Bandits Engaged (Battlegroup Z Book 4) by Daniel Gibbs (novels in english txt) 📕

range.” He settled on a vector that put him on a direct course for the closest enemy.

Seconds ticked by, and Justin’s targeting reticle turned green. He’d preconfigured his missile-launch system to send two warheads at the enemy. “Alpha One, fox three.” The Vultures dropped from his Sabre’s internal stores bay, as they had so many times before, their motors flaring blue in the void.

All combatants expelled chaff as they sought to avoid the incoming missiles, while Justin focused on flying his way through. He added a few perfunctory bursts of neutron-cannon blasts but quickly rolled away from a pirate craft that attempted to obtain a guns solution on his Sabre.

While Alpha and Beta tangled with the bandits, Justin rushed toward the corvette as fast as his fighter would go. He seemingly escaped the enemy's attention and had clear space ahead. Better not jinx myself. He scanned the HUD, an almost religious action ingrained into him during flight school and later in advanced flight-combat-tactics training. Every couple of seconds, he checked the scanner to see if an enemy had taken notice.

So far, so good. Missiles from both sides crisscrossed the battle space, hitting a bit more often than would be expected. Some of the pirate craft didn’t seem to bother with avoiding incoming, instead relying on their superior shields and armor to shrug off the blows. That won’t pay off for them in the long term. Justin thoroughly planned to exploit the seemingly novice flight skills once he was done with the primary mission.

Directly ahead, the corvette filled the cockpit canopy. Justin toggled his stores selector to the anti-ship EMP warhead attached to a pylon under his right wing. One hundred kilometers out, the missile-lock-on tone sounded, filling his ears with a loud buzz. Determined to get to point-blank range, he pressed onward as point-defense fire from the pirate vessel found his Sabre.

Amid multiple hits on the fore shields of Justin’s fighter, he rolled away before adjusting his course. Maybe it’s less effective on the ventral arc.

“Captain, can you hear me?” Grant’s voice filled the commlink.

“Go ahead, Agent. I read you loud and clear.”

“The pirate ship is charging its Lawrence drive. It's imperative you get in there now and disable them.”

“Understood.” Justin clicked the commlink off and locked his eyes on the HUD scanner. Fifty kilometers. He engaged the afterburner and began a roll maneuver that made him dizzy. Each lateral spin brought him closer to the enemy.

“Alpha Two to Alpha One. Watch out, sir. You’ve got two bandits incoming. I think the secret’s out.”

It struck Justin as odd that the enemy wasn’t trying to retreat to the corvette and get back aboard before it jumped out. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind and focused on the ever-closing distance. With sudden breaks and course reversals, the continued spinning motion was effective at making the point-defense fire miss. It was also about to make him throw up. At five kilometers, he’d had enough. “Alpha One, fox four.” The moment his finger squeezed the launch button, Justin pulled away.

At full afterburners, the Sabre zoomed into the void with a barrage of plasma in its wake. Justin counted down the seconds to impact as he watched the progress the EMP warhead made on his scanner. The close range he’d released it at made counterfire virtually impossible, especially since the pirates kept trying to blow him out of space.

The blue icon representing the missile merged with the corvette’s red icon, and a few seconds later, the blast wave hit Justin’s fighter. It felt like the hand of God reaching out and tossing the Sabre to and fro. As the craft tumbled end over end, his head collided with the headrest of his pilot’s chair with a jarring thud. As he teetered on the verge of a blackout, Justin triggered his thrusters to slow the tumble and pull out of the uncontrolled maneuvering. Pull out, dammit. Pull out! As his actions started to succeed, he willed himself to stay conscious and get back into the fight.

“Captain, pirate corvette’s Lawrence drive is showing as disabled. She’s down to fifty percent thrust.”

Grant scanned the tactical plot. The EMP device had done significant damage but hadn’t scored a knock-out blow on the enemy. The Farnborough rocked from repeated plasma-ball impacts as if to underscore that point.

“Missiles inbound… two, four, six anti-ship missiles inbound,” the tactical officer called out. “Sensors detect high-yield fusion warheads.”

“Point-defense to automatic.” Grant had served for years as a clandestine case officer and noncovered operative. Along the way, he’d picked up many valuable skills.

The pirate missiles were of a type not recognized by the Farnborough’s database, which probably meant they were altered civilian models or something from a neutral system. The salvo spread out in the void and appeared aimed for the weakest portion of their deflector grid. Projectile-based autocannons on the Q-ship came to life, flinging thousands of slugs into the projected path of the incoming warheads. Three were destroyed in quick succession.

“Astrogation, all ahead full. Channel the auxiliary reactor power to the thrusters.” Grant held on tightly as the freighter bucked. “I think we’ve let them shoot at us long enough without the use of our complete weapons complement. Pull back the covers, Ms. Douglas.”

The third mate, Aleshia Douglas, nodded. “Yes, Captain.”

Covers on several of the cargo pods lining the sides of the freighter slowly retracted. Four held twin-barrel magnetic-cannon turrets. Others contained high-yield neutron beams, the type mounted on a light cruiser. All were cleverly concealed by trapdoors and false hull plating.

“Ready, Captain.”

“Lock on to their engines with our neutron beams and mag-cannons.”

“Locked and ready to fire, sir.”

“Aim to disable.”

She nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Fire.”

Neutron beams in all their bright-blue glory coupled with a burst of mag-cannon shells lashed out from the Farnborough. The pirate vessel dodged most of the shells, its high-speed engines accelerating just enough to juke out of the way. Directed-energy weapons were another story. Since neutron beams moved at the speed of light, there was