Mannheim watched the instruments as he flew behind and below Doolittle. They were going to drop down and let Yeager out on the ground. The other pilot had his bomb and a tool kit to open any door. All he had to do was land and take off while energy beams lanced the space around him.
He hoped Doolittle gave him some great cover as he came in on his run.
The last thing he wanted was another hole in his boat as he tried to clear the landing zone. He had been shot up a number of times and hated every single loss.
Going down here would leave Yeager with no pickup and Doolittle with no wing man in case someone has fighter craft to stop them. O'Hare's ship might have been a good backup, but the other crew were still trying to get things back together.
The Fort would have delivered some firepower to the scene, but it was still down until the rest could be done. Schultz said she would give them cover as soon as she could get the ship on the path.
The main cannons would punch through the asteroid if Schultz could get things working.
“Ready, Yeg?,” Mannheim asked his passenger. He had a face mask for the venting of the fighter so he could do the drop.
“Ready,” said Yeager. “Cargo is locked and loaded. Suit is sealed and working.”
“Moving in to vector,” said Doolittle. “Ready to fire torpedoes. Ten on the clock, then three minutes to land and lift.”
“On the vector,” said Mannheim. “Torpedoes and lances are hot.”
“Firing torpedoes,” said Doolittle. (“Rolled a six with the system help.”)
The torpedoes crashed against the asteroid, but the pilot groaned at the misses. None of them were close to the hidden doors.
“I'm coming in for my attack run,” said Mannheim. (“Rolled a twenty one.”)
The top of the base came off like the top of a can hit with a chain saw. Robots froze for a second in the massive destruction caused by Mannheim's strike. He looked for a place to put down. He had to offload Yeager before they got smart enough to start shooting at him now that he could see them.
“That was great, old man,” said Yeager. “I can't believe what I just saw.”
“Coming in for a landing,” said Mannheim. “Get ready to ditch.”
Mannheim lost control of his ship as he brought it down. (“A seventy two?”) He righted himself before he plowed into the ground. He dropped down and let the landing gear touch down.
(“Naturally I hide the initial problem and pretend that was supposed to happen,” said Gerry.
“Naturally,” said Jimmy.)
“Cockpit venting,” said Mannheim, making sure his breathing gear was running. “Popping the lid.”
Yeager undid his straps and climbed out of his cramped passenger seat. He dropped down to the surface of the asteroid and jumped to the pit laid out by the torpedo strikes. He had to get rid of his package before the robots were able to turn on him.
The pilot saw an engine still running after all the destruction that Mannheim had done. It pumped power to the rest of the asteroid from the looks of things. He made sure his suit was sealed as he released the bomb sack straps. He dropped the bundle next to the engine and set the timer. He ran from the deposited munitions.
He didn't want to get caught in the blast when it went up.
“I need a pickup,” Yeager said in his radio. He hoped that he could reach the edge of the blast area before it went up. Cracking the asteroid might be possible, but he didn't want to be on it when that happened.
“I'm coming in,” said Mannheim. “We have targets at your three.”
Yeager drew his pistol and sent blaster fire in the indicated direction. He didn't try to aim. He was moving, and that would just penalize his ability to dodge.
“Drop, Yeager,” commanded Doolittle. He came in, blasting away with his fighter's guns. He stitched light holes across the top of the asteroid, scattering robots in front of him.
Mannheim brought his own fighter down, dropping the landing gear at the last second. He triggered the guns in front as he shot at people wanting to shoot at him.
Yeager grabbed the ladder on the side of the fighter. He breathed a sigh of relief as the cockpit cover slid out of the way. He dropped into his seat and buckled the harness over his suit. The lid dropped back into place.
Mannheim held the trigger down as he fed the throttle and lifted his craft off the surface of the asteroid. He aimed for a spot out in the voice to escape the coming explosion without losing his fighter. Doolittle fell in beside him as they flew from the death trap they had caused.
The asteroid split into halves. The top half of the rock turned into a storm of rocks flying into local space. The bottom half revealed a base built out of the rock. Machinery and robots stopped working under the blow.
“Bucky will be glad that we settled things for him,” said Doolittle. “Let's head back to the Fort and see what Schultz has done.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“We are going to have to ask for patrols out here,” said Mannheim. “I doubt there was only one cored asteroid.”
“There's no way they seeded the whole belt with those defensive arrays,” said Yeager.
“I think the next step is a patrol pattern out here to see if anyone spots anything strange,” said Mannheim. “The belt is close to the Red Line. We could be looking at the start of an invasion.”
“Which way do you think they will go from the station?,” asked Doolittle.
“No idea,” said Mannheim. “Obviously they might push into Centralia since it is the center of government and any organized opposition.”
“We have a problem,” said Yeager. “Bogies are low seven, burning space.”
“Coming for us,” said Doolittle. “Break left, I'll break right. Maybe we can split them.”
“Counting eight,” said Yeager. “Four for both of our fighters.”
“We need cover,” said Mannheim. “See if you can loop them around some of these asteroids.”
“Break left,” said Doolittle. “Let's see if we can get behind them.”
The two fighters split away from each other. The pursuit squad split into two four man squads and gave chase. There could be no witnesses to the hidden base. The master's plans would be ruined.
