The Road to Hell

Chapter 17

The Sharks arrived with only an hour to spare. It gave them enough time to deploy and lie in wait for the Foehammer to make its stop. It would be a tricky manoeuvre. As soon as the Foehammer entered the system, Desrequins had to move in with his ship, the Char du Soleil, and activate the interdiction field. Then, the fighters would keep the defenders busy, letting Gavin and his cutters board the vessel.

"You ready, Spectre?" Tanner asked, as they took up the lead position of the squadron.

David chuckled. "Against drones? You're kidding me, I'll be half asleep. You should consider yourselves lucky," he said to the other members of the squadron. "Your opponents are just Adaptive Programs. We've been flying against the same programming for weeks now in simulations. Trust your gut, your wingman, and me. There's no room for fear or hesitation anymore. I was once told to never go into a knife fight and expect not to get cut. Well I'm telling you now that you should never go into battle expecting not to lose at least one friend. But steel yourselves; every man that dies on the field today will die a hero. Nihil time."

After his impromptu speech, Farid contacted him on a private encrypted channel that only David and his team were on. "Nice touch there, though I don't think the compatriot angle was the best way to go, considering you're dealing with a bunch of mercenaries."

"At least half of them are truly committed to Zeus's cause. The mercs won't care what I say, but that other half is going to believe that I'm just like them, and that won't hurt." A warning bleeped, and his SLuDAR picked up an incoming vessel. "Looks like the party's about to get started," David said as they spooled up their otherspace drives to jump in as close to the Foehammer as possible.

Over in his fighter, Tanner grinned. "Well I'll bring the candles if you bring the cake." They shot through otherspace in a flash and suddenly the Foehammer was there in front of them, larger than life. Seconds later, the battle began.

David was exaggerating when he'd said he'd be half asleep during the fight. Flying against drones was easier perhaps, but he still couldn't afford to slack off. The first-timers in his squadron were nervous and made costly mistakes. David spent much of his time watching over them instead of mowing through targets. He realized someone like Coschek or Fisher would just let them die. Every man they lost was one less enemy of HDL. Still, David just couldn't let people he helped train die if he could help it.

Between the drones and the automated defence cannons, the Foehammer was actually putting up a pretty good fight. But the sharks outnumbered the drones three to one and it wasn't long before David could tell the dogfight was over. Talon reported that the Foehammer and sent out an emergency distress call. Arcturus was only a few hours away, but they would be too late.

The Char du Soleil was going toe to toe with the hulking two kilometre-long Foehammer, using its smaller size to stay out of the way of the Foehammer's main cannon, and chipped away at its armour all while making sure they couldn't escape the interdiction field.

David wasn't the only one that could see that the Foehammer was fighting a losing battle. Farid said, "It looks like we've already won. The boarders are touching down now."

He was right. David could make out a swarm of cutters affixing themselves to the Foehammer's hullnow. It would only take a few minutes for the boarders to drill their way through the armour and invade the ship. "We've won up here, but the real battle's just beginning."

"So what now? We regroup and head home?"

"Orders are to retreat out of range and wait. Link up with the Spectral Hawk at waypoint alpha. Farid, Tanner, and I will dock with the Hawk and hold for further orders."