ship over on its left wing and vectored thrust through the belly ports to pull away. Tyra's targeting system locked onto this new heat source and flashed the dot in the crosshairs. Without thinking, Tyra triggered all three lasers through the forward thrust port. Armor vaporized at the lasers' touch, and the half-melted vector louvers spun away amid clouds of ionized thrust. The hellish beams stabbed up into the body of the craft itself, but at first, Tyra could not tell if they had done any damage at all.