Chapter 28

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Chapter 28: Launch Time

Lana and Jeremiah worked together to reduce our ship's profile as much as possible. Minimized power emissions, exposed the smallest surface area possible to the Koraxian fleet--all that stuff you get taught in flight combat training.

Arcturus notified me: "We've got five fighters ready for takeoff, to head down to the planet. If we fly by in a tight formation they probably won't notice us."

"What about the bombers? And this ship?"

"We can have the bombers come in right after us, and have them stay airborne until we give them a target to hit. This ship, I think we should leave with Byron. I want someone I know and trust running things up here, and she's not really a pilot, so I think this is the best use of her abilities."

"Fair enough. So it's you, me, your wife, your son, and..?"

"Theo. He'll be able to watch our backs."

So, the preparations got underway. Arcuturus went and got his daughter from engineering, and I overheard their conversation as I evaluated the weapons loadouts for our ships.

"I'm sorry if I haven't been as available to you as you would have liked," he said. "You were always down in the guts of the ship, and I had too much to do on the bridge. But you're still my daughter and I still care about you. You being all grown up doesn't change that. When I get back, we'll do something together, just the two of us. Okay?"

She folded her arms. "I'll believe it when I see it. Have fun on your little mission."

"I am trying to reach out to you here, Byron." Yeah, he looked a little aggravated.

"And doing a piss poor job of it. Who cares? Just go. I'll keep the ship out of harm's way." She didn't give him a chance to respond, just walked away. Nice.

He appeared more than a little perturbed by their exchange. "I don't understand her," he sighed.

"Well, one conversation isn't going to make up for years of neglect," I chimed in. "She'll forgive you, eventually. It just takes time."

"A resource we seem to be running very low on these days. But you're right. It shouldn't have taken a crisis like this to open my eyes."

"But sometimes that is what it takes. A wake-up call. The important thing is, you heard it and answered. Just don't give up on her."

"I won't, but if she's given up on me, I don't see the use."

"Persistence is key, Arc. Trust me."

"And what makes you the expert?"

I shrugged. "My parents resurfaced recently, remember? I can tell you that, if we'd had more time together, if they'd made a genuine effort, I could have forgiven them for abandoning me. Nobody's perfect. But you have to make the effort. Even if it takes her five, ten, thirty years to come to her senses, it will be because you tried to get through to her. I can only speak from my own experience, but from the way she acts, she feels like she has no family. You just have to remind her who you are and that you care what happens to her."

"Easier said that done, it would seem. Do you have our weapons ready?"

"Yeah, we just need to get into our flight suits. I don't know what kind of atmosphere this planet is going to have, but it probably won't be breathable."

"Our little green friends are ammonia-based, so their atmosphere is going to be somewhere between 'toxic' and 'corrosive.'"

"Oh, that sounds lovely."

"Doesn't it?"

...

Not much later, the five of us were on the flight deck, climbing into our fighters. The four bombers also had small crews climbing aboard. The rest of the fighters were readied just in case things went sour and they had to engage in a ship-to-ship fight. As long as the five of us made it down safely and the bombers kept out of trouble, we'd be in good shape. Getting back after the bombing? Eh, the odds on that weren't looking so hot. But a win is a win, even if it kills you.

Okay, so I really didn't have a death wish. Still, the opportunity to stick it to those Koraxian bastards was too good to pass up.

My eyes scanned the cockpit interior from within my flight suit. The ship vibrated subtly as I started up the engines. A narrow rail stretched out before me, going from below the nose of my fighter all the way down the flight deck, to a launch iris. The ship would fly along the rail, launch through one iris, it would close, a second would open, and I'd fly right out of the ship. All in about five seconds. Not really the same as the launch tubes on Alliance carriers, but close enough. Good enough for what we needed to do.

I checked in with my colleagues, who were themselves getting ready to launch, on tracks parallel to mine. "Status check," I said.

"Blue 1 is a go," Arcturus voice squawked.

"Blue 2 ready," Lana said.

"Blue 3 good to go," Jeremiah said, his voice wavering.

There was silence from Theo's ship. Big surprise. "I'm going to assume Blue 4's silence is a good sign. Blue 5 is prepared to launch."

For the next several seconds, we applied thrust to our engines, the ships shaking more noticeably. We released our braking latches at roughly the same moment, and catapulted forward. The irises opened like clockwork, the first one spiralling away, then slamming shut behind me as the second one spun open, launching me into the darkness. The five of us turned toward the planet, navigating through the dust cloud that concealed our destroyer, and coasted in. The four other ships pulled in around me, one above, one below, and one on either side.

We watched the massive crystal ships move in formation around the planet. There were thousands of them, moving all around, defending their shining jewel--their home. I envied their fleet strength. Even if they'd thrown most of their forces into the war with us, they still had all these to remain behind and protect the home front. If we'd possessed forces like that, it would have been a much tighter contest.

We passed through their formations, with quite a bit of anxiety on my part. I was surprised Jeremiah didn't shit himself, getting so close to these lethal monstrosities. But, as I expected, they paid us no attention. With so many of them flying around, they would have had trouble picking up such small bogeys, coasting in on minimal power.

We kicked our throttles back up as we hit the atmosphere, and started looking for a place to touch down. We were close. So close. I was going to kill that son of a bitch, Korath. I imagined making a little green blob swirl and writhe as I took potshots at it. Made it suffer. Put a bullet it in for every man and woman aboard the Protector. Then, give it a kick for every ship, every life, every grain of sand his worthless race ever disturbed.