Solar Warden

Escape Part 124

Fisher was discussing now the option. It looked not good to get the shuttles to the Icarus in time.

"I see only one option, we jump. The shuttles are leaving the orbit soon and need instructions. If we jump to the other side they could avoid the alien ships. But we don't know how fast they are. This means the shuttles will have the alien ships in their back," Fisher said.

"If Knight's information is correct they won't harm the shuttles. They will do everything to destroy the Icarus. Maybe force us also to leave the ship," Clark replied.

"Then we can change the odds by jumping away when they send the fighters. Send the shuttles the new coordinates. Maybe we can outrun them. How long till we can jump?" Fisher looked at the tactical display. There were now 155 fighters and they started to move towards the Icarus.

"15 minutes and it won't be less. We are on maximum acceleration. At that speed we will have, we never did a jump," Clark was concerned, he made the calculations for the approaching fighters.

Fisher wanted to give the order for it, but a third labeled ETA time showed up and was decreasing. It went down to 20 minutes where it seemed to count in normal time scale.

"Now we have the question, are they in less than 15 minutes in weapons range? Do the shuttles have the new coordinates?" Fisher asked.

"I informed them," the communication officer replied.

"They are changing the course now. This acceleration of the enemy fighters is faster than of our shuttles. I must admit they can easily intercept them," Clark informed and checked the further readings.

"Show me the numbers," Fisher needed to adapt somehow. But attacking the incoming fighters was not a good option. At least with the drones and fighters. He looked now at the displaying numbers. The combat drones were better. He had a plan now. "Give me Ryan."

He discussed it with Ryan while the enemy fighters split up as expected. 40 were flying now after the shuttles. The rest was still heading for the Icarus.

"Launch all combat drones, intercept the 40 enemy ships. Then meet up at our jump destination," the Captain ordered. With that decision the Icarus was nearly defenseless against the rest. But the combat drones had now an advantage in numbers. Till more of the combat drones were shown to the enemy it would be too late for the enemy to alter the course.

Hopefully the programming was good enough for the enemies next move. Fisher was a bit worried. Without fighter support there were not much options to control the drones, because most of remote commanding was turned off. But letting the enemy the chance to hack them was not an option.