Author: K. B. Knight
Category: Thriller
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Chapter 3 - The Final Battle
I was in debrief for two hours waiting for Ericson or Grusson to show. All I was told when I asked flight control was that they had docked and I was to wait, and to stop pestering them. Finally the door opened admitting Ericson, Grusson and a wheelchair bound Ancher. I nearly dropped to the floor seeing him, so certain that he was dead. Ericson sat down at the table and ordered us to do the same.
During the next few hours I found out that just before Ancher’s Eagle exploded he ejected. As he hit vacuum his remlock mask activated, covering his face and ensuring he could survive. The system was about to activate the emergency beacon when Ancher remembered his training. Ericson drilled into us, never turn on your emergency beacon while the battle still rages, without a ship you are an easy target. You’ll either be vaporised by a ships lasers or scooped up and sold as a slave in some Imperial brothel. So Ancher, only 19 and scared witless, told his suit to deactivate the beacon and waited until the ships disappeared and the laser fire stopped. Only then did he risk turning on the distress beacon. Ericson saw the alert and picked him up. On the ship Ancher suddenly became aware of something the suit hadn’t alerted him to, one of his legs has been severed just under the hip. It just sealed it off and then gave him pain killers. I asked why the suit hadn’t alerted him before.
“He wasn’t in immediate risk of death from it, why worry him more than he already was?” Ericson said with a shrug. “Oh and here.”
He tossed over some item towards me. I caught and looked at it.
“It’s from the Eagle that slagged Ancher’s ship. We got him and that came in with him,” he pointed at what was in my hands, “as a souvenir.”
It looked like part of the main engine assembly, maybe a plasma injector or something. Hard to tell it was so beaten up. After that the meeting finished up and I went back to my father and our quarters.
That's how it was for months. Go out, escort a few ships from the inbound hyperspace point back to the station and repeat. There was the odd skirmish, some with even bigger ships than we fought that first time. What I didn’t know was that the Python that got disabled in that initial fight didn’t self-destruct, as all the others had before it. The crew had been unable to get it working and jumped into the life-pods to get away. The security section pulled its computer to bits trying to find out all they could. Eventually they found what seemed to be a base of operations for the pirates. It took weeks of planning, getting ships into positions so they didn’t make the pirates aware of the mission or the plan. Eventually we were ready to strike and we did, in over whelming numbers.
The fight was intense, we had over 80 ships ranging from my Eagle up to a couple of Anacondas. There were station security pilots, drafted pilots like me and many more volunteers from bounty hunters to well-equipped merchants. I had never seen anything like it. Despite all the planning and preparation once the battle started only the most seasoned pilots stuck to it. Most of the drafted and merchant pilots just went after any enemy they thought they could handle. Some ran not long after it got serious. My wing was charged with taking out one of the three Anacondas that served as the pirates main bases of operation. I had two Eagles and two Cobras in my wing. Alone none of us were strong enough to take on such a massive and powerful ship, but together we buzzed it. Nibbling at its shields, each of us taking turns so our shields could recharge before our next run. I have no idea how long it took, long enough that I lost the pilot in the Eagle. Eventually we got there, its shields went down and we just targeted its power plant. Volley after volley with lasers and cannon fire, racking up huge bills in ammo costs but we got there. With only three percent left on its hull integrity the Anaconda’s life pods jettisoned and the ship exploded.
Once it was gone we picked up all the survivors we could and then moved onto the next ship and then the next. The losses on our fleet were great, in just four hours we lost fifty ships and nearly eighty good people and friends. I didn’t know at the time, Ericson was lost as his ship was damaged, weapons failed and thrusters dying, he rammed a Python destroying it. It hit me like a punch in the stomach, he had become more like my father than my own was.
The pirate survivors were all put on trial. They were found guilty and put to work in the mines of Reshas 1 and 2 for the rest of their natural lives. There were ceremonies honouring the dead and their sacrifice for the station. They went on for months.
I was given a Cobra Mk III from the pirate fleet, it needed work but it got me started. My father is being looked after by the station as payment for the accidental death of my mother, I try to get back and see him from time to time. Now my home is my ship. Once I could leave I went into the black to see what was out there.
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Thank You
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K. B. Knight
About the author:
After writing many little tales here and there K. B. Knight is taking his first tentative steps into the big world of writing.