Once Upon The Stars (old thread)

[Atrocities]

Once Upon The Stars
"The Story of The Pandoran Freespace Republic"
By: William Christopher

Prelude

“Incoming!” It was all Commander Tom Christopher had time to say into his com before the air to air Zeus missile struck his wing man dead on, turning his Predator class fighter into an airborne fire ball.

Tom banked his own fighter hard to the right and increased thrust to maximum in order to avoid the Backstabber fighter that had just killed his best friend. He could not engage the fighter for he had expended all but two of his Maxitor air to air missiles and had nearly exhausted his supply of Depleted Uranium Cannon shells. It had been a furious battle with nearly three hundred fighters, and friends lost. Now all that remained in the sky aside from Tom’s own Predator fighter and a Ulysses class interceptor from Eco wing, were the massive sky ships and the Backstabber fighters of the Global Alliance. All that stood between the air fleet of the Global Alliance and the capitol city of the Praetorian Republic were two lone fighters.

“Eco One-Three-Seven this is Icon Two, Target those GA fighters and clear me a path. I am going to make a run on that Airborne Carrier.” Tom knew that Joe Kelly was a good pilot and would follow his orders to the letter without question.

“I’ve got you covered Icon Two,” Came the reply from Eco One-Three-Seven. “God be with you Tom.”
“Roger Joe, its been fun.” With that Tom banked his fighter toward the Global Alliance’s large airborne carrier Tempest. He began his attack run as Joe accelerated past him and engaged the GA fighters. The GA fighters were not expecting such a tactic and vectored off as Joe closed distance upon them. This gave Joe in Eco One-Three-Seven the initiative and he pressed it home shooting down two GA Backstabber fighters before they could evade.

Eco One-Three-Seven continued his deadly assault clearing a path for Tom to make his run on the Tempest. As Tom vectored in, he could see that Joe was making short work of the GA fighters. They were after all years behind Praetorian technology. Centering his attention back upon the Tempest, one of the largest airborne ships ever built, Tom plotted his attack. It had to be exacting for he would not have the ammunition or the chance to make another pass.

“My god that thing is huge.” He heard himself mutter aloud as he closed ranged. It was at that moment that the Tempest defensive gunners opened fire. They fired everything they had at him, but Tom and his Predator were far too maneuverable a target. Tom closed ranged and locked weapons onto the Tempest hull. His attack would target the port side of the Tempest ultimately focusing upon the weakest spot of the ship.

“Joe if you can, get clear. When this ***** goes, she going to take out everything within a five mile radius.”
“Roger that Icon Two, good hunting and I’ll see you on the flip side.”
“Copy Eco One-Three-Seven, the flip side it is.”

With that Tom pressed his acceleration control as far forward against its stops as it would go. He could feel the G force of his acceleration as his fighter accelerated to maximum.

“Thank god for inertial dampeners.” Thought Tom as he began to fire on the Tempest at point blank range. He made a strafing run down her port side hull focusing his attack on the only weak spot this massive air ship had. Its hangers. Tom fired his Last two Maxitor air to air missiles directly into the amid ship hanger before veering off.

“Birds away!’ He yelled into his com as he spiraled down and under the Tempest on his course away from the ship. Seconds later the two missiles that he had fired impacted within the hanger of the ship detonating against the amid ship magazine causing a massive chain reaction of explosions that were now ripping the ship apart.

The final explosion came without warning as the Tempest erupted into the largest fireball that Tom had ever seen. Although he was moving well past mock three away from the Tempest, the expanding debris cloud from the Tempest destruction was fast approaching him. There was nothing he could do but try to get below and away from the bLast radius as fast as possible in the off chance that if he is hit, it won’t be badly. Tom pitched his fighter down at such an abrupt angle he had doubted whether or not the inertial dampeners would work, but they did. The ground was fast approaching when he pulled up on the control stick and leveled off. Just then the debris cloud hit his fighter, the pinging and banging sounds quickly subsided as debris cloud dissipated and he accelerated away from it. Making a quick check of his systems he noticed that he had exhausted all of his Depleted Uranium Cannon shells, and was nearly out of fuel.

