Wing Commander #07 False Color William Forstchen (top 10 books to read .txt) 📖

desperate call crackled in her headphones. Retreating toward the safety of the carrier had proved to be no safety at all, not with those Broadswords circling and swooping in like birds of prey stooping low over their victim. Most were concentrating on attacking the tender, but the attackers didn't pass up a chance to take a shot at the Hornets if they came in range.

Viking's Hornet was being pursued by one of the Broadswords. Both ships were plunging straight in towards the carrier, rolling from side to side as the enemy pilot tried to match Jensson's evasive maneuvers. Viking's acceleration curve was all wrong, far too slow, and Babcock caught a glimpse of twisted metal along the rear of the port side wing. He'd taken a hit, then, and now he'd lost the one advantage of a light fighter over a heavy one—speed.

"Keep them guessing, Viking, while I get into position," she said coolly, dropping her fighter behind the Broadsword and arming her heat-seeking missiles. The target reticule seemed to take forever to center on the Broadsword, and Babcock remembered again how she'd wished she could have strapped on her own plane today instead of this one.

Then the diamond on her HUD display glowed red to indicate a target lock, and Babcock opened fire with both laser cannons and both heat seekers, a single powerful strike. She hoped it would at least get the other pilot's attention.

But even as she fired, the Broadsword was opening up as well. Beams stabbed at the weakened rear shielding of Viking's Hornet, and moments later missiles detonated. It was small consolation to see her own missiles batter right through the Broadsword's shields and rip through a weak spot in the armor around the main engine . . . not when Viking's Hornet disappeared in an expanding cloud of debris at almost the same instant.

Babcock swore. She hadn't liked Eric Jensson, but he had been one of her pilots. Now he was gone.

The threat tone sounded in her ear. Another Broadsword had decided to join the party to help the one she had just crippled. And it had just acquired a target lock on her fighter.

She rammed the throttle full forward on her main engine, and prayed she could out-fly this new menace before she joined Viking in whatever Valhalla dead fighter jocks ended up in.

Strakha 800 Near Vaku WI, Vaku System 1508 hours (CST)

Acceleration pushed Bondarevsky back into his seat as the Kilrathi fighter leapt from the deck, hurled clear by a powerful linear accelerator catapult. Internal gravity compensators absorbed most of the g-force, but not quite all, and for a moment Bondarevsky reveled in the feel of it. Too much time had gone by since he'd made his last catapult launch.

There wasn't time to think about it, though. Clear of the flight deck, he cut in his main engine and pushed the throttle forward to full military power. The Strakha was handling remarkably like the simulator version he'd flown time and again since Christmas. Maybe, just maybe, the squadron's training time would count for something out here after all.

"Strakha Eight-zero-zero, good shot! Good shot!" he called, setting course toward the nearest of the enemy fighters.

"Strakha Eight-zero-niner, good shot," he heard just seconds later. It was Harper, who'd insisted on flying as his wingman. Boss Marchand must have been cycling the catapult faster than ConFleet safety regulations would ever have allowed, rushing to get the Kilrathi fighters into the battle before the Hornets and Raptors were overwhelmed.

"Bard, this is Bear," he said crisply. "Go to stealth mode."

"Copy," Harper responded, all his banter gone, replaced by a cold, professional manner. "Engaging." Bondarevsky flipped a switch, and to all intents and purposes the Strakha fighter vanished.

Kilrathi stealth technology still wasn't fully understood in human circles even yet, despite having been studied and adapted for use in the latest ConFleet ships, from Excalibur fighters up to recon ships like the old Bannockburn that James Taggart had commanded out here in the Landreich during the Free Corps campaign. The twin generators mounted under the fighter's ventral fin created an area of distortion that bent most radiation, right up through the visible spectrum, right around the hull. A small amount was allowed to leak through—otherwise the pilot would be as blind to the outside universe as his enemies were to him—but the narrow band opening was constantly remodulated by a random computer program so that it took a lucky observer to spot a cloaked ship. But it also took a lot of power, and a Strakha couldn't stay cloaked very long under combat power requirements.

Right now, though, Bondarevsky was glad to be in the cockpit of a Strakha. These unexpected and unknown enemies had pounced on the carrier with little warning. He intended the counterstroke to return the favor.

Up ahead, his sensor display had picked out a hot and heavy engagement between a Broadsword and a

Hornet that was weaving and dodging for all it was worth. Bondarevsky increased his acceleration. "Bard," he said. "We've got a furball at zero-three-one by zero-four-four. Let's see if they like gate crashers at their party."

"Right with you," Harper replied.

The Broadsword was losing ground as the Hornet accelerated away, using the full advantage of speed and maneuverability, but despite the opening range the Broadsword pilot was keeping up a heavy assault with lasers. Some of them were scoring hits. The Hornet's shields and armor weren't likely to hold long against the heavier, more modern fighter's firepower.

But the Strakha was newer and heavier than the Broadsword. Bondarevsky smiled coldly as he started his attack run. powering up his meson guns as the Strakha hurtle' toward the pursuer. As the range closed he cut the stealth generators. It took several seconds for the fighter to decloak, and during that time he couldn't fire his weapons. But he'd timed the maneuver almost perfectly. The Broadsword was looming close ahead when the veil of energy shimmered around the Strakha and it became fully visible