(“We're going to focus on the Doolittle part of this first,” said Jimmy. “Then we will do Mannheim and Yeager. Lois, do you have everything ready for the Fort to take flight?”
“I have a list,” said Lois. “We're assuming that Schultz has been working nonstop on the Fort since the rest of the guys took off, right?”
“Right,” said Jimmy. He rolled a thirty three percent on his tens. “You are done with all the major work. You could break away from the station with only some minor issues that can be fixed in flight.”
“I'm sending Schultz a distress signal,” said Gerry. “That seems like something Mannheim would do if he thought he was about to be shot down.”
“Schultz would launch in her fighter as soon as she heard the signal,” said Lois.
“All right,” said Jimmy. He did some calculations in his head as he thought about travel time and flight issues. “At full burn, you could get to the scene of the battle in twelve melees.”
“Is there any way to shorten the time?,” asked Drake.
“If you guys made a straight run for the station, you could cut the time in half,” said Jimmy.
“We would get shot from behind as we try,” said Web.
“We're going to have to dogfight it and hope Schultz can get to us in time,” said Drake. “We'll have to use the asteroids for cover, maybe try to use them to sneak away from the fight if we can. That would be more than I expect we can get away with, but I am putting that in my strategy in case I get to use it and run away.”
“What we need to do something like that?,” asked Gerry.
“Some piloting skills to break away, and a prowl roll,” said Jimmy. “You would have to break eye contact like using an asteroid for cover, then make the rolls.”
“All right,” said Drake. “I think we are ready. Let's roll the initiative and see how we start this.”
“Roll high, Gerry,” said Webb. “I'm along for the ride and can't help out unless you want to drop me somewhere and I can try to shoot one down with my sidearm.”
“Eighteen,” said Drake.
“Six,” said Gerry. Webb groaned.
“Five,” said Jimmy.
“All right,” said Webb.
“First action is try to create a smoke screen so I can head back to the station, and get help,” said Drake.)
Doolittle headed along the surface of an asteroid. He fired into the surface. The packed stone and ice did nothing.
The squad behind him opened up, firing a volley at his speeding fighter. They narrowly missed the hurtling fighter as Doolittle boosted with his turbojet. Their fire did hit the asteroid and threw debris into the air.
Doolittle boosted away from the fight, using the rock as cover. He turned, heading for Mannheim's group.
“It's time to shoot someone in the back,” he told himself.
Mannheim tried to use the rocks for cover, trying to loop around on his enemies. He managed to get behind one, and sent a volley into the engine. The wedged-shaped fighter exploded under the attack.
(“Got lucky and critted the engine,” said Gerry. “That was pretty good.”
“Can you roll like that three more times?,” asked Webb.
“No idea,” said Gerry. He smiled at his colleague.”)
The three survivors split apart, trying to circle around Mannheim to get him back in their sights. He stayed on the center one, hoping to shoot it down too.
He pulled the trigger and missed with his guns as the other fighter juked out of the line of fire.
Doolittle came in on the one of the left. The other fighter started taking evasive action, trying to shake him. He hung on. He lined up the shot and hit some noncritical systems. That made the enemy dive away from the combat and try to circle back around. Doolittle stayed on him and fired again, trying to blow up something important enough to force the fighter to land, or explode. He missed the shot.
(“I keep missing by one,” said Drake. He groaned at the near hit.)
The battle had ranged around the asteroid field. One of the eight enemy fighters was gone. Doolittle's enemy squad swept up behind the two mercenary fighters as they chased after the two in their sights. The one lone fighter from Mannheim's original opponents circled, trying to get behind the fresh fighters.
Schultz was in the middle of her checklist so she could launch without ripping the wings off her fighter.
(“That's important,” said Lois.)
The enemy fired a volley at Doolittle and Mannheim and missed as the mercenaries braked and boosted to avoid the shots. Doolittle's prey slipped out of the kill box, heading left in a loop at full speed.
Mannheim kept on his quarry, but missed his shots as the fighter went into a climb to get out of there.
“Get out of there, Doolittle,” said Yeager over the radio. “It's five to one.”
Doolittle flipped his fighter to go the other way, firing wildly as he tried to force his way through the line. Luckily the other fighters got out of the way of the ram and energy bolts as he passed.
Mannheim's enemy slipped out from in front of his guns with a sudden dive. He passed without a chance to shoot at the other pilot.
“I wish I had my fighter,” complained Yeager. “I would have shot them all down by now.”
“Too bad we couldn't have launched the extra loads from the Fort,” said Mannheim. “More torpedoes would have been great.”
“I know,” said Yeager. “Who knew we would be running from pirates?”
The group of pirate fighters chased after Doolittle and Mannheim. They were in formation again, and trying to line up kill shots.
Schultz finished her checklist and launched from the station, using boost as much as she could without redlining her engines. She didn't want to be too late to help out, but she didn't want to be stuck floating dead and waiting on a rescue from station personnel.
They would never let her hear the end of it if that happened.
(“What is the speed of our torpedoes, Jimmy?,” asked Lois.
“They are ten times faster, but the range is limited to extreme line of sight,” said Jimmy.
“Can you mark where I can shoot from on the map?,” said Lois. “This might be something I can do if the others get shot down.”
Jimmy leaned forward and drew a line on the map with his thumb.
“No way you can hit anything from there,” said Webb.)