[Starhawk]

2411.3 Wasp’s Sting
Captain Thomas Cadel ran down the corridors of the Tempel II military base, the nine other pilots of the 1st Wasp squadron ran beside and behind him as the battle alarms screamed.
“What the hell is going on?” Lieutenant Paris shouted as she buttoned her flight suit.
“A Phong battle group got through the warp point before those navy boys could intercept ‘em, so that leaves us!” Cadel’s was tense as he they made it to the small flight bay which held the 10 Wasp star fighters that made up his entire command (there were supposed to be 30 before he launched) he thought bitterly.

The Wasp fighter was a small one man fighter craft with two auto cannons which could fire 2,000 depleted Uranium rounds per minute and could out maneuver the cannons of a capital ship. It was an experiment commissioned by Admiral Babcock before he took command of the 1st fleet and Cadel was the first Pilot trained to fly these new star fighters into combat unfortunately for him his squadron was only 1/3 completed when the 8 Phong destroyers had been detected near their planet.
The Wasp fighters were designed specifically for fighting on the Phong front, their weapons would not have done much damage too a heavily shielded ship such as those on the Sol or NeoStar fronts and were also far cheaper then a capital ship-most of which had to be diverted to guard the Solar/Neo Star borders in case either of those powers launched any further sneak attacks.

Two hours later Cadel and his squadron were spaceborne and closing on their first target, the lead Phong warship, one of their “Fearless’ class destroyers that seemed to form the bulk of their navy.
“Alright Lads, get lock on that first lil’ bastard and let’s try and keep them away from Tempel.”
“Alright boss, we’ll keep em out of tempel.”
“Lad heh right sir”
“Sorry Janet sometimes I forget” Cadel enjoyed a brief laugh, he still had twenty minutes to close on the enemy and he wanted his people loose and relaxed when the time came to fight, he had trained with them for months now and they had all become very close, but more then that he knew he could rely on them no matter what, even though the odds were very much against them.

Twenty minutes later the 10 fighters of Wasp 1 squadron “Puking Dogs” had closed in on the first destroyer And space lit up as it brought it’s cannons to bare on the approaching fighters. Cadel’s own fighter rocked and shook as the shells screamed past him at nearly 3,000 gravities of acceleration.
Cadel worried for a second until he let his eyes drift to his in helmet HUD and saw all ten of his fighters still at his wing.
“Alright lads and lassies, let’s show this bastard to hell!” Cadel squeezed his triggers and the cannons mounted in the nose of his fighter opened up with a fury, as did those of his squad mates. Thousands of rounds poured out of the fighters as they strafed along the enemy ships hull and explosions erupted all across it’s hull tearing open section after section and destroying multiple subsystems and sending it spinning out of formation.
Every alarm in Cadel’s fighter began to blare as the enemy warships turned about to focus all of their attention on his squadron, but he and his fellows were already hunting down their second target a strafing run on that destroyer proved equally effective and it’s crew managed to lug her about and attempted to withdraw from the battle zone.
“Sir, I think they’re scared now, they’ve all turned about and are pursuing us.” the voice of Ensign Chaplain sounded excited as he turned about to join his squadron on their third victim.
A strafing run on the third ship was less effective and it still had a cannon left after their pass.
“Sir should we turn around and reengage?” Janet’s voice came over the com net but Cadel shook his head, forgetting he was alone in his fighter.
“Negative Jan, move on to the fourth target our goal is to cripple their ability to destroy Tempel not go goose hunting.”
“What’s a Goose sir?”
“Forget about it Jan. We’ve still got incoming!”
More shells poured into space as the Destroyers desperately tried to kill their assailants to no avail the smaller Wasps continued to sting again and again across the fourth and then fifth targets doing heavy damage, the fifth still had a cannon remaining and continued to fire defiantly.
“Sir that sixth destroyer’s got good gunners, they getting to close to me here I’m getti….” the voice of Ensign Janavits suddenly cut off
“Oh Jesus!” Janet shouted through the com as she just barely dodged the exploding wreckage of her wing mate.
“Stay calm, stay calm now get the lock on that bastard.” Cadel swore inside and out in his mind yet he could not let his anger cloud his orders or his whole squadron might join the young pilot who had just died.
The sixth destroyer paid in blood for it’s single successful hit as the nine remaining fighters blew apart it’s entire armament, spilling bodies and wreckage into space…..the destroyer limped away at less then a quarter speed.
The fighters of the Puking Dogs did not relent as the seventh destroyer was quickly put out of combat with another strafing run by the wasp attackers. The eight destroyer fought more valiantly, yet it did no damage to the Icaran fighter squadron and it too was quickly put out of action.
“Alright now let’s finish this!” Cadel’s voice was pure hatred as his fighters swung round against the two closely packed destroyers they had just crippled.
A second pass was all it took and both destroyers went up in brilliant fireballs as thousands of DU shells tore through hull and crew alike.
“Sir I’ve got six running, we can’t go after them all.” Janet’s voice was also full of hate as she realized their vengeance would not be complete.
A third destroyer was quickly overtaken and it’s hull erupted into fire as the nine fighters blew it apart with ease.
“Got a lock, Janet you want the honor?” Cadel’s voice was back to it’s calm command tone but he still felt the burning hatred in his heart, that destroyer had been the one who killed one of his pilots and it would pay.
“Thanks sir, Okay Beta team follow me.”
Moments later her and the other 4 fighters of the Puking Dogs Beta team dove in against the enemy vessel and tore it to shreds with their cannons.
“Sir we’ve got Phong escape pods here, orders?” Janet had already swung her fighters back around but Cadel knew she wouldn’t fire unless ordered, and he saw absolutely no reason not to give that order.
“Take ‘em out Jan”

In another sweep with their cannons eight Phong escape pods ceased to exist, and the Wasp 1st squadron Puking Dogs set course for home.

Less then two days later the Cruiser HMS Warspite assisted by the Puking Dogs pinned down and destroyed the remaining Phong warships, no enemies survived.
Only 1 Icaran pilot had died, the other 9 had achieved an astounding victory and were awarded the Icaran “Iron Cross” for valor above and beyond the call.