SODIUM:4 Gravity by Stephen Arseneault Page A

we began to accelerate. I clinched my teeth as the shield shot up to 78% and then slowly began to fade. We watched on the rear camera as the alien destroyer's hull began to buckle and twist.
    In a final gesture of death the destroyer exploded in a violent flash as one of the Drillers found its way to its fusion reactor. Cheers of joy rang through our GAF as we sped away, back towards safety. Randy smiled broadly as he targeted and killed two more fighters on the way.
    We had the first kill of a giant ship of the alien fleet. I hoped it to be the first of many. I gave Command a verbal of our tactic and was told it was being put into place wherever possible. When our celebration ended we were again heading back into battle, this time with our squadron by our side.
    Without the destroyer as backup the remaining alien fighters were much easier prey. I again glanced down at the stats and was encouraged to see 1,826 confirmed alien fighter kills to our 347 Defender losses. Shepard's ratio calculation showed us as having a small fleet remaining when the alien fighter count reached zero.
    Much of the afternoon was spent chasing down fighters in our quadrant. We kept our distance from the main body of the fleet and the other large ships as we picked away at their fighters.
    Two destroyers then turned in our direction. I put the call out to our squadrons to retreat. As we turned and fled, our holo-screens lit up with another 4,000 ground launched Drillers rocketing up towards the approaching destroyers.
    The space surrounding the large ships was soon filled with small explosions as the ships maneuvered and fired upon the Drillers. I took the opportunity to again throw our squadron into battle. We kept our distance from the large ships as the relentless Drillers charged the destroyers again and again.
    Cheers once again filled our cabin as one of the destroyers ceased to move and showed signs of destruction. Again a bright flash told the story as the fusion reactor aboard the destroyer was breached.
    Our celebration was short lived as the mega-ship maneuvered in close to the remaining destroyer. Wave after wave of Driller exploded in bright fury as the mega-ship swept the surrounding space with its powerful gravity beam. The active Driller count in our quadrant soon dropped to zero.
    Without the threat of the Drillers our kill ratio soon plummeted back near one-to-one. The mega-ship moved to another quadrant enacting the same highly effective Driller sweep. The tides of war had once again turned back towards the invader's favor.
    With the alien destroyer once again limiting our attacks I tried repeatedly to knock another alien fighter offline. As a new strategy the aliens triggered the self-destruct of their disabled craft. A green fog would spray out encapsulating and dissolving the dead fighter before we could make use of it.
    The next hour was spent chasing down the stray fighter that ventured too far from its parent destroyer. Our squadron's original 28 Defenders now numbered 12 and our team of four GAFs was down to three. We had kill credits for one destroyer and 47 fighters.
    After many hours of battle I was surprised that nearly half of our mobile coil guns were still in service pumping out tungsten rounds. Our scientists and engineers had launched a number of special Defenders with a new gravity shield. The special Defenders would sit in the middle of a cluster of mobile guns protecting them from the relentless attacks by the alien fighters.
    Slowly but surely a pod of alien fighters accompanied by a destroyer would charge a group of our mobile guns. The alien losses were heavy, but our mobile guns were falling one by one.
    I asked for Command to deliver new orders, but none were forthcoming. Command was occupied with larger strategies. Our holo-screens soon lit up with 186 new launches from the ground. It was a new type of nuclear space mine with an active skin and passive sensor.
    Each launcher held 20 such mines which would be