Chapter 6

Mark ran into the control center panting from the effort. He came to stand next to Admiral Stark.

"Do you want us to scramble the fighters that are ready?" Mark asked.

"Not yet, but get them prepped. I want you to get ready to launch also. I trust you feel comfortable enough in the cockpit now to hit these ships hard and fast if need be. They still may not know where we are. This could just be another recon flight, but I doubt it. If that first ship spotted us then those others will be fighters or small troop transports coming to destroy us if they can't capture the base. Get everyone not needed for the fighters and other tasks in control armed and ready to repel invaders. Get Lana up here and get ready to launch on a moments notice." She responded.

"Understood. I will contact you when we are ready for launch. Moon, get the ground crews prepping the three new fighters and two of the older models. If we need to launch Stilson, Wilkes, and I will take the three new fighters out, but I want the two older Valkyries held in reserve unless we need them." He said on his way out the door heading for Hanger 3.

Ten minutes later Mark let Admiral Stark know they we ready if she needed them. Moon was waiting until the launch was ordered to drop the last few meters of dirt and rock hiding the hanger. The ships were still a couple of minutes out approaching slowly; it was almost as if they waiting for some kind of response to their approach to the mountain.

"Their caution may mean they still don't know what is here." Stark said the Lana, "We may just make it out of this without revealing ourselves. If they go weapons hot or try to land and troops within a kilometer of the mountain we will launch and try to hit them before they can do too much damage."

"Admiral, could we get a drone outside of the mountain to give us a better picture of what we are dealing with?" Lana asked.

"Hmmm. That's a good idea. We could probably launch one of the new stealth probes that were being developed. It may be detected before it could get fully stealthed though and they were only in the early stages of testing. About half the time they suffered from a fatal power surge and exploded. Moon do we have any probes that could be launched without detection?"

"Yes Admiral. There are two such probes that could be launched. One is located in a research lab; the other is in storage in Hanger 3. Would you like me to have it prepped for launch?" Moon responded.

"Yes, and launch it as soon as it is ready. We need to know what is coming our way."

"The probe was just launched Admiral. We should be able to tell if they detected its launch or the energy field before it could be hidden and time now. It now appears that the ships are altering course towards where the probe course was heading. They may have gotten a glimpse of it before stealth systems were fully online. I can also now tell that the ships are one Enemy planetary shuttle, two small fighters, and a larger shuttle that probably houses ground troops. All are similar to known Enemy designs, but there are to noticeable differences. They seem to have incorporated Imperial technology. They are now scanning the area where the probe may have been momentarily visible." Moon reported.

"Mark, it looks like you are going to earn your keep. Prepare to launch. We have four Enemy craft out there: two fighters and two shuttle types, one planetary and the other most likely a troop transport. I want you to take out the fighters first then go for the troops. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. We hit them fast and hard. Any chance they still don't know what is under the mountain?" He asked.

"Could be, but we will worry about that later. Right now all I know is they must know something is out here or they wouldn't have come back. Now launch and go take of business."

"On the way, Alpha flight we're are cleared for launch and weapons hot."

"After we launch try to stay low and come around and hit them from the east maybe that can confuse them enough that they won't be able to get a bearing on where we launched from."

Mark and his two wing mates launched in the three new fighters that were able to be built in the limited time they had. He was still nervous that the entire ship design was untested as well as the main weapons system onboard, but it was a little late to worry too much. They fighters came out of the hanger and stay as close to the ground as was possible. They were aided greatly by the new A.I. systems onboard. The A.I. could help keep the pilots from crashing into any of the surrounding mountains. The three fighters circled around to the east of the approaching ships, apparently the mountains were helping mask their presence for the time being.

"Okay, Alpha two target the second fighter, I will take the first, Alpha three mop them up if we don't destroy them. If they are you are free to engage the troop shuttle. After that we will come around and try to hit the remaining craft as fast as possible. We can't let them get away. Ten seconds to target." Mark said to the other fighters.

Mark tensed up even more are the seconds seemed to stretch into much longer periods of time until they would come one last rise and be able to fire on their targets. The fighter handled just like it had in the simulators he had been practicing in for the last few days, but he had no allusions it was all his skill. He knew without the AI's help they would not have been able to do the maneuvers they had been using. And then he crested the rise and the weapons locked on to the target. And Mark fired the guns. The Rail guns erupted, firing a 1000 round burst in just a few seconds. At the maximum velocity the could while in atmosphere. It took the rounds just over 5 seconds to reach the target. By the time he had stopped firing he could already see the enemy fighter starting to disintegrate. It was obvious the armor and shields had never been intended to withstand this kind of assault. He checked the scanners and saw that the other enemy fighter has the same fate, and Alpha three had just fired on the troop shuttle. It too appeared to just shred under the fire on the rail guns. Mark adjusted his target and was able to fire a short burst of just a few hundred rounds at the last shuttle before he blew past it. As he turned to come around on it again, he saw it dropping quickly toward the ground, clearly on out of control. It crashed into a valley several kilometers away from the base.