Devon's Blade by Ken McConnell Page A

my chief and pulled back on the stick. The fighter lifted up slowly at first and gradually increased as the nose rose up. I retracted the landing skids and rocketed away in the direction of our target, the main Votainion base we had named Blue Base One.
    The flight was uneventful. I kept going over the new maneuvers in my mind to pass the time. As we got closer, our flight split up and Karvuk and Condor swept around high to approach from a different direction than Flame and I. I was the lead attacker and also the lure to get the enemy to engage me first. Sure enough the base scrambled fighters on our approach. By the time we were within visual range of the island they had six fighters heading our way. Initial scans showed them all to be KiV-3s. That was a bit of a relief.
    “This is Rocket One, tally ho!”
    Flame slid over farther from me and I moved out slightly ahead with her coming in tighter behind me. Our weapons had a slightly longer reach than the KiVs so I opened fire before them, focusing my wing guns on the lead fighter. It only took a few shots to obliterate his shields. My second burst sliced off his starboard wing and the fighter dove in a flaming spiral into the ocean. By then the others had opened fire and we had to pull up to gain some altitude.
    With Flame on my tail for cover, I proceeded to dispatch two more KiVs before they started to edge back to the island. It was typical for them to return to base after losing two or more in a fray. But I wasn’t interested in chasing them. I kept sweeping my scanners wide to try and pick up an approaching flight of Fivers.
    “Rocket One, Karvuk. Victor, Victor, incoming Fiver’s at One eight.”
    “Copy that.”
    I switched to intercom to speak to Flame.
    “Let’s go help her, I’m disengaging from these cowards.”
    “Roger that, Lead,” Flame agreed.
    We rose up to where Karvuk and Condor were pressing their attack. Condor had moved ahead and veered off to be the lure. Three Fivers took the bait and followed him. Three others started after Karvuk until we came up on their horizon. Then they opted to come after us.
Perfect
.
    I quickly lost track of what was happening with Karvuk and Condor as I had my hands full trying to engage my own party. Flame edged over and ahead of me banking hard to lure away the Fivers. It worked. They all three followed her and I was able to get behind them. That’s when things started to fall apart for us.
    The lead Fiver got off a few shots at Flame, hitting her port wingtip. I could see the metal shards flying as I bored down on them. On my word she jinked to the left and I led the closest fighter to her. Several quick bursts hit the enemy fighter just after it kicked over. The other fighters flying just above and behind their leader broke away to get behind me. I could see their vectored thrusters lighting and knew I was going to be on my own.
    Flame was circling the other direction though and would soon have my six.
Damn those things could turn tight!
It was one thing to watch them on film and quite another to see it happening before you and to know that your life was possibly seconds from ending at their hand. I was sweating in my oxygen mask and breathing heavy from a high G turn as I saw the first rounds missing off my starboard flank.
Shit
. I had to jink and hope that Flame was in a position to take a shot.
    Just after pulling my strained fighter over I heard her over the comm.
    “Die bastard, die!”
    As I turned hard I looked back over my shoulder and saw something exploding for a brief moment. I also saw more rounds heading at me. I pushed my fighter into a dive and attempted a barrel roll down to the deck.
    “Splash a fiver!” Flame shouted over the comms.
    “Flame, got one behind me again, where are you?”
    There was a pause that seemed like freaking forever before she responded.
    “I got him Rocket One. Just hold on,”
    I saw rounds out my port side and felt something impacting my fighter. The Swift shook