:: 29/12/2000 ::
Well, to say the least, the debriefing didn't go well. First off, it turned out that the bulk of the convoy had escaped, even though we killed two of the ships, as well as one of the Ion Frigates. The Strike Craft were all wiped out, but that didn't console us. Captain Naabal read out the three dead squadron member's names (Halo Squadron had left the battle unscarred), plus footage of all their deaths. Jude got an unexploded missile stuck in his hull and when he tried to eject the heat from the seat's thrusters set off the warhead. 1R-E was attacking an Ion Frigate when the warship fired and his Interceptor's hull melted over him.
When they showed Alia's death I could see Nolan go through some sort of spasm. I think I knew what it meant, especially after his continued morbid nature after he'd been awarded the Hiigaran Medal for Bravery in a Military Corvette. He simply picked up his reward, received for destroying two Ion Frigates single-handedly, weakly shook the Captain's hand, and walked back to his seat. Any other person would have been jumping at this prestigious award, and were the situation different I would have been joking about my receiving half of that award.
We had no remains for any of our dead pilots to create coffins for them, even if we had it would probably have been a bit inappropriate to do such a thing for a robot pilot, so we just had a short memorial to honor them. I won't go into the details, needless to say everyone was in poor spirits, but Commander Paktu hinted that they had located the second convoy, and were preparing a mission to attack it, but ordered us to get some well-deserved rest.
We had already entered hyperspace, and due to the state of our fleet Halo squadron agreed to remain as a permanent addition to our fleet. Though the Angel Base could hold six Corvettes on its docking pads, they were already occupied by the Black Runner and the Apocalypse Treason, so two vacant Fighter ports were retro-fitted to accompany the remaining Corvettes. We still had Jacyn's Interceptor intact after the skirmish, open to anyone to use if he were to pilot the Bloody Dagger again.
I still didn't trust him. Even though my evidence that he was a traitor was purely circumstantial, I knew there was something about him that was odd. But if he were a spy, there would be no use to turn him in now that we were en route to our second target wherever it was.
I followed Nolan when the memorial service was over, knowing that with the loss of both a roommate and a romantic (?) friend he would need some company. We arrived in his quarters, now emptied from the loss of Jude.
I sat down next to him on his bed. I began to speak, but he interrupted me. 'Don't start, Jake," he said. I looked at him. "It's alright," I replied. It was funny I thought this, but I couldn't recognize his face without his cigars thrust between his lips. "No, it's not alright." He looked down at the floor. "Because she's dead?" He brought a murderous glare towards me. "Alia and I were getting close, I thought we had something, and now she's dead. But that's not it."
I didn't have to ask what it was, because he told me. "I killed her."
I began to complain. "That's not true…"
"I killed her."
"But…"
"I KILLED HER!"
I stayed silent. For a long time, we just sat there. Then I said, "That Ion Storm killed her. Not you."
"Well, who caused the Ion Storm?"
Ouch.
"It gets worse. They, Jude, Alia, and that robot, died in vain."
"They did not. We killed far more enemies than they killed us. Hell, you, in a corvette, destroyed two Frigate-class vessels."
"If we were sent to slaughter Turanic starships, then we would have definitely won in that respect. But we have dozens of battle fleets on the rim of our space doing that every day. Our mission was to destroy that convoy, and we failed miserably."
"Yeah, but the convoy was only carrying medical supplies and…"
"So? With those supplies, they can last for a hell of a lot longer than we want them to, and that means that we're screwed."
I was getting tired, and he had a very good argument, but I was adamant to help. "OK. Alia was a good pilot, even as a Cadet. Jude was a damn bootlick, but he helped the squadron a lot in this campaign. And even that 1R whatever was growing on us. But we are an elite squadron. We face danger every day. Given that opposition, most other fleets would have been devastated. We will never replace those guys, but we have helped billions with their sacrifice. Three pilots down is a tragedy, but frankly we were very lucky. We did well yesterday."
My chrono was ringing, telling me that it was getting late. "I have to go. Promise that you'll be OK?" He took a long time answering, but I knew he was sincere. "Yes. We'll need to be rested for our next mission anyway."
Amen to that.
