Echo caught up with Talon and started firing at one of his chasers, taking out his left engine pod with a few well aimed shots Talon had 6 enemies still chasing him. One less or more didn’t matter that much. The remaining 4 fighters were turning to Echo. Luckily there were two heavies and only two light fighters. They couldn’t keep up with his speed.
Talon tried to maneuver behind an asteroid, however a few stray shots disabled his thrusters. He was already out of energy shields from all the fighting he took part in. “Ejecting!”He yelled as his ship turned into the asteroid. I could see his canopy blow up behind the rock, followed shortly by a big flash as his reactor went critical.
Echo pushed his throttle up to afterburner position and headed deep inside the asteroid field. “Hope you’ve brought some extra jets with you as well” he muttered into the wireless. They couldn’t follow him as long as he had his energy reserves up. Notices of missile locks appeared all over his HUD as the heavy high guard fighters started to fire dozens of heat seekers locked on his signature. He dodged behind one of the smaller asteroids, then turned to keep asteroid between him and the missiles. His cockpit lit up as the asteroid got completely obliterated by the incoming missiles. Shortly after, impact and fire warnings started going off. A small meteor shower from the blast hit him and took off his right wing completely. Power was failing, the ship was spinning through space and headed to a large rock asteroid.
In a few seconds Echo’s ship impacted with the asteroid and his radar contact faded out.
The screen went dark as the lights turned on. I’ve noticed General Norris, standing on the CAG podium as he turned towards us.
“This is what really happened in the Epsilon Eridani sector. I have asked you and I will ask again: if anyone feels that he shouldn’t be in this room, especially after watching this, stand up and leave. You are still bound by law not to divulge any of the classified information that you have seen. “ he paused for a moment “anyone?”
I looked left and right. Everyone was focused on him. Nobody flinched. I noticed as I took a better look around a few familiar faces, but many that I didn’t see before. They were all multiple ribbon Majors or above, yet all dressed in pilot gear.
“Good!” he smiled. I could notice a slight trace of bitterness on his expression, but his many years of command taught him how to disguise it pretty well. “As you noticed, the mission went FUBAR. We don’t have an official word out of the High Guard Command as of what happened there, well, to put it better: WHY has this happened. You people are the only souls in this galaxy who has seen this footage. We managed to recover the black boxes from the downed fighters and the Core command decided to launch an investigation. As of right now all of you are assigned to the Deep Space Operations squadron Delta 01. You will report to the Raptor in at 0300. A more detailed briefing will take place aboard the corvette. Any questions?”
Everyone kept staring back at him. An investigation? Into this mess? With that many pilots? It surely wasn’t going to be a Dick Tracy moment. Sign me up!
“Good. Then you are dismissed” he said as he stepped down the podium and exited through the prep room door.
