Knight Squadron - The Last Flight

"We're cutting this close, Kev," Lisa called, apprehension growing as they neared the target. "I don't know if we have the umph to get through that kind of shielding."

"We'll find out, then, won't we?" Kev snapped, as he pulled his fighter into a spin and sped for the next Destroyer.

Lisa grimaced under her helmet, and followed her lead. Over the squadron comm, she could hear that the remainder of Phoenix Flight was having a rough one. Cries of "I'm hit!" and "Get him off me!" rang far too often for such a small group of ships, and the calmer voices of Captain Hunt and Lieutenant Landers, the most experienced pilots on the flight, were often lost as the two newbies fought against their own panic as well as the Jaheem fighters.

"It looks like we're on our own, Liz," Kev's voice was grim. "I don't think the rest can get past the Defenders."

"Aiden can do it, he always can!" Lisa protested, desperate to believe that the powers of renown and past exploits would somehow provide assurance of their ultimate success. 'I know he's not invincible, but he's the best of us!'

"He can't shoot things that are put of range, rookie," Kev shot back as he led the pair on another hair raising pass of a second Destroyer. "On my mark, break for the target, aim for the bridge."

Lisa swallowed. 'It's just us. If we can't do this now the Reich as we know it is over.' "Right behind you, Kev," she answered, putting as much strength into her voice as she could.

The rows of cannons and docking bays blurred as they sped past the hull. "Steady, steady, now!"

Lisa strained against the artificial G-forces as the two fighters snapped into a roll towards the Interceptor. The moment they left behind the 'shelter' of the enemy battleship at least five Destroyers worth of cannons greeted them with fire of unimaginable density. "Even out the deflectors, 5!" Lisa screamed at her wailing droid. "We can't take this much longer."

"Stay on target!" Kev shouted, as the two Valkyries weathered the deadly hail. The Interceptor was closing with them head-on, the bridge dead ahead. "Arm torpedoes! Mark my aim!"

"I'm trying!" Lisa yelled back, bucking her fighter to try an avoid the worst of the bolts. "I don't know if there'll be anything left of me if..."

"Fire!"

On instinct, Lisa slammed the trigger down. The bridge of the Jaheem vessel rushed beneath them as the torpedoes left their tubes. She squeezed off several rounds of tracers for good measure, the green bolts almost blinding her as the warship disappeared beneath them. 'I need to fix those flashback suppressors as soon as we get home.'

"What did we get?" Kev asked as he pulled his Valkyrie to a spiral dive past the Interceptor's stern.

Lisa scanned the 'look-back' display with anxious eyes. Her heart fell as the image formed. "Minimal penetration," she groaned. "We didn't break their shields."

This time, Kev didn't swear, which could only mean things were really bad. The cannons fell silent for a short moment as the pilots disappeared into the wake of the Interceptor's exhaust signature. Before either of them could speak, Aiden's frantic voice rang in their ears.

"Phoenix six! Phoenix seven! Do you copy?" The Captain sounded more distressed than Lisa thought possible. "Where the hell are you?"

Kev answered, "We just made a pass on the target, minimal damage. We're going around for a second run."

Lisa froze at her lead's announcement. 'A second run? I have no torpedoes left!'

"We're counting on you, Kev," Aiden warned. "The Destroyers are in range and are hammering the Eagle One's gravity-drive. We're falling back to hold them off, but if you can't burst that bubble in the next thirty seconds she's not going to be able to make hyperspace."

Kev probably responded with something swaggerly and bold, but Lisa wasn't listening. 'This can't be. The Reich is depending on us, and I don't have any fucking ammo. The two torpedoes Kev had left would never be enough to break the Jaheem shields.'

Trembling, Lisa opened her mouth to tell her Lead she had no heavy ammunition left, that there was no point in a second run, that she'd already failed her comrades and Captain Hunt and the Reich and Mom and Dad and every sentient that longed for freedom and justice in the galaxy.

She opened her mouth, and then she hesitated.

She knew what she was going to do.

"Ready for round two, Liz?"

Kev's voice was grim but with a touch of his signature bravado. Lisa took a deep breath before answering, "Always, Kev."

Phoenix six doubled back towards the enemy vessel, Lisa following close behind. As the two fighters left the heat shroud of the warship they were greeted warmly by a fresh storm of tracers. Alarms blared, P5 squealed in protest, and for once Lisa didn't have any peppy words for the droid. Slamming on the etheric rudder, she threw her Valkyrie into a tumbling spiral, narrowly avoid a concentrated blast.

The Destroyers - seemingly stationary from the perspective of the maneuvering fighter pilots - filled the black sky with their silver forms. Blinking points of red from hundreds of manual and automated cannons lit up the massive warships as they poured fire onto the desperate Luftwaffe pair.

"Break right!" Kev roared over the comm. "On my mark reverse thrusters and follow me, we'll make a run from their seven o' clock!"

