Chapter 38
Subterfuge
Red looked back and saw his fighter explode. It was so realistic it gave him gooseflesh. He replayed the attack on Invincible in his mind. He’d felt very apprehensive about his T-73 Invisible Predator as he watched the attack on Invincible in the distance. He knew that the odds were only even that he’d return alive after firing his plasma cannon. If the concussion from Invincible’s explosion didn’t kill him, he’d still have a multitude of fighters after him, hungry for blood. In his initial briefing he’d been told the T-73 could take an incredible pounding and was fast enough that he could escape after an attack. Still, he still dreaded the impending attack.
“All right, squad leaders,” Red said. “I’m tired of watching you have all the fun. Let’s see if this p-cannon really works.”
“Affirmative,” G1 replied.
“We’ll keep ’em busy for you, R3,” Y1 said.
As they’d practiced, the two squadrons broke off into two wings to attack the battle cruiser from both sides. Each swung around and came at the cruiser in a line. The few fighters left to defend tried to cut them off with a salvo of missiles but had no chance at stopping them all. Several fighters blew up but most of them blew by and launched their missiles at Invincible. The ionic shield immediately powered up, and the missiles exploded on contact. The ship was jolted by the shock waves from the missile but wasn’t damaged.
The fighters flew by and turned around for a return attack. As they approached the attack cruiser, hundreds of refueled Purist fighters flew out and met them close to the ship. It was a chaotic scene, with hundreds of ships in close combat almost on top of Invincible. Red, watching from behind the attack cruiser, grinned as he saw his plan unfolding perfectly. He knew Yellow and Green Squadrons couldn’t stay that close for long, as the cruiser’s lasers would cut them to shreds, so he gave the T-73 full throttle and headed straight at Invincible.
He approached the ship quickly and, when he calculated the time was right, came out of stealth mode and armed the plasma cannon. Time seemed to almost stop while he waited a few tiks for it to power up. Then the sky exploded as a laser shot past him, knocking off the tip of his wing. His plane jerked wildly, but Red managed to keep it on course. As he fired the plasma cannon, a thick, bright yellow stream shot out toward Invincible. It was so bright Red had to turn away to keep from being blinded.