Avenger
Elite Squadron
in
Trial by Fire
by
FL/CM Brian/Avenger 2-1/VSD Aggressor
(soccerwars10@aol.com)
“From up Avengers, the Aggressor will be here any minute.” Lead said as he
pushed his control stick slightly forward to put the beautiful Jierro Nebula
into full view. The past twenty
minutes AES had been running an escort mission for a convoy of freighters bound
for the EH’s forward base on the boundaries of the sector. The EH and its Allies, known collectively as the Allied
Empires of Freedom (AEF) had been fighting a losing war against the notorious
faction of sectors, planets, and star fields known as the Allied Xenophobic
Intergalactic Separatists. The AXIS
powers had been slowly expanding their reign of terror across the galaxy,
starting at their home sector at Germary. The
AXIS believed in human supremacy over all species, ruthlessly eradicating and
destroying alien species from history. The
AEF had been created to stop this evil threat to the entire galaxy!
“Five here, lead. I’m picking something up that is very strange
coming from vector 4-67-B. Looks
big, and coming our way.” Brian said through the Comm.
The
squadron changed direction and headed towards the new heading, putting itself
between the signal and the convoy.
Just
then the telltale image of a fleet reverting from hyperspace filled the view
screens. An Imperator Class II Star
Destroyer accompanied by three Lancer Class Frigates and an Escort Frigate
oriented themselves, turned and faced the convoy.
As
if the situation could not have gotten worse, one squadron of bombers emerged
from the Escort Carrier, as well as two more from the Star Destroyer.
“All Avengers break flights and switch to cloaking mode.
We don’t want them knowing we are here until we have to. Flight Three, I want you to transmit your sensor image as a
group of four light freighters, and stay in formation with the others.
If some of those fighters get past us, give them hell.” Khameir Sarin
piped over the intercom. “As ordered One,” Corrin replied with a slight smile on
his face.
Three rolled in towards the oncoming Tie Interceptors.
Pellaeon glanced down at his sensor array.
Flight Three was now a group of slow moving, bulky old freighters near
the edge of the formation. I
hope those Ties attack them. They’ll
be in for a surprise!
One quickly approached the massive formation of Ties.
He counted thirty-six fighters. Three
Squadrons! The formation was in range, and suddenly, out of nowhere, eight
streaks of light green lasers arched at the unsuspecting fighters.
Eight shots, eight kills. At
that moment the entire formation of ties scattered in a panic.
Two of the interceptors veered directly into each other, resulting in a
brilliant flash of red-orange energy.
“Break by wing pairs and engage at will,” Lead announced.
A sound of joy came over the channel from Four, the squadron’s youngest
member. ”Youth, they will
never learn” Sarin thought as he banked and came up behind one of the
bombers. Two quick shots tore the
port wing off, sending the bomber in an erratic path out into space.
The Tie Shadows that Avenger was piloting were equipped with limited
cloaking devices that allowed them to cloak for a week without having to
uncloak. The downside was that in combat, cloaking was limited to only
three minutes. “Hopefully,
this battle won’t last that long.” Two thought, him being one of the men
behind the cloaking technology’s integration with Avenger Squadron.
He kept his fighter close behind and starboard of Lead’s.
They swung around for another pass.
Seven and Eight mowed through a group of tie interceptors, destroying
three in one pass. The battle was
looking good for Avenger, but unfortunately their time was running out.
Lead looked at the timer he had started when they engaged cloaking.
It read fifteen seconds. The
odds would be even if not against them then.
With over twenty fighters remaining the situation looked grim.
The clock reached zero. All
throughout the immediate area Tie Shadows appeared out of nothing.
The astonished fighters began to target them and protect the bombers who
were making runs at the freighters.
He never finished his sentence. The
Tie bomber exploded in a tremendous cloud of burning gases.
A concussion missile has detonated in the ships cockpit, killing Silencer
Lead instantly. Four traced back
the missile to its source. The
freighters! He looked closely at them and almost passed out.
They were not freighters anymore, but the missing flight of Tie Shadows!
He saw three more missiles begin their flight paths toward his squadron.
He pulled up sharply, cursing as he did so.
Nearby the battle with the Tie Interceptors was raging on.
One of them came up and around behind Six’s tail.
“I got one on me.” Zoron said promptly as he jinked the Tie Shadow
from port to starboard and began a tight climb.
The interceptor stayed with him, firing off a few snap shots.
Six’s shields easily absorbed them but they couldn’t hold out
forever. Right in front of Six came
Five, seemingly out of nowhere, and quickly snapped off a dual shot that struck
the pursuing interceptor square in the cockpit.
It exploded in a ball of flame. “Thanks
Five,” “No problem Six, let’s finish these guys off.”
After
four more tie interceptors had been destroyed, the ones left disengaged and flew
home to their respective ships. The
convoy jumped into lightspeed, safe and still in one piece.
The ISD and its accompanying ships began to pull out.
The communication unit was flooded with cheers and encouragements from
the Avengers. “This had been a
victory indeed, but would the next encounter be this easy or would it be a trial
by fire?” Sarin pondered as Avenger pulled into the Aggressor.
STAY TUNED FOR CHAPTER II