Chapter 25

September 17, 2161
Dragon Rider Mine

The men and women of the Western Alliance Navy Strike Force Berserkers were working hard to get the SS Peake prepped and ready for flight. Dr. Franco Aldini was placed in a bunk and given several books to read, and he was happy with that arrangement.

“Captain!” called a spaceman, monitoring the communications equipment. “NSS Krakow just reported that the Friedensbringer launched its small freighters. The Naha thinks that they are the target.”

“Echo flight, I need you to go with the Peake ASAP,” said Alan. “Catch those freighters!”

“Ok, we’re going,” said Bill McArthur, flight lead of Echo flight. “Come on guys.” The four crew members dashed to the entrance of the gallery that their ships were parked in. After checking helmets and gloves, they piled into the airlock and were soon at their waiting fighters. While the navigators strapped in and started going over the preflight checklist, the pilots did a quick review of the exterior of the Predator before climbing in and starting engines.

“Echo Lead is hot.”

“Echo two is hot.”

Bill McArthur grinned. “Ready or not, here we come!” Both fighters shut off the electromagnets in the landing gear, retracted their landing gear and eased out of their chamber. Once the large hole over the Dragon pit was visible, they speeded up easily before reaching the immense hole. Once free of the Dragon Rider Mine, they opened their throttles and chased after the Peake, which was ten minutes ahead of them.

Eleven minutes later, six F-733 fighter/interstellar interceptors flashed out of the gap in the moonlet left by United Steel. The fighters fanned out looking for a ghost ship that contained the world’s most powerful gun that couldn’t be aimed.

The eight fighters that remained behind soon took off and scanned the asteroid belt with their search radar at full power. They didn’t care if someone saw them coming or not, with the training that Alan Scarlett had given them over the course of the last month, they could out-fly anyone.

“Alpha Lead, this is Scarlett control.”

“Go ahead,” replied Alan.

“NSS Krakow reports that Friedensbringer’s small freighters have left the asteroid belt and are heading toward Mars.”

“Thank you Scarlett Control. Contact Naha and Krakow. Tell them I want Scarlet and Vermillion flights on cockpit alert.”

Without warning, Pandora’s voice came on the air. “Here’s a present for you sissy.” Their ship’s navigation system started downloading data from the NSS Naha.

“Thank you sissy,” said Eris.

“Sissy?” asked Alan.

“We called each other that when we were little,” said Eris as she leaned forward and studied the map that appeared in front of her. “It drove mom crazy.” She rotated the map a little, then began highlighting objects. “Here’s the Friedensbringer, here’s us. We have to hustle; he’s starting to move into the clear for his shot.”

“How much time do we have?”

“Not enough.”

“Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, on me!” He kicked the throttle open; they were in a 2G acceleration in an asteroid field, radar blazing, the ship jinking side to side to avoid asteroids.