Captain Naabal chose 1R-D to head the briefing. We were puzzled by this change of routine, but were so tired that we dismissed this confusion quickly. The chrome droid walked up to the podium and turned to us. "Good morning. We have located the second convoy, and we have altered course to reach it. About three standard hours before we launched our last attack, we had a distress call from Carrier group Lazarus. Its mission was to patrol the fringe of Turanic space, and held position in the C'Greth system. Apparently, it was under attack by an advance force similar to that which we encountered at the debris field."
He manipulated the holoprojector so that an image of a largish Carrier fleet, the Lazarus, four Ion Cannon Frigates, two Destroyers, and swarms of Strike Craft, orbiting a gas giant appeared. "The fleet survived, but it was heavily damaged. It lost a Missile Destroyer and two Assault Frigates. The fleet is now stable, but badly damaged. They made planetary scans with the sensors array Enlightenment, and found the second convoy, docked at a spaceport on the seventh planet, Sheil'an. They then sent us all the information about the convoy we needed. Though we are uncertain of how they know about the Ion Accelerator project, much less our involvement, they have been willing to help us in this endeavour, if the Angel Base were to provide reparations to their fleet."
The image shifted to that of a small, icy-blue planet. "This," continued 1R-D, "is where the convoy is; Sheil'an, loosely translated from Turanic as 'Cold Planet.' From the Hiigaran central database that I contain in my memory banks, I can give much information about this planet.
"First of all, its atmosphere is mainly consisting of methane and fluorine, and average surface temperature is -245 standard degrees. Therefore, all personnel on the surface will have to wear enviro-armor to compensate. The Lazarus' Assault Frigates would have levelled the planet's surface from orbit with their torpedo launchers, but the planet radiates anomalous electromagnetic radiation that destabilizes their plasma bomb containment fields, so we will have to enter atmosphere to attack.
"It appears that the Carrier force destroyed the majority of its Capital ship force, and since no Turanic Carriers were detected we can expect resistance to be light, except for ground-based missile defense networks."
He (was it a 'he'? After all, it is a robot,) stepped down and introduced the Captain. He cleared his throat. "1R-D has given you only basic background information of the planet and its defenses. I will now brief you on your mission.
A rotating picture of a modified Bomber-class Fighter replaced the planet. "While the Capital vessels of the Lazarus received much battle, its Fighter complement remained unscathed, which is lucky for us. As it were, the Lazarus is home to the 11th Planetary Bombardment Squadron. It comprises of fifteen Mark II Attack Bombers. Mark IIs are made for attacking planets, not space combat." The Bomber hologram turned so that we saw its underbelly, where a hatch opened and closed. "Their bombs are released through a port on the bottom of the ships, dropping them vertically. Now because of the EM radiating from the planet, we will have to fly very low to the planet's surface, low enough to be in range of the missile turrets the Raiders have installed."
Now a view of the target area came though the projectors. We could see a flattened base with several hangars for starfighters and corvettes. The convoy ships, scattered throughout the base, were highlighted in yellow light, and the missile turrets were highlighted in red. "Because of the massive drag that Hiigaran Fighters produce, our Interceptors will be unsuitable for atmospheric flight. Instead, we will be flying the aerodynamic Corvettes that Halo Squadron is letting us borrow, with one of you piloting each ship."
Jacyn interrupted him, "Pardon my math, sir, but we're seven. Halo has six corvettes. Who gets chewed out?" The Captain shook his head. "That isn't important right now. Now about our flight plan." Five green triangles were materialized over the base, as well as a white rectangle to each triangle. "The 11th will be split into five flight groups, three Bombers in Delta formation. This will force the Turanic ships to spread themselves thin. Each flight group will be escorted by one of us. The sixth multi-gun, piloted by me, will make strafing runs on the base itself, as well as knock down a few of the turrets."
The triangles were highlighted by wire-frame cubes, with the words "11th Bombers" hovering over them, and the same went for our own rectangle-ships. "The Angel Base will be repairing the Carrier fleet in orbit, and the Capitals will attack any vessels that hyper close to the planet. Once we glass the planet, (This was illustrated by white spheres emanating from the holographic terrain,) the 82nd Platoon will drop on planet and recover anything of value. Then we have only one more convoy to go, so let's pray we make it.
"This mission should be far easier than the last one, but it will still be a challenge, especially since you will be piloting unfamiliar craft. Spend some time in the simulators to get it right. We exit hyperspace in fourteen hours. Dismissed."
