Chapter 6

The first ground unit of the Liodammian army came into view.

It was most definitely not an encouraging sight.

A massive three-legged machine was crushing the ground as it rumbled towards them. It stretched over a hundred and fifty meters into the air, and was escorted by four smaller one hundred meter tall machines. The squadron of assault drones all raised their arms in unison, a salvo of missiles flaming forth from their wrists, and racing at the I.D.L.'s defensive perimeter. The perimeter shields sizzled, then failed, as the micro-nuclear warheads irradiated the emitters built into the ground.

"Rebecca, is it my imagination, or is the outer defensive barrier down?" Ben asked.

Rebecca stared open mouthed as the five attacking machines fired another salvo towards the lines of troops.

"Lieutenant, get on the comm. to the base and order all air defensive turrets to target this sector's incoming fire! I can't hold it back forever!" As Ben said that, he let fly the lightning between his fingers, the energy branching off into ten tendrils of energy which lashed into the warheads of the incoming missiles, destroying all of them quickly and efficiently.

Rebecca began to rapidly speak into her wrist communicator, ordering the base's guns to target anything that flew from the attack machines.

"Where the hell is our air cover, anyway?" Ben asked, as he reached out with an energy field, grasping a hold of one of the smaller attack machines' heads from quite a distance. With a flick of his wrist, his energy field wavered, and the machine's head went flying off.

Rebecca nearly had to scream to be heard over the sound of explosions as missiles were detonated by anti-aircraft fire in mid-air. "The exterior pilot's barracks beside the hangar was hit as that area's defensive field failed. There are maybe three pilots left, and over twenty combat aircraft."

"If it's okay with you, Lieutenant, I'd like to head over there and see what I can do to help out."

"Well then get moving already!" Rebecca screamed over another explosion.

Ben took off, practically flying along the ground at more than a hundred kilometers per hour. He reached the hangar quickly, which was on the opposite side of the base. He transformed from a blur to a person in front of the nearest officer that looked to be in charge.

"Sir, are you in charge here?"

"Yeah," the officer answered, "I'm Flight Coordinator Barclay. What do you need? I'm kind of busy right now, what with the hangar having nearly been hit, and us not having pilots and all." The sarcasm was nearly tangible.

"I know sir," Ben said quickly, "but that's why I'm here. I'm a pilot."

"Well why didn't you say so sooner!" the officer exclaimed. "We have an HK-2 left, if you're checked out on that type of unit."

"I don't exactly have my pilot's license with me, but yeah, I am familiar with the HK series' control configuration. Is the cockpit one of those new all-condition habitable types?"

"Yep," Barclay responded, "so no flight suit necessary, so head up already." He pointed to an HK-2 fighter. "Ignition sequence is Beta-Sigma-472."

Ben, despite the seriousness of the situation, couldn't help but be excited. He had flown sims of the HK-1s before, but the HK-2s were a whole different story. The HK-2 featured six hardpoints where plasma missiles were normally mounted, along with a forward firing micro-rail gun. They had extreme acceleration capabilities, sleek lines, and a maximum speed of just a little over MACH 3. Ben smiled as he climbed up the extended rungs to the open sliding cockpit door. He quickly punched in the ignition sequence, the small hatch sliding to cover the cockpit entrance, and the rungs retracting into the side of the craft for maximum aerodynamics.

He looked around, smirking as he studied the controls and the view. Their was only a small slit of transparent iron in front of him, and computer monitors forming a three hundred and sixty degree viewscreen all around him. He loved technology.

Ben activated the transceiver inside of the cockpit, tuning it to the local pilot's frequencies. "This is Private Ben Powell, in craft HK2JF. Awaiting launch instructions, command."

"Takeoff immediately," command responded. "Proceed to combat zone twelve, approximate altitude of two thousand feet. Assist in combat operations there."

Ben punched up the VTOL systems, the repulsion field on the ventral side of the craft activating. With a slight jolt, the fighter went airborne, rising a meter off the ground. He carefully applied the maneuvering thrusters, angling the craft towards the exit of the hangar. He punched the throttle, throwing the fighter out into the air at over three hundred miles an hour, before Ben could even bat an eyelash.

"Man, this thing definitely accelerates faster than the HK-1." Ben commented to himself.

He quickly approached the combat zone, wincing as the first thing he saw was one of the three other fighters turning into a cloud of ionized gas.

"Soaring Eagle is splashed! We need some backup up here; I'm counting eight more incoming enemy fighters!" Distress calls blasted from the combat frequencies, as the two remaining fighters tried to keep the enemies at bay.

Ben opened the frequency, speaking quickly. "Private Ben Powell here. I'll intercept the fighters on your guys' tails; you just worry about the rest of 'em."

He received an acknowledgement, and increased his thrust, dropping behind the two enemy fighters that were chasing the other HKs. He immediately saw why everyone was having trouble shooting these things down; they had an incredibly slim profile, giving them a sensor cross-section that was nearly impossible to lock onto.

Ben applied the thrusters a little bit, angling the nose of the fighter down and dropping quickly. He then decelerated rapidly, angling the nose upward as he did so, the fighter's micro-rail gun now pointing directly at the underbelly of one of the Liodammian craft, a much easier target hit. He let fly, the half millimeter sized metal beads shredding through the hull of the enemy fighter in under a second, destroying its engines, and removing it effectively from the fight.

"Splash one bogey." Ben reported.

He brought the craft back up to its previous altitude quickly, coming in at a slight angle behind the other enemy fighter, but not seeing enough of its profile to get any good shots off with the rail gun. He switched the computer's targeting mode to infrared, and locked onto the heat signature of the fighter's engines.

Ben was just about to trigger a missile launch when a shrill alarm sounded in the cockpit, warning him of a laser lock on. He banked hard to the right, a missile streaking past the cockpit at incredible speed. He quickly looked down and glanced at his sensors, and the view didn't look good. Two enemy units had come up behind him, and had him locked within their sights. They both lanced out with missile fire at the same time. Their was no way Ben could evade both missiles at the same time... so he went with the next best option.