He made a high speed turn and centered his course back toward Camellia, the capitol city of the Praetorian Republic. Camellia was the focus of the Global Alliance’s attack. Camellia was a magnificent city and among the most pristine on the entire planet. It’s glass pointed towers stretched for two miles into the sky and could be seen from hundreds of miles away. Now all of that was in the very real and great danger of being lost as the Global Alliance pressed its attack. Tom knew that unless he could refueled and rearmed his fighter, his role in this battle would be over. Camellia’s Last chance at continued freedom was now up to him and Eco One-Three-Seven to ensure.

The Global Alliance attacked without provocation and the Praetorian Republic did not have the time to mount a united defense. It had been up to the Camellia Air Guard to defend the city from attack. A job that Tom was prepared to die doing. As he approached the city he could see clouds of smoke rising from the horizon billowing out from many of the cities towers. What had once been a magnificent sky line was now a jagged and mangled mess of twisted metal and glass. Whole towers were a flame and many more were missing entire sections. He could see the Global Alliance heavy air assault frigates pounding the city with Depleted Uranium Cannon shells. The GA fighters were buzzing about the city firing upon it without response, the city was defenseless. They had failed. He had failed. So in though was Tom that he did not see the Backstabber fighter slip in from behind and above him. So intent on returning to defend Camellia that Tom was oblivious to the danger he had flown into until it was to late.

“Warning warning missile lock confirmed.” The fighters computer alarm blared only seconds before the first Zeus struck. The entire fighter shuddered violently but did not exploded. The Zeus air to air missile had not detonated.

“Thank god for GA craftsmanship.” Commented Tom has he banked right then back fast to his left. He pulled back upon the accelerator control and the control stick causing his fighter to nearly stall as the second Zeus missile shot past him and began a slow return arc. Within milliseconds of his controlled breaking maneuver Tom had pushed the accelerator control full forward again and was now banking his fighter toward the ground in a left hand roll. It was his only hope of escaping the Zeus missile.

“Warning warning multiple missile locks confirmed. Warning warning, fuel expended.” These new alarm changed everything. Without counter measures, weapons, and out of fuel, Toms only hope of evading the missiles was to cut his engines and coast in for a landing.

“Get it on the deck Tom.” He thought as he cut his engines and grabbed the control stick with both hands. Even with gravity control and inertial dampeners he knew the fighter would fall from the sky like a brick without its engines. But it was his only chance at evading the Zeus air to air missiles that were now hunting him.

Tom’s fighter was far from graceful as it made its rapid decent toward the ground, Tom worked the control stick with both hands attempting to keep the fighter from banking to far left or right. It was working, and Tom knew it for he had not yet exploded into a fire ball or rolled upside down and crashed into the ground. The Predator’s landing was far from text book, but well away from a crash. Tom had lowered the landing gear only seconds before his fighter touched down. The forward gear collapse immediately upon landing throwing Tom forward against his restraints. The nose of the fighter dug into the soft ground and heaved dirt and grass over the canopy into the sky. The aft landing gear remained in position as the fighter plowed deep into the ground and continued its forward momentum for several hundred meters before finally stopping. Tom wasted no time, he hit the emergency canopy blow control. The canopy blew away from the fighter with a loud pop leaving a cloud of gray smoke and dirt behind to fall into the cockpit. Tom had already released the restraint harness and was climbing out of the cockpit when he heard the explosions. He looked around for the source before noticing the several smoke plumes. “Well at least they didn’t hit me.” He thought as he slid down the side of the fighter and onto the ground. From where he was standing, Tom could see that he was only about a mile from the city of Camellia, and the continuing battle. He knew that the ground forces at Camellia could not hold off the shock troops of the Global Alliance for long. It was only a matter of time now before the city, and the Praetorian Republic would fall. Millions of innocent people, men women, and children would pay a horrible price for his failure.

“Freeze!” Said a metallic voice from behind Tom. The noise from the guns of the overhead Global Alliance ships was so thunderously loud that Tom had not heard the dozen or so men in armored battle suites come up behind him until one of them spoke. As Tom slowly raised his hands and began to turned something hard hit him knocking him to the ground. Tom had enough time to look up once before a second blow knocked him unconscious. Tom never saw who it was that struck him, but he knew that the man who had hit him wore the uniform of the Global Alliance.

[ March 18, 2003, 16:37: Message edited by: Atrocities ]