Star Runners: Scorpions

Chapter 6

6

The crosshairs turned red. Austin pulled the trigger, unleashing the simulated missile into his target.

“Damn it!” Sorn yelled over the gamma wave, his voice screeching in the earpiece.

Austin shot past the Trident he’d just taken out of the “dogfight.” The craft shimmered as it opened the automatic curve and disappeared.

“Rock, got two on your tail,” Skylar said.

With his sensors useless because of the simulated disruptor, Austin looked over both shoulders. Two Tridents, nearly touching, closed on his six.

“I got it, Cheetah.”

“Moving in,” she said. “Pull up—help me get the shot in two…one—Now!”

He yanked back on the stick, the stars swirling across his Trident’s nose. Harmless blue bolts illuminated the darkness behind him.

Come on, Skylar, don’t let’em get me again.

“Got one!” she yelled. “You still have a trailer!”

Pushing forward and left, he maneuvered into a spiral in the opposite direction. A bolt struck his wing, simulating a drop in shields. He kept a loose eye on the systems. His Trident was good, still operational.

“You okay, Rock?”

“Peachy!” He glanced over his right shoulder, saw the bandit close on his tail. This Star Runner’s good. “Trailer’s still back there!”

No response came over the gamma wave.

“Cheetah?”

Looks like he was the last member of his squadron. Including the bandit who took out Skylar, at least two fighters now tracked him.

Searching the stars for inspiration, he lingered on the moon to his left. Mission parameters ordered him from heading there, out of safety for the Star Runners.

He grinned.

Banking, he flew straight for the moon. He diverted more energy into the engines and buried the throttle. The laser banks wouldn’t last long with no power, but it was worth the risk. Once he passed within fifty MUs of the moon’s surface, he would violate mission parameters and be disqualified. But if he could move parallel to the boundary, perhaps his pursuers would pass over.

The Trident’s engines rumbled his seat, the stick vibrating under his fingers. The bandits stayed right on his tail.

Blue laser fire surrounded his Trident. He rolled, trying to make a difficult target while keeping his eyes on the moon.

A little farther, he thought, as he bit his bottom lip. Almost there.

Two enemy bolts depleted his rear shields. One more shot and he’d be done.

Just one more second—now!

Austin killed the throttle and pushed the stick right. The moon moved out of his view as he shot for deep space. He swiveled around to look back.

One pursuing Trident overshot his former position, pulling up on a course parallel to the moon.

It wasn’t enough. The Trident must have passed over the safety boundary. Space around the fighter glimmered and it slipped through a curve.

The second bandit launched into a smooth turn, staying right on his tail. He turned around, diverting energy into his rear shields.

It was too late.

Laser fire hit him. Simulated damage filled his control board. A second later, the entire fighter shuddered and space glowed.

He was “dead.”

Austin smacked the side of his canopy, shaking his head. He was destroyed in another exercise, the third time this week. Replaying the final maneuver in his head, he tried to assess what he could have done differently as the automated sequence brought him to the moon’s far side.

Whomever the Legion had recruited to be part of these Scorpions, he had learned over the past months they were the best pilots he had ever seen.

Right now, he just wanted to know one thing: who was the Star Runner who had destroyed him today?

The canopy opened. After taking off his helmet, Austin leaned back in the cockpit, watching as the final victorious Trident landed next to him and opened the canopy, revealing the Star Runner at the stick.

Austin shook his head when he saw the smile.

“Nice try, Lieutenant,” Captain Senza grinned, her ruby hair falling onto her shoulders. “It’ll take more than a mission parameter line to get me.”

Unhooking his gloves, he stood. “I can see that.”

Star Runners climbed from their Tridents, making way for the maintenance crews swarming toward the fighters. Senza strolled toward Austin, her helmet tucked under her arm.

“I think you’re getting better,” she said, her large blue eyes surveying him with concern. “You’ve been working well without the sensors the past couple weeks.”

He stood transfixed by her attention. While Senza seemed focused at all times on training the Scorpions, she had occasionally spent extra time consulting him on his maneuvers. He didn’t know if she had been ordered to do it by Wilkos, or if it was something she had taken upon herself.

Shaking his head, he looked away. “To be honest, I can’t believe how good you guys are. Best Star Runners I’ve ever seen.”

She shrugged, raising her eyebrows. “That’s why we’re here, right?”

“Sure.”

Senza took a deep breath. “The major suggested we may be getting our first mission soon.”

“Oh yeah?”

She nodded. “It’ll be nice to move beyond training for a while.”

“I thought you said, ‘We’re always training.’”

She pushed his arm. “So you were listening.”

“Of course.”

They marched toward the locker room. Sorn walked next to Austin and shoved his shoulder.

“You got me out there, man,” he said.

Austin smiled. “That I did. Think I owed you for that maneuver of yours last week. Dumb-fired two missiles into my face, right?”

“Oh, did I?” Sorn grinned.

In the past weeks, Sorn had dropped the combative stance he had taken toward Austin. Perhaps it was the extreme running punishments Wilkos handed out.

Skylar and Bear met them at the end of the hangar deck.

“Hey,” Sorn said, pulling at Austin’s arm. “This isn’t easy for me to say, but you did well out there.”

“Thanks, man.”

“No, seriously. You’ve come a long way since we first got here. I guess I never thought you could be any good at your age, but I was wrong.” He slapped Austin’s shoulder. “You’ve come a long ways, kid. I’m happy to serve with you.”

Sorn walked into the corridor and disappeared into the locker room. Bear and Skylar leaned closer to Austin, both of them glaring.

“What is it?” he asked.

Bear shook his head. “Doesn’t that piss you off?”

“What?”

Skylar glanced over her shoulder. “Don’t you want to tell these guys what you’ve been through—what we’ve been through?”

He shrugged. “Not really. No.”

“They treat us like we haven’t done anything,” Bear said through his teeth. “Been listening to it for weeks and it’s getting old. What about Atlantis? And the…other mission? Every time they bring up the possibility of a Zahlian stealth ship I just want to tell everyone what you were able to do.”

“Let me shoot straight with you guys,” he said, lowering his voice. “I’d honestly rather forget about that ‘other mission.’ Being here has given me something to work toward.” He stared at the deck, the image of Ryker’s face flashing in his mind. “I don’t want to live in the past.”

Bear frowned. “I’m sorry, man. I just mean—”

“It’s nothing, buddy,” he said, raising his hand. “Seriously. After talking with these other veterans, though, I’ve started to realize living long enough as a Star Runner means you’ll be going through some crazy stuff. I think we’re just beginning.”

“You’re probably right.” Skylar nodded toward Senza on the hangar deck, who had paused to chat with Wilkos. “What’s going on there?”

He frowned. “Huh?”

She looked at him with a mischievous grin. “You already looking around?”

Austin thought of Ryker, her smile and the way she looked right through him. Honorable as her final sacrifice had been, he would still trade with her in a heartbeat.

“I’m not looking,” he said, his voice cracking. “I don’t think I’ll ever look.”

Wiping at his mouth, he hurried toward the locker room, his eyes on the deck.