Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War by Seth Libby Page B

?” Dvares asked.
                  “She seems to be okay at the moment, the Remington and Alexander are taking up defensive positions.”
                  “Okay, move us into position so our port side faces the Reagan , we can use each other as protection. How is the rest of the fleet holding up?”
                  Kimino scanned the holo display for a few moments before responding.
                  “We are taking a pounding sir, if we don’t get some help soon we are going to lose this fight.”
                  “Captain, we have incoming Shenkar fighters, off our stern!” his operations officer warned.
                  Captain Dvares sighed; if he survived this battle maybe he would retire like his wife kept asking him to do.
     
    December 26 th , 2013 2:41am
    Terran System
                  “Watch it Arch-Angel you have four on your tail!”
                  Liam pulled hard against the stick causing his fighter to roll hard to the left. Hot energy shot past, impacting upon the energy shields of a nearby EDF heavy cruiser, Liam was unsure of which cruiser it was in the pandemonium that was this battle. Depressing his right foot pedal he sent his fighter into a tight corkscrew dive. His pursuers doggedly stayed on his tail as they continued to pour energy after him. Glancing at his radar he examined a nearby Shenkar Shirec cruiser that was venting atmosphere as she burned heavily. Quickly he turned his fighter towards the burning cruiser and ignited his afterburners. As expected his four shadows continued their pursuit, he had to admit, they were persistent. Quickly the cruiser loomed in front of him as he accessed his torpedoes impact ignition parameters through his computer. Once finished he quickly depressed his trigger and his torpedo spend off. The torpedo passed through a tear in the hull and impacted inside the burning cruiser. Adjusting his path his fighter shot over the top of the cruiser just as his torpedoes delay fuse ignited and exploded. The result was secondary explosions created a chain reaction igniting a reactor overload. Just as Liam’s four pursuers passed over the cruiser, it exploded, engulfing the four Shenkar fighters.
                  With a moment of peace he quickly took an assessment of the situation. It didn’t look good for the small Earth fleet. Two defense platforms burned under the barrage of fire they were receiving from the Shenkar command bases. Over half the capital ships had either been destroyed or disabled and the fighter cover had been severely diminished. Of the one thousand unenhanced pilots, roughly half of their number were disabled or destroyed. If they didn’t turn this around soon they were going to lose this battle.
                  A chime alerted him to inbound fighters to the battle, many more fighters. Keying his computer he pulled up the identification of new additions. Within the blink of the eye, he received his answer and trepidation filled him as a communiqué came over his headset on a secure channel.
                  “Hi honey, want some help?” asked Leah.
                  “What do you think you are doing?” demanded Liam.
                  Jerking his flight stick over Liam narrowly avoided two oncoming Shenkar fighters.
                  “Me and the rest of the cadets are going to help. I will be damned if I lose you before I get to marry you,” Leah said, not bothering to hide the irritation in her voice.
                  “How did you unlock your fighters? That requires a command code.”
                  “Well that I had to help with,” said a familiar voice.
                  The new voice broke into the conversation at this point, a voice Liam hadn’t expected to hear as the individual was supposed to be on his honeymoon. Liam had explicitly