Operation Phoenix: Turning Point Battle, Pt 3 by CyberPyro (cybrpyro@iac.net) [We're .... on .... our .... way] said Owsen through the psychic noise that had swamped North America. Psionic communication was damn near impossible in normal conversational tones; everything has to be said at least 3 times so the other person would hear it due to the background 'noise' the purple cloud generated. [Be .... there .... 801 .... Grand .... Building .... PDQ!] I answered. Morgenna had contacted Windigo who was now headed to Des Moines as well. Apparently, Atlanta was already swarming with X'hirjq and Sponge Minions so she'd have to claw her way through the enemy lines to get to Iowa. ... Andromeda welcomed me into his cockpit as he fired up the engines and plotted course to Des Moines. The other three members of our team suited up and were prepping their fighters. "This is going to be ugly, I hope you know," I said. "It's been too long since I've been in a serious dog-fight," answered Andromeda in his rich baritone. "We're likely to die before we get there." "Stop being such a pessimist." One by one, the TRES Corps fighters rolled out of the hangar and down the recently cleared launch tunnel. Andromeda was the first in the air, followed closely by the other three. The four fighters roared skywards, gaining altitude and velocity. At 5,000 feet they banked eastwards, the setting sun receding at mach 4. ... Warning alarms went off throughout Andromeda's cockpit. Fighters were coming up from behind them, and fast. "X'hirjq fighters coming up behind," I announced. The other three acknowledged and paired off. Morgenna with me, J-Rock and Cerberus together. Panels flashed, hummed, as the Heads Up Display came on and my hands slipped inside of the Cybernetic Interface Gloves -- Andromeda now responded to me at the speed of thought, independent of clunky manual controls. And then the X'hirjq were upon us. Andromeda's engines whined as I decelerated and pulled hard up, ion streams sizzling underneath me. The enemy streaked past, a shadowy blur in the night sky. I banked hard, the acceleration slamming me into my seat. Too late, the X'hirjq fighter tried to back away. A full volley of ion and laser cannons slammed into the side of the enemy craft, rupturing its surface. Aerodynamic forces quickly rendered the fighter flightless as it plummeted to the Earth, exploding like a miniature sun. Andromeda jerked back and forth, its shields absorbing an ion blast and a couple of small missile hits. Earth filled the forward view and the fighter dove downwards, hard. This move was not without reason: heavy ion and plasma blasts singed the air where the X'hirjq expected Andromeda to climb. Instead, the fighter dropped close to 1,000 feet in altitude, rolled, and then pulled up sharply, its cannons locked in on a banking X'hirjq fighter. Andromeda's three ion cannons, six lasers, and four rocket packets fired in unison, aimed at an assault fighter. All struck dead center. The fighter's shields flashed in a psychedelic display, but remained intact. At ten o'clock high a X'hirjq fighter blossomed into a fiery flower, debris sparkling as it fell towards the Earth. "Got one!" said Admiral Morgenna. "Oh no..." I said through clenched teeth, pulled hard away, "this is going to suck!" The assault fighter spun about, its pilot taking more Gs than a human would survive, and opened fire with all of its weapons. Its cluster lasers burned across by fuselage shielding, weakening them badly. Two ion blasts found their mark, one blowing out my fuselage shielding and bubbling the armor underneath, the other disrupting my left wing's shielding and electrical systems. "I'm on it," said Andromeda as I peeled hard away, forcing myself not to pass out. Morgenna fired a volley of smart missiles and all four of her incinderary cannons at the assault fighter to draw it off of me. The missiles impacted hard, lighting the enemy craft up in the night sky as its primary shielding went down. The incinderary cannons missed, leaving bright trails underneath the maneuvering fighter. [You'll not escape my wrath, human.] said the X'hirjq piloting the assault fighter. It targeted my vulnerable left wing and prepared to fire. "Not so fast!" exclaimed Admiral J-Rock as fired on the assault fighter with everything he had. All eight of his laser cannons burned holes through the enemy's weakened nose shielding, vaporizing large sections of its armor. The enemy craft bucked, rocked, and banked away from the swarms of armor-piercing missiles smashing into it. "I owe you one," I said, pulling around hard for the kill of the assault fighter. My HUD screamed, indicating an enemy hard on my tail. "She's mine," said Morgenna as I pulled up, laser cannon fire lighting the night sky. "J-ROCK! 8 O'CLOCK!" shouted Cerberus in warning. J-Rock noticed the X'hirjq assault fighter drawing a bead on him. He pulled hard on the flight stick, narrowly escaping a sizzling death. The enemy pilot veered after J-Rock, intent on destroying him. In its eagerness, it overlooked another Jihaddi. "DIE!" I yelled, firing everything aboard Andromeda at once. Laser fire ripped across the enemy's shielding, weakening its shields. My first ion cannon struck it directly behind the cockpit, shattering its shielding. The second blasted across the side of the enemy's nose, liquid armor raining down from the sky. An armor piercing, incinderary rocket punched through the assault craft's canopy, exploded, and turned the crew into phosphorescent blue-green goop. The alien fighter fell from the sky, smoke and flames tracing its spiral downwards to the Earth. Morgenna's gun tore into the medium X'hirjq fighter's shields, tearing them down. Cerberus opened fire, his missiles gutting the enemy fighter Morgenna softened up for him. Flashes of light and molten shrapnel signaled the departure of another enemy. "You're on your own. I'm helping Cerberus out," stated Morgenna as she broke wingman's position and paired with the Dobermensch Centurion. The remaining two X'hirjq fighters, both light class, saw themselves as no match for the remaining Jihaddi. Rather than the typical suicide, they spun hard on their wings and shot westward, accelerating rapidly. "Let them go," I said, pointing Andromeda eastwards, "we don't have time." "Copy," said Cerberus, J-Rock, and Morgenna in unison. The four fighters accelerated, breaking the sound barrier again, and flew into the gathering purple-tinted darkness. CP Copyright Pyrokinetic Productions, Inc. (1996)