The Kaga Saga

Part 19: Stardust

"Oh what the hell. I'm not gonna run away. Sugi Squadron, it's your time to shine." Kaga refused to run away. She launched her torpedo bombers in zero gravity but instead of regular sea torpedoes, they were armed with space torpedoes, or in other terms, homing missiles. The bombers of Sugi Squadron approached the alien spaceships and fired the missiles upon them. There were a lot of spaceships and they only managed to take two down. Yamato was firing her railguns desperately trying to hold back the hordes of alien vessels approaching them. The spaceships then opened their doors and unleashed their fighters. Yukikaze got caught in the middle and was under attack from them.

"Yukikaze, pull back!" Yamato warned.

The destroyer followed the orders and tried to defend herself with whatever defense system she had. Unfortunately, the alien space fighters were too much and they fired a lucky shot on her. A laser blast struck her engines and now she was floating dead in space.

"YUKI!!! Don't worry, we'll come and get you." Yamato cried out.

"Please do. I'm surrounded!" Yukikaze pleaded.

"Carriers, launch your starfighters!" The battleship ordered.

Sakura X, the jet fighter that Kaga already launched engaged the fighters with his cannons and laser pod. The laser weapon was deadly and sliced through 10 alien fighters in one sweep. Eventually, the rest of the Sakura Squadron was available to back him up and they too were able to take out more alien fighters. Enterprise's Eagle Squadron fared similar results. While this was all happening, Kaga tried to utilise her dive bomber squadron (Momiji) to attack the main alien ships. They didn't have bombs as the zero gravity will not allow it. Instead, they were equipped with rockets. The starfighters clashed with the aliens and what resulted was one large furball in space.

Yukikaze radioed in to Yamato that she won't be able to fix the engine herself and will require assistance. The battleship decided to launch her catapult fighters while she was busy defending herself with the pulse lasers she installed.

"This is Zulu 1 of the Yamato Aerospace Defense Squadron "Zulu." What seems to be the problem, the starfighter asked.

"You and the 6 others are going on an emergency mission. I want you to clear the area around Yukikaze before the aliens rip her apart. Zulu 1, I'm giving you this repair kit which you must give to the destroyer so she can escape the battle zone." Yamato ordered her personal squadron.

"You can count on us. Zulu Squadron, launch!" Zulu 1 announced to the rest of the squadron. The 7 starfighters fought their way through the alien fighters and approached Yukikaze. The space around Yukikaze was being cleared by the combined efforts of all the starfighters as well as the space bombers holding off the alien ships from getting close. When it was safe for the destroyer, Zulu 1 dropped the repair kit for her and the engines were finally fixed. Yukikaze raced her way out of the mess and now it was time to eliminate the remaining forces. There were about a handful of alien ships left and Kaga utilised her converted aircraft to sweep them away. Sakura X was having a fun time using the laser pod, but it was overheating. He had to use his guns for awhile before it recharges. Yamato's railguns were also in the reds but they finally destroyed the space fleet.

"Alright, we did it. Let's get home quick before the aliens realise what we just did." Yamato told everyone.

"Uh Yamato?" Yukikaze worriedly gazed beyond the battleship.

"What is it now?"

"What is that approaching us?"

Yamato looked behind her to come face to face with a massive spaceship. It was the mothership and it seems like the aliens were pissed. It fired massive lasers that almost struck Yamato and released even more fighters. What was more interesting was the device that sat on top of it. Yamato's radar caught something that was odd. Several asteroids were headed their direction and their trajectories were directed towards Earth. As Kaga and Enterprise were using their starfighters to knock down the alien fighters and their space bombers against the mothership, Yamato finally came to the realization that the aliens were using those asteroids as a weapon. It looks like they had enough with them and used their device to pull asteroids from the belt as a retaliation weapon.