One Last Battle by Timothy Ellis

Author:Timothy Ellis [Ellis, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2019-06-11T22:00:00+00:00

Six

There wasn’t a plan.

I was running on adrenalin, and instinct, and too zoned in to plan anything. The need to keep my left hand clamped on my side, kept the engines red lining, and with a few seconds to think now, made me wonder which was coming first. The engines exploding, or loss of blood turning me from a pilot into a passenger.

One hand couldn’t cover multiple bleed sites. I could feel the trickles continuing under my flight smock, and the ordinary fatigues I was wearing underneath were plastered against my skin. The smock being designed to keep you alive if you found yourself drifting in space, there was no bleed through to show me how bad it was.

I lost focus in my eyes for a moment, and had to blink to clear them. An awareness of feeling colder followed, and I turned up the heat. It was bad, and getting worse. I dragged my attention back to Thumper's words.

Plan? What plan? There wasn’t a plan. Just me and a carrier.

"Talk to me Redline."

The nav map was changing. Behind me and Thumper, was the other pair, so we were essentially a flight of four fighters zeroed in on the enemy carriers. Behind them, were enemy fighters, trying to catch us, and failing. It looked like the other two had pulled their pins as well, as they were keeping up, even though a fair way behind. About half the remaining enemy from the main fight were following them, while the rest continued to fight the remainder of ours. Further back, were the seven still chasing me, falling behind all the time.

What was I going to do?

Die.

Yeah I got that already. No need to highlight it. A part of me didn’t want to die. But now was too late to voice it. I'd made the decision by getting into the bird.

"Just escort me in," I heard myself say.

There was a pause, which I assumed was Thumper swearing under her breath.

"You don’t have to do that," she said quietly.

"Got your back," said Falldown, who I assumed was in the pair following us.

"God Speed Redline," said the Captain.

There was nothing else to say, so no-one said anything. Even the combat chatter behind us had stopped.

I checked the nav to find out why.

Everyone was chasing me now.

And when I mean everyone, I mean everyone. Yorktown was moving, with her screen in V formation ahead of her. Following me. It was a sight to behold, and I never thought the Admiral would do something like this. He was strictly a launch and forget admiral. The captain on the other hand was a go getter. There was no way we could take out both carriers on our own, which meant fleet action. Maybe we'd have lost, but even in losing we could defend the American sector. A slug fest with two equal fleets would most likely be a draw. I wished them luck. I wouldn’t be there for it.

"Target missiles," I said.

I’d already added them, but the others wouldn't have.

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