Lisa responded in the affirmative, groaning against the strain of the sudden turn. The Interceptor slipped behind them, and the pilots rushed to put the necessary distance between them an their target, for an accurate run

"Reverse thrusters!" Kev shouted, sending his fighter careening backwards towards the Interceptor. Lisa followed suite, hurriedly working to stabilize her ship for the attack.

"Lock onto the bridge!"

Lisa brought up the targeting computer, and dialed in the enemy signature.

The bridge was in her sights, Kev's fighter between her and the target. Lisa's hands crushed the yoke with a death grip as she trailed her wingman.

She could hardly believe she was doing this. She almost didn't believe it, in fact. It felt like she was back in flight school, thrown into an impossible mission scenario by a cranky instructor. Realistic, terrifying, but in the end, everything was okay. It wasn't real.

"Arm torpedoes!"

This was real. She wouldn't be climbing out of the sim after this mission. There'd be no good-natured ribbing from her squadmates over her slip-ups. No more late nights with P5 tinkering with her ship. No more daydreaming about brown-haired hotshot pilots with calming voices and battle-hardened eyes that framed an inner tenderness.

"Mark my aim, Liz, this is it."

This was it. Her family would never be reunited, even if this war did end one day. Cal would never get a response to that message he'd sent his little sister, last week. There'd be no more monthly comm calls to Mom and Dad.

She wondered if Captain Hunt would be the one to tell her parents what had happened.

"Steady... steady..."

Her hand fell to the ejection pin, trembling involuntarily. Maybe she could make it. Maybe she didn't have to go in. Maybe she could punch out just before impact...

'But if I miss... if I bail out and this ship goes past and...'

She couldn't. She wouldn't. There was no room for error. She wouldn't fail now.

"Fire!"

Time went into low gear. She saw the flash of the torpedoes as they left Kev's racks, and saw the trail of ionized vapors the quantum charges left in their wake. Her lead's Valkyrie veered off to clear the way for her run. She watched the missiles impact the Jaheem vessel's bridge deflectors, chewing a shallow hole in the shield.

She nosed her fighter over till the target was centered in her gun-sights, growing larger and larger. She heard Kev shouting and screaming at her to pull out.

The impact alarm wailed in her headset. P5 screeched. She felt the shuddering of her Valkyrie as it smashed through the newly weakened shield. The invisible barrier pinned her to her seat, her shoulders wrenched against the powerful force field. Her visor shattered, spraying her face with shards of safety glass.

The starboard wings sheared off in a shower of sparks, sending the fighter into an flat spin.

The yoke went slack. She had no more controls.

"God," she whispered over the scream of twisting steel, "don't let me miss now."

She saw the Interceptor viewports spiral towards her, Jaheem personnel scrambling to clear the bridge.

God was with her, she knew it.

She wasn't going to miss.

"They did it! The grav-well is down!"

"Get clear Admiral! Good luck!"

Aiden breathed a sigh of relief as the Eagle One was freed of the Interdictor's field, and disappeared into gravity-drive, taking its precious cargo with it. "Phoenix flight, jump to rendezvous B and regroup."

Several affirmative replies echoed in his headset before he pulled the lever, leaving the chaoatic scene behind. The jump was short, less than a minute realspace, and his heart was still threatening to beat its way out of his chest when the battered Valkyrie cleared hyperspace.

"All wings report in, status."

Aiden knew losses would be too high. They were always too high. He lost his wingman, Ensign Navarro; the young Venusian had panicked and collided with an incoming Defender while trying to shake one off his tail. Aiden had also lost visual contact with Ensign Riddick, and minimal comm traffic from Kev and Liz.

"Phoenix two, damage to the stabilizers but I'm okay."

"Phoenix three, banged up but I'll make it."

Aiden glanced around the viewscreen at his fellow pilots as they formed up. "Phoenix six, Phoenix seven, call in."

"Phoenix six here, I'm fine. Phoenix seven took out the bridge."

'Was she shot down?' Aiden opened his mouth to ask when realization came.

Lisa.

God, no.

"Ensign, where is she?" Lieutenant Landers demanded, "did you leave her behind?"

Kev's voice was sullen. "I think she left us behind, Lieutenant."

"What the-"

"She was out of torpedos," Aiden breathed, his heart twisting inside. "She'd used two torpedoes already."

Ensign Riddick gasped, as the survivors realized in an instant what their comrade had done.

Aiden closed his eyes, giving a silent prayer of remembrance to his comrade, his sister-in-arms, a rookie, a hopeful, who had answered a call of duty that every Luftwaffe member venerated and honored; and feared for when it might come for them.

Nothing could ever undo Cathorea. Nothing could make right the atrocities of the Jaheem. Nothing could bring back what was lost.

But Aiden knew now that nothing would silence the cry for freedom and justice. Even if Johann's mystical powers somehow failed them in the future, the Prophet and his minions could never crush them. Not when there were ordinary men and women like Lisa Starr, who would go up against the most impossible odds, and make the ultimate sacrifice for the cause of liberty.

One pilot.

One fighter.

One tragedy.

And one step closer to freedom.

"Phoenix flight, return home."

***

The End!